WordCountDesk

Citation Generator

Paste a source or your own writing, highlight a phrase, and generate an APA, MLA or Chicago (CMOS) citation. Fill in the source details once — we'll format it for you.

Source details

Document — highlight a phrase to quote

Generated citation

APA 7
No phrase selected — highlight text in the document above to include an inline quote.
Fill in the source details and highlight a phrase, then click Generate citation.

Bibliography

Your bibliography is empty. Generate a citation and click Add to bibliography.

What is a Citation Generator?

A citation generator takes the details of a source — author, title, year, publisher, URL — and formats them according to a specific citation style. Different academic disciplines use different styles: APA for psychology and social sciences, MLA for literature and humanities, Chicago for history and some humanities.

Getting the format right matters. A misplaced comma or a missing period can cost points on an assignment, or worse, look like plagiarism. A citation generator removes the guesswork.

APA 7 (American Psychological Association)

The 7th edition APA format for a book looks like:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Publisher.

For a webpage:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL

APA uses an author-date inline citation: (Smith, 2024).

MLA 9 (Modern Language Association)

MLA 9 for a book looks like:

Author, First M. Title of Work. Publisher, Year.

For a webpage:

Author, First M. "Title of Page." Site Name, Day Month Year, URL.

MLA uses author-page inline citation: (Smith 42).

Chicago 17 (CMOS)

Chicago has two systems: Notes-Bibliography (used in humanities) and Author-Date (used in sciences). This tool generates Notes-Bibliography format:

Author, First M. Title of Work. Place: Publisher, Year.

Chicago uses footnote or endnote numbers in the text, with the full citation at the bottom of the page or at the end of the work.

How to use this tool

  1. Fill in the source details — author, title, year, publisher, URL.
  2. Choose your style: APA, MLA or Chicago.
  3. (Optional) Paste your document and highlight a phrase to include as a quoted reference.
  4. Click Generate citation. The formatted citation appears below.
  5. Click Add to bibliography to save it. Repeat for each source.
  6. Click Copy all in the Bibliography panel to get your complete reference list.

What this tool does and doesn't do

Does: format a full reference citation for a book, article or webpage in three major styles; extract the inline quote you highlighted; keep your bibliography in order; copy clean text ready to paste into Word or Google Docs.

Doesn't: verify that a source exists; handle unusual source types (film, podcast, personal interview) — those follow slightly different templates; check whether your inline citation format is consistent across your document.

Privacy

Everything runs locally in your browser. Your sources and document are never uploaded. Nothing is stored anywhere except optionally in your own browser's localStorage.

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