Free Citation Generator
Paste in your source's details, pick APA, MLA, or Chicago, and get a citation formatted to that style's exact rules. Missing fields get flagged, never invented.
Free from the team behind Typeahead. The autocomplete for your whole Mac.
Get TypeaheadWhat is a citation generator?
A citation generator is a tool that formats source information, like a book, article, or website, into a properly structured citation for a style guide such as APA, MLA, or Chicago. You provide the source, often just a URL or title, and it returns a citation formatted to that style's exact punctuation, ordering, and capitalization rules.
Why It Matters
Citation rules are exact, and easy to get wrong.
APA, MLA, and Chicago each have their own rules for punctuation, capitalization, and source ordering, and the rules change between editions. Getting the format wrong doesn't change your argument, but it can still cost you points on a rubric or credibility with an editor.
Where it matters
Research papers and dissertations, blog posts citing sources, journalism, and any writing where you're crediting someone else's work.
Takes a URL, DOI, or title and returns a properly formatted APA, MLA, or Chicago citation, ready to paste into your bibliography.
How It Works
Three steps, no learning curve.
Paste your source details
Title, authors, year, publisher, page numbers, link. Whatever you have.
Pick a style
Choose APA, MLA, or Chicago format.
Copy your citation
Get a properly formatted citation ready for your bibliography.
A Different Way In
Citations aren't the hard part of writing.
A citation generator handles formatting. Typeahead helps with the actual sentences around your citations, completing your writing as you type so formatting isn't what slows you down.
Typeahead completes your sentences, not your thoughts. It suggests the next few words as you type, in your own apps, in your own rhythm. You stay the author.
Citation Generator
Common questions.
Yes. It's built as a free tool, no sign-up and no subscription, the same way we build everything else at Typeahead.
APA (7th edition), MLA (9th edition), and Chicago to start, since those cover most academic and publishing needs.
Not on its own. The tool formats the details you give it and never visits links or looks anything up, so a bare URL comes back as mostly placeholders. Paste the title, authors, year, and publisher alongside the URL and everything lands in the right slot.
A Digital Object Identifier, the permanent ID attached to most academic papers (it looks like 10.1000/xy123). If your source has one, include it and it gets formatted into the citation. If you've never seen one, you probably don't need it.
Automatically generated citations can occasionally miss a detail, especially for sources with incomplete metadata. It's worth a quick check against your style guide before you submit anything.
Same answer as everything we build: your source information is used to generate your citation, not sold, shared, or used to build a profile of you.
More Free Tools
The rest of the toolbox.
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Mac only. One-time purchase. Runs offline.