How does the citation generator work?

You paste whatever source details you have — a URL, a title and author, a half-formatted reference — and the AI structures them into a correctly formatted citation in your chosen style, returning both the reference-list entry and the in-text form.

Which citation style should I use?

Whichever your instructor, journal or field requires: APA dominates psychology and social sciences, MLA humanities and literature, Chicago history and publishing, Harvard many UK and international institutions. If unsure, check your assignment brief — style is usually specified.

Is it accurate enough for graded work?

The formatting follows current editions (APA 7, MLA 9), and the generator never invents missing details — it flags them for you to look up. As Purdue OWL advises for all citation generators, give every citation a final check against your style guide before submission.

Can it cite a website from just the URL?

Paste the URL along with any details visible on the page (author, title, date). The generator formats what you provide; it works from your input rather than crawling the web, so including the page title and author gives the best result.

Is this citation generator free?

Yes — unlimited citations in all four styles, no sign-up.

Free Citation Generator

Paste your source details — URL, title, authors, year — and get a correctly formatted reference entry plus in-text citation in APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard.

APA 7MLA 9ChicagoHarvard

0 / 10,000 characters

The result will appear here.

Why use this citation generator?

Four major styles

APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard — reference entry and in-text form for each, from the same source details.

Handles messy input

Paste a URL, a copied reference, or scattered details — the generator extracts and formats what's there.

Never invents data

Missing the year or pages? You get standard placeholders and a list of what to look up — not made-up details.

Free, no sign-up

Unlimited citations, no account, no watermarks.

How to use the citation generator

Paste the source details
URL, title, authors, year, publisher or journal — whatever you have.
Pick the style
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago or Harvard.
Copy both forms
You get the reference-list entry and the matching in-text citation.

About this citation generator

Citations are pure bookkeeping — essential, graded, and nobody's favorite part of writing. This free citation generator does the formatting for you: paste whatever details you have about a source, pick APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard, and get both the reference-list entry and the in-text citation, correctly punctuated and ordered.

It's built to handle real-world input. A bare URL with a title, a reference copied from another paper in the wrong style, a book with three authors and no page numbers — the generator structures what's there and tells you explicitly what's missing, rather than quietly inventing a date.

For style-specific guidance and examples, see the dedicated APA citation generator, MLA citation generator and Chicago citation generator pages. And as every writing center advises: generators are a tool, not an authority — give citations a final check against your style guide.

Frequently asked questions

Citation generator APA
Citation generator APA 7
Free citation generator
Citation Generator MLA
Citation Generator Chicago
Citation generator Harvard
APA citation generator
MLA citation generator

More free writing tools

APA Citation Generator

Correct APA 7 references and in-text citations from whatever source details you have — websites, journal articles, books, reports and more.

MLA Citation Generator

Correct MLA 9 works-cited entries and in-text citations from whatever source details you have — built on the MLA container system.

Chicago Citation Generator

Both Chicago systems, done right: notes-bibliography footnotes for the humanities, or author-date citations for the sciences — from whatever details you have.

Citation Generator editor