Paste a DOI, ISBN, URL or title
Need to create an APA citation for a paper? Our free APA citation generator builds accurate APA 7th edition references and in-text citations in seconds. Paste a URL, ISBN, or DOI — or enter the details manually — and get a properly formatted APA citation you can copy straight into your reference list.
The APA format is the standard citation style in psychology, education, and the social sciences. Whether you're writing a research paper, a literature review, or a thesis, a reliable APA citation generator keeps your references consistent with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition), so you never lose points over formatting.
An APA citation has two parts: an in-text citation and a full reference in the reference list. The in-text citation appears in the body of your paper and points the reader to the full APA reference at the end. Together they tell readers exactly where your information came from and let them find the original source.
The basic APA citation for most sources follows the author–date pattern. In the reference list, a typical APA reference lists the author, publication date, title, and source. An APA citation generator automates this pattern for you, so you don't have to remember where the commas, italics, and periods go.
The current standard is APA 7th edition, published in 2019. The 7th edition simplified several rules. For example, the publisher location is no longer included in a book reference, and up to 20 authors are now listed before using an ellipsis. Our APA citation generator always follows APA 7th edition rules.
If your instructor still asks for APA 6th edition, check the requirement first — most courses and journals have now moved to APA 7. Using a current APA citation generator ensures your APA references match what today's graders and journals expect.
Citing a website in APA format requires the author, publication date, page title, site name, and URL. The APA reference for a website looks like this:
Example
Smith, J. (2023, May 1). How to write a research paper. Academic Writing Hub. https://example.com/how-to-write
In-text: (Smith, 2023)
For a book, an APA citation lists the author, year, title in italics, and publisher. For a journal article, it lists the author, year, article title, journal name and volume in italics, issue, pages, and DOI. Here are examples of each:
APA in-text citations use the author and year. A parenthetical citation looks like (Smith, 2023), while a narrative citation names the author in the sentence, such as "Smith (2023) argues…". For two authors, use an ampersand inside parentheses: (Smith & Doe, 2023). For three or more authors, use "et al.": (Smith et al., 2023).
Your reference list should be alphabetized by the author's last name and double-spaced with a hanging indent. Every in-text citation must have a matching entry in the reference list, and vice versa. Our APA citation generator keeps both parts consistent.
Yes. Generating APA citations and references is completely free with no sign-up required.
Yes. CiteCreate always formats references using the current APA 7th edition rules.
With no author, move the title into the author position and cite it in text by a shortened title. With no date, write (n.d.) in place of the year, in both the reference and the in-text citation.
For direct quotations always: (Smith, 2023, p. 45). For a paraphrase APA recommends but does not require one, and it is worth adding whenever you are pointing at a specific passage of a long work.
Websites, books, journal articles, videos, podcasts, PDFs, newspapers, e-books, lectures, social media posts, images, datasets, reports, theses, and dictionary entries.