Citation Generator
Generate APA, MLA and Chicago style citations
How to Use Citation Generator
- Open Citation Generator above — it loads instantly, no signup or download required.
- Provide your input (paste text, drop a file, or type directly into the tool).
- Get your result instantly — everything is processed locally in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
- Copy or download the output. Refresh the page to clear all data from memory.
About Citation Generator
What this page solves
Manually formatting APA, MLA or Chicago citations is error-prone and free web generators often paywall you at "export". This tool builds citations locally in your browser and lets you copy them without a signup.
Citation Generator formats bibliographic entries in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (Notes-Bibliography) and Harvard styles from a simple form — author, title, year, publisher, URL, access date — using the exact punctuation, italics and ordering rules each style guide defines. Because the formatting runs in JavaScript on your machine, there is no "sign up to export", no daily citation cap, and no upload of your source list to a third-party database. It fits the moments students, researchers and content editors actually build a bibliography: finalizing a term paper the night before submission, adding a "Sources" section to a blog post, drafting a lit-review table, or reformatting a Chicago paper into APA for a different journal. For quick text hygiene alongside the citation, pair it with the Grammar Checker and the Word Counter to stay under a strict word limit. Runs entirely in your browser — no upload, no signup, no logs.
Common Use Cases
- Build an APA 7 reference list for a psychology or nursing paper
- Format MLA 9 in-text citations and works-cited entries for an English essay
- Add Chicago footnotes to a history paper
- Cite a news article or blog post correctly for a journalism piece
- Reformat a bibliography from APA to MLA for resubmission to a different journal
Related tools in Writing Tools
- Grammar CheckerCheck text for common grammar and spelling mistakes
- Readability Score CalculatorCalculate Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog and other readability scores
- Essay Outline BuilderBuild structured essay outlines with customizable sections
- Headline Capitalization ToolCapitalize headlines following AP, APA, Chicago or Title case rules
See all Writing Tools.
Frequently asked questions
How to use Citation Generator?
1) Open the tool. 2) Enter or upload your input. 3) Get your result instantly. Everything happens locally — nothing is uploaded.
When should I use Citation Generator?
Use it while drafting a paper, essay, blog post or report that needs formal citations for a book, journal article, website, or news article.
Is Citation Generator safe?
Yes. Citation Generator runs 100% in your browser. Inputs are never uploaded, stored, or logged — safe for confidential content.
Will quality be affected by Citation Generator?
Citation Generator performs lossless operations — your content is not re-encoded or downgraded.
What formats does Citation Generator support?
Citation Generator supports Plain text and Markdown
Is Citation Generator free?
Yes — Citation Generator is completely free, with no registration, no watermarks, and no usage limits.
Which edition of each style is used?
APA 7 (2020), MLA 9 (2021), Chicago 17th edition Notes-Bibliography, and Harvard (author-date). If your instructor requires an older edition (APA 6, MLA 8), verify punctuation manually — the differences are small but flagged in grading.
Does it handle multiple authors correctly?
Yes — APA uses "&" before the last author for 2–20 authors and "et al." for 21+; MLA uses "and" for two authors and "et al." for three+; Chicago spells out up to 10 authors in the bibliography. All three rules are applied automatically.
Can I cite a website with no author?
Yes — leave the author field blank and the citation starts with the title (in quotes for APA/MLA, italics for websites treated as full works). Include the access date for web sources.
Is a DOI required?
For journal articles, yes — modern APA 7 and MLA 9 both require DOI or stable URL. Add it in the URL field and it renders as a hyperlinked `https://doi.org/...` string.