Citation generators

Free MLA Citation Generator

Turn a URL, DOI, title, author list, or BibTeX entry into an MLA-formatted Works Cited entry and a matching in-text citation. Free runs are available without an account.

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

Source

⌘↵ to generate

works-cited.docxMLA citation

Your MLA Works Cited entry, parenthetical citation, and BibTeX will appear here

Opens as an editable file in Huggle.

01How to use

How to use the MLA citation generator

01Paste a URL, DOI, title with authors, existing citation, BibTeX entry, or the source details you have.
02Generate the MLA Works Cited entry and matching in-text form, then compare every field with the original source.
03Copy the result, or continue in Huggle to organize more sources and build the editable document around them.

02Examples

Example input and output

MLA 9 journal article

Illustrative example. Your result depends on the source material you provide.

Input: Vaswani et al., "Attention Is All You Need," NeurIPS, vol. 30, 2017.
Output: Vaswani, Ashish, et al. "Attention Is All You Need." Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, vol. 30, 2017. In text: (Vaswani et al.).

03By source type

How to cite each source type in MLA

Titles the style italicizes are shown as plain text here.

Book
Journal article
Web page
PDF report
Online video

Book

Collect: Author names, publication year, full title and subtitle, edition if not the first, and publisher.

Reference entry: Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
In text: (Kahneman 24)

Title case for titles. The publication year comes last, and no publisher location is given.

Journal article

Collect: Author names, year, article title, journal name, volume, issue, page range, and DOI.

Reference entry: Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick. "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid." Nature, vol. 171, no. 4356, 1953, pp. 737–38, https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
In text: (Watson and Crick 737)

The journal is the container: italicized, followed by vol., no., year, and pp. Shorten the second page number when the hundreds match.

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: "HTML: HyperText Markup Language." MDN Web Docs, Mozilla, developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML. Accessed 16 Sept. 2026.
In text: ("HTML")

With no personal author, start with the page title and use a shortened title in text. Omit https:// from URLs and add an access date when the page has no publication 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: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report. Summary for Policymakers. IPCC, 2023, www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/.
In text: (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 5)

A group author may also be the publisher; MLA lets you list an abbreviated form as publisher when the names match.

Online video

Collect: Speaker or uploading account, date posted, video title, hosting platform, URL, and the timestamp of any passage you quote.

Reference entry: Robinson, Ken. "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED, Feb. 2006, www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity.
In text: (Robinson 00:04:12)

Cite a time range or timestamp in hours:minutes:seconds. For YouTube, the platform is the container and the uploader can follow the title.

Writing the whole paper? The AI research paper generator drafts the LaTeX paper and formats every citation in the style you choose.

04Format reference

MLA format reference

Element	Rule	Example
Authors	First author inverted, others in normal order. Use et al. for three or more.	Watson, J. D., and F. H. C. Crick
Title of source	Title case. Italicize self-contained works; put titles inside a container in quotation marks.	"Do Schools Kill Creativity?"
Container	Italicize the journal, site, or platform that holds the source, followed by its details.	Nature, vol. 171, no. 4356, 1953, pp. 737–38
Publication date	Day Month Year, with months longer than four letters abbreviated.	16 Sept. 2026
Location	Page range for print; DOI or URL without https:// for online sources.	doi.org/10.1038/171737a0
In-text	Author and page number with no comma; use a shortened title when there is no author.	(Kahneman 24)

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

Order the core elements according to the source and its containers.
Use the author or shortened title in the parenthetical citation.
Add a page number without a comma when one is available.

Mistakes to avoid

Leaving out source facts or constraints the MLA 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
MLA 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

Works Cited: A Quick Guide — Modern Language Association

More guidance

What does the MLA citation generator do?

The MLA citation generator turns the source details you provide into the punctuation, ordering, capitalization, and in-text form expected by the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. It is useful when you know which source you used but do not want to rebuild every field by hand.

This tool formats books, journal articles, chapters, websites, reports, and other common sources from a URL, DOI, existing citation, or plain-language description. It omits unknown details instead of guessing them, so incomplete input produces an intentionally incomplete citation.

How MLA citations work

MLA is commonly used by literature, languages, cultural studies, and the humanities. It usually uses the author surname and page number. The reference entry and the in-text form are a pair: changing the displayed author, year, title, or number in one may require changing the other.

MLA organizes citations around core elements and containers, which matters when an article sits inside a journal or a page sits inside a website. The Works Cited entry starts with the element most useful for finding the source.

What to verify before submitting

Compare the generated result with the source itself. Check the author order, publication date, title capitalization, container or journal details, page range, DOI or URL, and any locator used for a quotation.

A formatter cannot recover reliable metadata that is absent or ambiguous. Follow your instructor, institution, journal, or publisher when its local guide differs from the general style manual.

09FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is this MLA citation generator free?

Yes. You can generate and copy a limited number of citations without an account. Huggle adds saved work, continued editing, and the workspace for building the full document.

Which MLA version does it use?

The formatter targets the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. If your course, institution, or publisher supplies a local guide, use that guide for any stated exceptions.

What source types can I cite?

Common books, chapters, journal articles, conference papers, reports, and websites are supported when you provide enough identifying details. Unusual legal, archival, dataset, media, and unpublished sources may need manual adjustment.

Can I generate an in-text citation?

Yes. The result includes the matching in-text form alongside the full reference entry.

Does the generator invent missing information?

No. It is instructed to use only details in your input and omit unknown fields. Always compare the result with the original source before submitting it.

10Related

11Go further in Huggle

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