Free AI Citation Generator
Paste a URL, DOI, or ISBN. Our AI extracts the metadata and formats a perfect citation in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, or AMA. No sign-up. No paywalls. No filler.
Built for students. Built for accuracy.
Most citation tools were built before AI could read a webpage. Paste a URL and they make you type the author, the publisher, the date, the publication, and hope you didn't fat-finger anything. Our generator works the other way around: paste the link, the DOI, or the ISBN, and an AI agent reads the source, extracts the metadata, and formats the citation in the style your professor demands.
We support six academic styles — APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and AMA — and every standard source type: websites, books, journal articles, YouTube videos, PDFs, interviews, and AI-generated content like ChatGPT conversations.
Every citation is generated against the current edition: APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, Harvard, IEEE, and AMA 11th. If your professor wants an older edition, the tool lets you switch.
Thirteen citation styles, current editions, all free
Each style is supported with both the full bibliography citation and the in-text citation format. The selector in the tool widget covers the six most-requested styles at launch — APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, and AMA — and the rest follow in the next release.
APA Citation Generator (7th Edition)
The American Psychological Association style — the default for psychology, education, social sciences, and most American university essays. Our APA 7 generator handles the 7th-edition rules that tripped students up after the 2020 update: the removal of the publisher location, the new et al. rule (three or more authors collapse on the first citation), the DOI hyperlink format, and the in-text citation for sources without page numbers. Switch to APA 6 if your professor hasn't moved on.
MLA Citation Generator (9th Edition)
The Modern Language Association style — used in humanities and language arts. Our MLA 9 generator follows the current container-based model: source inside container inside larger container (a chapter in a book in a database). It handles the trickier formats automatically, like a YouTube video uploaded by someone other than the creator, or a tweet from an account that has since been deleted. Falls back to MLA 8 on request.
Chicago Citation Generator (17th Edition)
The Chicago Manual of Style — used in history, publishing, and some sciences. Our Chicago generator supports both systems: notes-bibliography (footnotes plus bibliography page, common in humanities) and author-date (parenthetical citations, common in social sciences). It handles ibid., shortened repeat citations, and the comma-vs-colon-vs-period punctuation that catches most students.
Harvard Referencing Generator
Harvard referencing — not a single style but a family of author-date conventions used widely in the UK, Australia, and parts of Europe. Our generator defaults to the Cite Them Right Harvard variant (the most common at British universities) and gives a switch for the AGPS Harvard variant used in Australia. It also handles the secondary citation format (cited in) that comes up when you reference a source you found inside another source.
IEEE Citation Generator
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers style — required in most engineering and computer science papers. IEEE uses numbered references in square brackets, in the order they appear in the text, with the bibliography listed in that same numbered order. Our IEEE generator handles conference papers (a different format from journal articles), standards documents, and patents — three source types most tools get wrong.
AMA Citation Generator (11th Edition)
The American Medical Association style — required for most medical, health, and biomedical research papers in the United States. AMA uses superscript numbers for in-text citations and a numbered reference list. Our AMA generator handles MEDLINE-indexed journals, NIH preprints, and clinical trial registries — three standard source types in medical writing that generic citation tools fumble.
Cite anything: websites, journals, ChatGPT, and everything in between
Different sources need different metadata. A book needs the publisher and the year. A YouTube video needs the channel and the upload date. An interview needs the interviewer, the interviewee, and the format. Our generator handles all twelve standard source types, plus a few that other tools refuse to support.
How to cite a website
Pasting a URL is the fastest way to cite a website. Our AI fetches the page, pulls the author, publication date, page title, and site name, and formats the citation in your chosen style. For news sites and blogs, it correctly handles the difference between the author's byline and the publication's name as the corporate author. For pages without a clear author (think Wikipedia or government factsheets), it falls back to the corporate or organizational author per APA, MLA, and Chicago rules.
How to cite a book
Paste an ISBN or a book title and our generator finds the publisher, publication year, edition, and author list automatically. For multi-author books, it handles the et al. rules that vary across APA, MLA, Chicago, and IEEE. For edited volumes — collections of essays by different authors — it formats the chapter citation correctly: chapter author goes first, then chapter title, then in before the editor and book title.
How to cite a journal article
Paste a DOI and our AI resolves it through the Crossref database, pulling the article title, journal name, volume, issue, and page range. For journals indexed in MEDLINE, it uses the official journal abbreviation (required for AMA and Vancouver styles). For preprints on bioRxiv, arXiv, or SSRN, it correctly notes the preprint status and the deposit date instead of treating it as a published article.
How to cite a YouTube video
YouTube videos are tricky because the uploader is sometimes the creator, sometimes a different person, and sometimes a corporate account. APA 7 specifies that the channel name goes in the author position, with the video title in italics. MLA 9 treats the uploader as the publisher when the creator is different. Our generator pulls the channel name, video title, upload date, and full URL automatically when you paste a YouTube link.
How to cite a PDF
PDFs need to be cited based on what they actually contain. A PDF of a journal article is cited as a journal article. A PDF of a government report is cited as a report. A PDF of a book chapter is cited as a book chapter. Our generator examines the document metadata when available and asks clarifying questions when the source type is ambiguous, so you don't accidentally cite a journal article as a generic web document.
How to cite ChatGPT and AI sources
APA, MLA, and Chicago all updated their guidelines in 2023 to specify how to cite ChatGPT and other large language models. The current consensus: cite the AI tool (OpenAI), the version (e.g., ChatGPT-4o), the date of the conversation, the prompt you used, and a way to retrieve or reference the conversation (a share permalink or appendix). Our generator builds this citation when you paste a ChatGPT share link or describe the conversation.
How to cite an interview
Interviews split into two categories: published (printed in a magazine, newspaper, or transcribed online) and personal (you conducted the interview yourself). Published interviews are cited like other periodical content. Personal interviews are cited with the interviewee's name, the interview format (in-person, phone, video call), and the date. Our generator switches between formats automatically based on what you provide.
Why students lose points on citations
Even when the citation tool gets the source right, students still lose marks on three predictable mistakes. The first is using the wrong edition of the style: APA 6 looks similar to APA 7, but the in-text citation rule for three-plus authors changed, the DOI format changed, and the inclusion of the publisher location was removed. Submitting an APA-6-formatted paper to an APA-7 assignment costs marks even if everything else is perfect.
The second is mismatching the in-text citation to the bibliography entry. The reference list might be in APA, but if the parenthetical citation uses MLA-style page numbers (Last 23) instead of APA's comma-separated format (Last, 2024, p. 23), the grader will catch it. Our generator builds both at the same time so they always match.
The third is the AI-source mistake: students still cite ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini conversations as if they were a website with a generic URL. The major style guides now require the AI tool name, model version, conversation date, prompt, and a stable reference (share link or appendix). A generic OpenAI URL is no longer enough.
Versus the established citation tools
| Tool | Styles | AI auto-extract | ChatGPT support | Free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UndetectedGPT | 13 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Scribbr | 9 | Partial | Yes | Limited |
| EasyBib | 7 | Partial | No | Limited |
| Citation Machine | 7+ | Partial | No | Limited |
Stop fighting your citations.
Paste a URL, pick a style, get a formatted citation. The whole point of these tools is to save you time — ours actually does.
Frequently asked questions
Is this citation generator really free?
Does it support APA 7th edition?
Can I cite ChatGPT, Claude, or other AI?
How do I cite a PDF?
What's the difference between APA and MLA?
Can I export my bibliography to BibTeX or Word?
Is the bibliography saved between sessions?
Why use AI instead of a manual form?
Does it work with DOIs?
Can I cite a YouTube video?
Why are my citations getting flagged by Turnitin?
Which citation style should I use for my essay?
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