Citation generators
Free Citation Generator
Choose APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard, AMA, ACS, CSE, Turabian, or ASA, then turn your source details into a reference and matching in-text citation.
Free runs · no accountPublished September 10, 2026Reviewed September 10, 2026Huggle editorial
Generate and copy results without an account, subject to the tool’s run allowance. More work in Huggle uses your account allowance. Usage and plans
Citation details
Your formatted citation will appear here
Opens as an editable file in Huggle.
01How to use
How to use the Citation generator
- 01Choose the citation style required by your course, institution, journal, or publisher.
- 02Paste a URL, DOI, title, existing citation, BibTeX entry, or complete source details and generate the reference.
- 03Verify the result against the source, then copy it or continue in Huggle to build the full document and bibliography.
02Examples
Example input and output
APA journal article
Illustrative example. Your result depends on the source material you provide.
- Input
- Style: APA; Vaswani et al., "Attention Is All You Need," NeurIPS 2017.
- Output
- Vaswani, A., et al. (2017). Attention is all you need. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 30. In text: (Vaswani et al., 2017).
03By source type
How to cite each source type in APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, and Harvard
Titles the style italicizes are shown as plain text here.
Book
Collect: Author names, publication year, full title and subtitle, edition if not the first, and publisher.
- Reference entry
- APA: Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. MLA: Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
- In text
- APA (Kahneman, 2011) · MLA (Kahneman 24) · IEEE [1]
Every style needs the same fields; they differ in author order, where the year sits, title capitalization, and whether the publisher location appears.
Journal article
Collect: Author names, year, article title, journal name, volume, issue, page range, and DOI.
- Reference entry
- APA: Watson, J. D., & Crick, F. H. C. (1953). Molecular structure of nucleic acids: A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature, 171(4356), 737–738. https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0 Chicago: Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids." Nature 171, no. 4356 (1953): 737–38.
- In text
- APA (Watson & Crick, 1953) · Chicago note 1. · Harvard (Watson and Crick, 1953)
The DOI is the most reliable identifier; paste it and the generator can resolve the rest of the metadata.
Web page
Collect: Page author or owning organization, publication or last-updated date, page title, site name, and URL. Note the date you accessed it.
- Reference entry
- APA: Mozilla. (n.d.). HTML: HyperText Markup Language. MDN Web Docs. Retrieved September 16, 2026, from https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML Harvard: Mozilla (no date) HTML: HyperText Markup Language. Available at: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML (Accessed: 16 September 2026).
- In text
- APA (Mozilla, n.d.) · MLA ("HTML") · Harvard (Mozilla, no date)
Web pages are where styles diverge most: APA wants a retrieval date only for changing content, while MLA, Chicago, and Harvard usually expect an access date.
PDF report
Collect: Issuing organization or authors, year, report title, report number if any, publisher when different from the author, and the URL or DOI.
- Reference entry
- APA: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2023). Climate change 2023: Synthesis report. Summary for policymakers. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/ IEEE: [5] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, "Climate change 2023: Synthesis report. Summary for policymakers," IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/
- In text
- APA (IPCC, 2023) after the first full mention · IEEE [5]
Cite the report itself, not the PDF file. Group authors are written out in full in the reference list.
Online video
Collect: Speaker or uploading account, date posted, video title, hosting platform, URL, and the timestamp of any passage you quote.
- Reference entry
- APA: Robinson, K. (2006, February). Do schools kill creativity? [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity MLA: Robinson, Ken. "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED, Feb. 2006, www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity.
- In text
- APA (Robinson, 2006, 4:12) · MLA (Robinson 00:04:12)
Quote a timestamp the way the style expects: minutes:seconds in APA, hours:minutes:seconds in MLA.
Writing the whole paper? The AI research paper generator drafts the LaTeX paper and formats every citation in the style you choose.
04Format reference
APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, and Harvard format reference
| Element | Rule | Example |
|---|---|---|
| APA 7 | Author-date. Sentence-case titles, year after the authors, DOI as a link. | (Watson & Crick, 1953) |
| MLA 9 | Author-page. Title-case titles, containers in italics, URLs without https://. | (Watson and Crick 737) |
| Chicago 18 | Numbered notes plus a bibliography, or author-date. Headline-style titles. | 1. Watson and Crick, “Molecular Structure,” 737. |
| IEEE | Bracketed numbers in order of first citation; initials before surnames. | [2] |
| Harvard | Author-date with no comma before the year in the reference list; access dates for online sources. | (Watson and Crick, 1953) |
| Locators | Add a page, paragraph, section, or timestamp for every direct quotation, in the form the style specifies. | p. 24 · 737 · 4:12 |
05Inputs and outputs
Supported inputs and outputs
| Format | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| URL, DOI, title, citation, or BibTeX | Supported | Completeness depends on the metadata supplied. |
| Reference and in-text form | Supported | Output follows the selected style contract. |
| Uploaded private files | Not supported | Use the authenticated Huggle workspace for file-based context. |
06Rules
Rules and common mistakes
Rules to follow
- Use the style required by the assignment or publisher.
- Keep the reference entry and in-text citation consistent.
- Add a locator for direct quotations when the style requires one.
Mistakes to avoid
- Leaving out source facts or constraints the Citation generator needs.
- Copying generated output without checking it against the original material.
- Ignoring the local instructions supplied by a course, journal, client, or organization.
07Workflow
Choose the right workflow
| Option | Best for | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Citation generator | A focused result you can copy | Runs on this public page within the tool’s input and usage limits. |
| Huggle workspace | A complete editable artifact | Carries the work into a larger document with saved context and iteration. |
08Verify
Limitations and sources
What to verify
- The tool cannot verify facts or recover source details that are absent from the input.
- Specialized institutional, publisher, legal, or regulatory requirements may need manual changes.
- Review the result before submitting, publishing, or relying on it.
Primary references
- APA Style reference examples — American Psychological Association
- Works Cited: A Quick Guide — Modern Language Association
- Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide — The Chicago Manual of Style
More guidance
What is a citation generator?
A citation generator converts source details into a reference-list, works-cited, bibliography, or note entry and the matching in-text form. Select the style first, then provide a URL, DOI, title, author list, existing citation, BibTeX entry, or a fuller source description.
The generator supports the most common academic and scientific systems on Huggle: APA, MLA, Chicago, IEEE, Harvard, AMA, ACS, CSE, Turabian, and ASA. Each system has different rules for author order, dates, capitalization, containers, locators, and in-text citations.
Choose the citation style your reader expects
APA is common in the social sciences, MLA in the humanities, Chicago and Turabian in history and multidisciplinary writing, IEEE in engineering, Harvard across many UK and Australian institutions, AMA in medicine, ACS in chemistry, CSE in the sciences, and ASA in sociology.
Do not choose a style based only on appearance. Follow the assignment, university, journal, conference, or publisher guidance, including any local variation it names.
A generated citation still needs a source check
Citation formatting depends on metadata. Missing authors, unclear publication dates, incomplete container titles, and redirected URLs can all produce an incomplete result. This tool omits unknown fields rather than inventing them.
Check the result against the original source and its official record. For a direct quotation, add the page, paragraph, timestamp, section, or other locator required by the selected style.
09FAQ
Frequently asked questions
01Is this citation generator free?
Yes. Limited citation generation and copying are available without an account. Huggle adds saved work, more generation, and the editable workspace for the full document.
02Which citation styles are supported?
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18, IEEE, Harvard, AMA, ACS, CSE, Turabian 9, and ASA are available. Use the dedicated style page when you want deeper examples and rules.
03Can I cite a website?
Yes. Provide the page author or organization, publication or update date, page title, website name, and URL when available. Some styles also require an access date.
04Can it make in-text citations?
Yes. The tool returns the in-text, parenthetical, narrative, note, or numbered form used by the selected style.
05How accurate is an automatic citation?
Formatting can be accurate only when the source details are accurate and complete. The tool does not invent missing metadata; verify the result against the source and your required guide.
10Related
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11Go further in Huggle
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