Productivity
Cite any source, any style
Paste your source details, author, title, year, publisher or URL, and get correctly formatted citations in the style you need.
For the best results: Paste the source details you have (author, title, year, publisher or URL) and name the style you need. It formats what you give it; it does not find sources for you.
What is Citation Generator?
Citation Generator is a free AI productivity tool that formats the source details you provide into correct citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard style. It routes your request to the model best suited to it and returns correctly formatted citations in the style you need, from details you provide in seconds, with no account required and nothing kept for students and researchers formatting sources for an assignment or paper once the session ends.
- ✦Open and use it, no account required for any text tool
- ✦Documents route automatically to a model suited to the task
- ✦Files and text are processed for your result, then cleared with the session
Models: It routes across leading models including Gemini, Llama and Mistral families, picking the best available one per request. The exact model used is shown after every response.
See it in action
You are referencing a news article you read online and need it in APA for an assignment.
What you type
Cite this in APA 7th: article titled 'The future of remote work', by Jane Doe, published 4 March 2023 on the BBC website, URL bbc.co.uk/news/remote-work-future
What you get
Source type detected: webpage with an individual author. Reference list entry: Doe, J. (2023, March 4). The future of remote work. BBC. https://bbc.co.uk/news/remote-work-future (The article title is in sentence case; BBC is the site name.) In-text: (Doe, 2023) or, narratively, Doe (2023).
Tip: Give it the details in whatever order you have them, for example 'book, Oxford University Press, 2021, Smith, title The Long Game'. It works out the source type and drops each field into the right slot, so you never have to format anything yourself. It will not, however, find sources for you; ask for that and it points you to Google Scholar instead, on purpose, because AI-guessed references are often fake.
Use cases
What people use it for
Reference a mixed bag of webpages, reports and podcasts for one assignment in the required style.
Convert the references you collected in one style into the different style a second subject demands.
Cite a government report or piece of legislation correctly when your style guide's examples don't cover it.
Who uses Citation Generator?
Undergraduate students
formatting the references for an essay correctly the night before it is due, without learning every rule
PhD candidates
keeping a long thesis bibliography consistent in one style across chapters written months apart
Content writers
adding proper source citations to a blog post or white paper so claims can be verified
How it works
- 1Paste the text, upload the file, or describe the task.
- 2The best-suited model extracts, transforms, or organizes it.
- 3Copy the structured result into wherever the work happens.
Tips for the best results
- Give it every detail you have, author, title, year, publisher and URL, since missing fields cause an incomplete citation.
- Name the exact style and edition, such as APA 7th, so you do not get an older format by accident.
- Say what kind of source it is, a book, journal article, website or video, because each is formatted differently.
- Ask for the in-text citation alongside the reference so the two always match in your document.
- Check author capitalization and the title against the original, as these are the details automated tools get wrong most often.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Can it find sources for my essay topic?
Deliberately not. It formats the details you already have (author, title, year, publisher, URL) and nothing more. AI tools that 'find' references are notorious for inventing convincing papers that don't exist, which is exactly the failure this tool is designed against. Do your searching in a library database or Google Scholar, then bring the details here for formatting.
What if I don't have every detail for a source?
Missing fields come back as clearly marked placeholders instead of plausible-looking guesses, so the gap stays visible until you fill it. That's a feature: a citation with a silently invented publisher is worse than one with an obvious hole. Chase the missing detail on the source itself, publisher pages and journal sites usually list everything a citation needs.
Which citation style should I pick?
Whatever your marker or publisher specifies, check the unit guide or author instructions first, because the choice is theirs, not yours. As rough orientation: APA dominates psychology and the sciences, MLA the humanities, Chicago history and publishing, and Harvard is common across Australian and UK universities. When the guide names a style and edition, use exactly that.
Can it convert my existing reference list into a different style?
Paste your current citations in as the source details and ask for the new style. It will restructure author order, punctuation, capitalization and italics to match. One caution: styles sometimes need a detail the old style omitted, and the tool can't conjure what isn't there, so scan the converted list for placeholder gaps before submitting.
How does it handle unusual sources like podcasts or legislation?
Give it whatever identifying details you have (host and episode for a podcast, jurisdiction and year for legislation) plus the source type, and it applies the closest template your chosen style defines. Rarer formats are where styles get fiddly and AI can slip, so for anything exotic, compare the result against your style manual's own example before it goes in.
What citation styles does it support?
It handles the common academic styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago and Harvard, plus others you can name. Tell it the style your course or journal requires and it will format the entry to match. If you are unsure which one to use, check your assignment brief or ask your tutor.
Does it do the in-text citation as well as the reference?
Yes. Ask for both and it will give you the full reference-list entry plus the matching in-text citation in the same style, so the two agree. This saves a common mistake, where the bibliography is right but the in-text bracket uses the wrong author order or date format.
Is there a free citation generator with no sign up or ads in the way?
Yes. Paste your source details and get a formatted citation free, with no account and no interruption. Enter as many sources as you need, one at a time. Always check the result against your style guide, since capitalization and punctuation are where automatic citations most often slip.
What are the usage limits?
Text-based productivity tools are unmetered during the current free launch phase; audio-based ones share the audio fair-use limits since transcription costs real compute. Normal daily use never notices either. Paid plans with higher limits and priority model access are coming soon.
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