Cite Any Source in APA, MLA or Chicago — Free
Free Citation Generator: Just add a link, DOI, ISBN or title to get the full citation and in-text citation in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard styles. It uses data from the public sources (CrossRef, OpenLibrary), and nothing is locked.
- APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard
- URL, DOI, ISBN or title input
- In-text citation included
- Bibliography list with copy-all
- 100% free — no locked styles
Why This Citation Generator Is Different
Free Citation Generator: Just add a link, DOI, ISBN or title to get the full citation and in-text citation in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard styles. It uses data from the public sources (CrossRef, OpenLibrary), and nothing is locked.
How to Use the Free Citation Generator
Use a DOI for papers, an ISBN for books and the URL for websites. If you've got none of those, just type in the title.
APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago Author Date, or Harvard style. Switching styles reformats the citation instantly.
Complete citation for your bibliography list and (Author, Year) in text.
Each source is placed in “My bibliography”: copy all the sources listed alphabetically once your paper is finished.
100% Free — Here Is Why That Is Sustainable
The lookups are done in free open databases (Crossref for papers, Open Library for books, and the webpage itself for websites), and the occasional use of AI runs on our own hardware. It costs almost nothing per citation. This is why we don’t have any paywall, watermark, or metered trial: “free” is not a trial, it’s the price.
Yes. Each style has a rule for this: with no author, the title moves to the front, and with no date you get “n.d.”. The generator does both for you.
The Citation Generator in Real Student Life
A citation generator for URLs, DOIs, ISBNs and titles
Simply enter the title of the work, the URL, the ISBN or even the DOI, select your preferred citation style and generate the citation by clicking on Generate citation. The citation maker takes care of all the data gathering from the open databases to give you the full reference ready to use.
CrossRef takes care of journal articles, OpenLibrary of books, and website citations come from the page’s own metadata. When a detail is missing, you see a note so you can check it.
Chicago citation generator, plus APA, MLA and Harvard
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (author-date style), and Harvard are the four citation styles which are included by default. Choose one of them before citing anything, and all the sources in your reference list will follow the same format.
The Chicago citation style used in this generator is an author-date style, not footnote citation. If your teacher wants footnotes, or you need a Bluebook citation generator for legal sources, this generator doesn't cover those.
In-text citations come with every reference
Every result will give you two options: the reference that you need for your references list and also the citation to be used in your paragraph in the format (Smith, 2021).
It serves as both a reference generator and an in text citation generator. A parenthetical citation example in APA follows the format (Author, Year); while in MLA, it will be (Author) without the year.
How to cite a source: websites, books, videos and images
To cite a website is simple: just copy-paste the URL. For a book citation, the ISBN should be included because it gives the maximum information. Want to know how to cite a video?
Like websites, copy-paste its URL, however, first make sure the name of the creator is correct. There is no image citation generator either; you simply cite the webpage from which you took the image.
A free citation website, no styles locked
All formats and types are available without any fees, registration or restrictions. Every citation is added to My bibliography and stored in your browser.
Copy all will give you an alphabetical list of all citations. Cite sources while researching and you'll have the complete list by the time you finish writing. This cite generator never asks for an account.
Which is actually faster
Hand-formatted references take two to four minutes each and usually contain one error of punctuation that no one will own up to making. Generating references automatically takes seconds and applies the same rule to all forty sources correctly.
What remains to be done by humans is the task of verification, which takes only fifteen seconds per source.
Everyday users of this tool
For freshmen writing their first essay with references, postgraduate students who have to write a literature review using sixty sources, and students transitioning between courses where different formats are required. The format selector is made just for the last kind of student.
Three fixes that solve most problems
- The lookup found nothing. Swap the identifier. Use the DOI if it's an article, the ISBN if it's a book, the full URL if it's a web page. A few obscure or paywalled sources share no open data at all, and then the only option is typing the details in by hand.
- The author or date is missing. Then the source simply didn't publish it. That's covered by the style rules (title first, n.d. in place of the date), and the generator applies them and marks the entry so you know to check it.
- My professor wants a different variant. House styles exist, including for Harvard. Pick the closest style here, then change the two or three things that your department wants.
The vocabulary around citation generators
- In-text citation vs reference list — The two different styles of citation for one particular source: the short style used in your paragraph and the long style used in your reference list. Both are generated here.
- Hanging indent — Reference lists should have all lines indented 0.5 inches after the first; use this setting in your word processor after pasting.
- DOI — A permanent identifier for journal articles, and the most accurate input to be used with any citation generator.
- et al. — Translation from Latin meaning “and others,” used when there are sufficient authors in the source to use this abbreviation according to style rules.
- n.d. — “No date” — the standard substitution when a source publishes none.
Same tool, many names
No matter how you expressed yourself, this is your page: one fast citation generator that respects both your time and your privacy, not 12 poor clones lying around the web. Feel free to bookmark it by any name you choose:
Of course: no registration, no watermark and no daily paywall. It will still be here next semester.
One page for each job is deliberate. Near-identical pages for every wording are standard SEO, and they're the reason looking for a basic tool is a slog. We'd rather build one good page that's quick, complete and upfront about what it can't do.
This is why the navigation above links to complete tool names and not cute nicknames: when your next job comes around, you will know where to go by reading, not guessing. The whole set is designed for someone in a rush who has never seen it before, and on a deadline, that is all of us.
Citation Generator FAQ
Paste the URL above and select APA 7. The citation maker automatically generates citations based on the author, date, and title that is found on the website, formatted as follows: Author, A. (Year, Month Day). Title. Site Name. URL. You get the in-text form too.
Open databases include CrossRef (150M+ academic papers via DOI), OpenLibrary (books via ISBN), and the metadata for the website itself. If we can’t find the information, our AI gets it from the source, and it tells you what to verify.
APA 7, the most recent version, got rid of the publisher’s city and loosened up the “et al.” requirement to three or more authors. The 9th edition is where MLA is now, with the container system. These are the versions that professors use now; if your department uses APA 6, adjust the retrieval line manually.
Pretty much because of convenience. The information contained in the citation is available for free because the databases are freely accessible; they just charge you for packaging it up. We would rather earn your visit with our other tools.
Yes. Each style has a rule for this: with no author, the title moves to the front, and with no date you get “n.d.”. The generator does both for you.
Tool and page last updated: October 2026.