Free Citation Generator
Paste a DOI, web address, ISBN, PubMed ID, arXiv ID or article title, and this citation generator fills in the details and formats the reference in the style you need. Edit any field, copy the result into your paper, or build a full reference list. No account is needed.
Or fill in the fields below by hand. Check every citation against the source before you submit.
Reference in APA 7th edition
Look up a source or type a title and an author to see the citation.
Formatting by citeproc-js (CPAL-1.0) with Citation Style Language styles (CC BY-SA 3.0). Book data from Open Library, article data from Crossref, DataCite and PubMed. citeproc-js source code
Writing in LaTeX? Turn a PDF or Word draft into clean LaTeX, with the references ready for BibTeX.
Convert a fileWhat Is a Citation Generator?
From Identifier to Reference
A citation generator turns the details of a source into a correctly ordered and punctuated reference. Ours looks those details up for you: DOIs from Crossref and DataCite, books from Open Library, medical papers from PubMed and web pages from their own metadata.
Nine Styles From One Record
The same record can be shown in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 (notes or author-date), Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA 11 and ACS. Switch the style and the reference and in-text citation change at once, so you never retype a source.
Built on the Official Style Files
Formatting comes from the Citation Style Language files that Zotero and Mendeley use, processed by citeproc-js, so author lists, italics, dates and page ranges follow each manual.
Why Use Our Citation Generator?
Every Field Stays Editable
Metadata is not always complete. After a lookup, the citation generator shows every field it found, so you can add a missing date, fix an author name or change the source type before you copy the reference.
A Reference List in One Click
Add each source to your list and the tool sorts and numbers it in the chosen style. Copy the whole list with italics intact, ready to paste into Word, Google Docs or a LaTeX document.
Browse all free LaTeX toolsNeed BibTeX Instead?
If you write in LaTeX, a .bib file lets BibTeX or biblatex format the references for you. Get a ready BibTeX entry from any DOI in one step.
Open DOI to BibTeXHow to Use It in 3 Steps
Step 1: Paste an Identifier or Title
Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, PMID, arXiv ID or title into the citation generator and press Cite. For a source with no identifier, choose its type and fill in the fields yourself.
Step 2: Check the Details
Compare the authors, title, date and page numbers with the source itself, and correct anything the record got wrong. The preview updates as you type.
Step 3: Copy or Collect
Copy the reference and the in-text citation, or add the source to your list and copy the finished bibliography when every source is in.
Convert your paper to LaTeXOfficial references: Crossref · DOI Foundation
Citation Generator FAQ
- Are citation generators AI?
- Most are not. This citation generator looks up published records and formats them with fixed style rules, so it never invents a source, unlike AI chatbots, which can produce references that do not exist.
- What is the best citation generator?
- The best one is accurate, free and lets you fix what it gets wrong: real lookups by DOI or ISBN, official style files, editable fields and a copyable reference list. Zotero suits hundreds of sources.
- Is using a citation generator cheating?
- No. It formats references for sources you actually used; it does not write your work. Some instructors ask students to learn the rules by hand, so follow their guidance, and always check the output against the source.
- How to use a citation generator?
- Paste an identifier or title, press Cite, check every field against the source, pick your style, then copy the reference and in-text citation. Repeat for each source and add them to the list to build the bibliography.
- Can Zotero generate citations?
- Yes. Zotero keeps sources in a library and inserts citations into Word and Google Docs, using the same CSL styles as this page. For one quick reference, a web citation generator is faster.
- Are citation generators accurate?
- Only as accurate as the metadata they receive. Publisher records sometimes miss an issue number, capitalise titles oddly or lack a date, so read each reference once and correct it in the form before you copy.
- Does Grammarly have a citation generator?
- Yes, Grammarly offers one for APA, MLA and Chicago. Ours also covers Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA and ACS, looks up DOIs, ISBNs and PubMed IDs, and needs no account.
- What is a citation generator?
- A tool that turns details such as authors, title, date and publisher into a reference in a chosen style, with the matching in-text citation. Good ones fetch the details from an identifier so you do not type them.
- Does Microsoft Word have a citation generator?
- Word has References > Insert Citation, and Google Docs has Tools > Citations, but both need each source typed by hand. Paste a reference from here instead.
- How to generate in text citation?
- Look up or enter the source and the in-text citation appears under the reference, for example (LeCun et al., 2015) in APA or [1] in IEEE. Add the page number yourself when you quote directly.
- Does Purdue OWL have a citation generator?
- Purdue OWL is best known as a free guide to APA, MLA and Chicago rules rather than as a generator. Use its pages to check edge cases, and use a citation generator to produce the reference itself.
- What to put in citation generator if no author?
- Use the organisation that published it, such as {World Health Organization}, as the author. If there is none, leave the field empty and most styles start the reference with the title instead.
- How to cite a website APA citation generator?
- Paste the page URL and press Cite. The tool reads the page title, author, site name and date, and adds today as the access date. In APA, check that the site name is not repeated as the author.
- Can I create a citation from a DOI, ISBN or link?
- Yes. Paste a DOI, a doi.org link, an ISBN-10 or ISBN-13, a PubMed ID or link, an arXiv ID or a web address. A title of a few words also works and returns the closest match from Crossref.
- Can I generate a citation from a PDF?
- Files cannot be uploaded here. Most journal PDFs print their DOI on the first page: paste that, or paste the article title. For a PDF report without either, choose Report and fill in the fields.
- How do I cite a YouTube video or other web video?
- Paste the video link, set the channel as the author and YouTube as the website, and add the upload date. Most styles add [Video] after the title; type it into the title field.
- Can I cite several sources at once?
- Look sources up one after another and add each to your list. The list keeps up to 200 entries, sorts or numbers them in the chosen style, and copies as one bibliography.
- Which citation styles does this citation generator support?
- APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 notes and bibliography, Chicago author-date, Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE, Vancouver (NLM), AMA 11 and ACS. Turabian follows Chicago notes and bibliography closely.
- Can the citation generator give me BibTeX for LaTeX?
- This page gives formatted text. For LaTeX, our DOI, ISBN, PubMed and URL to BibTeX tools produce .bib entries that BibTeX or biblatex then formats.
- Is there a citation generator browser extension?
- No extension is needed. Copy the address of the page you are reading and paste it here; bookmarking this page gives you the same one-click access.
- Is this citation generator free and ad-free?
- Yes. Lookups and formatting are free, with no account, no limit on styles and no ads in the results. Lookups are rate limited to one every two seconds.
- Are my sources and reference list stored anywhere?
- Lookups send only the identifier you paste and nothing is kept. Your list is saved in this browser alone.
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