Citation Generator
Type a source in once and get the APA 7, MLA 9 and Chicago entry at the same time — with the matching in-text citation and a bibliography you can build up, sort and export.
Source details
https://doi.org/… form.Bibliography builder
Nothing saved yet. Fill the form above, then press Add this source — entries stay on this device, sort themselves alphabetically, and travel inside your share link.
How to use this citation generator
1. Pick the source type first
A book, a journal article and a YouTube video need different pieces of information, so the form rearranges itself the moment you choose. Volume and issue only appear for journal articles; access dates only appear for things that live online.
2. Enter each author as last name plus given names
Splitting the name is what lets the page invert it correctly for each style — Rivera, M. J. for APA, Rivera, Maria Jose for MLA. Add as many authors as you have; the et al. and ampersand rules are applied per style automatically.
3. Copy the style you need, or save it to the list
Each of the three entries has its own copy button, and Chicago gives you the footnote as well as the bibliography line. Press Add this source to drop it into the bibliography builder, which keeps everything alphabetised and exports as plain text or CSV.
4. Proofread before you submit
Two things always deserve a human eye: capitalisation of proper nouns in the APA line, and whether your source is really the plain type you selected. An edited collection, a translation or a second edition needs extra elements no generator can guess.
Citation FAQs
Which citation style should I use?
Follow whatever your instructor or journal asks for. As a rough guide, APA 7 dominates psychology, education, nursing and the social sciences; MLA 9 is standard in English, literature and the humanities; Chicago notes-bibliography is common in history, art history and theology. This page builds all three at once so you can hand in the right one and keep the others.
How do the author formats differ between APA, MLA and Chicago?
APA inverts every author and reduces given names to initials: Rivera, M. J. MLA inverts only the first author and spells the given name out: Rivera, Maria Jose. Chicago follows MLA in the bibliography but writes every name in normal order in a footnote: Maria Jose Rivera. The et al. thresholds differ too — MLA switches at three authors, Chicago at four in a note, while APA lists up to twenty before it starts eliding.
Why does APA lowercase most of my title?
APA 7 uses sentence case for the titles of articles, chapters, books and web pages, so only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalised. Software cannot tell a proper noun from an ordinary word, so this page lowercases what it can and leaves acronyms, hyphenated capitals and words containing digits alone. Re-capitalise names, places and brands yourself, or tick the box that keeps your own capitalisation.
What do I do when there is no author or no date?
For a page published by an organisation, put the organisation in the last-name box and leave the given-name box empty; it is then treated as a corporate author. If nothing is credited, leave the author out entirely and the title moves to the front of the entry. With no date, APA prints n.d. in place of the year and the in-text citation becomes (Title, n.d.); MLA and Chicago simply omit the date.
When do I need an access date?
MLA 9 recommends an Accessed date for any online source, because web pages change. APA 7 wants a retrieval date only for content designed to change without being archived — a live statistics dashboard, a wiki entry. Chicago treats it as optional. Leave the box empty and no style prints one.
Is the output guaranteed to be correct?
No. Every style has edge cases this page cannot see: translated works, edited collections, second editions, reprints, database records, missing page numbers, unusual corporate authors. Treat the output as a well-formed first draft, then check it against your institution's own style guide or handbook before you submit.