Chicago Bibliography Generator — Free Chicago Style Citations

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Need a Chicago bibliography? Our free Chicago bibliography generator formats notes-bibliography entries correctly. Paste a URL, ISBN, or DOI, or enter the details manually, and copy a finished entry into your list.

The bibliography is the alphabetized list at the end of a Chicago paper. Each entry inverts the author's name, uses periods between its elements, and — unlike the footnote for the same source — carries no page number.

Chicago bibliography format

An entry gives the author with the surname first, the title in italics, the edition where there is one, and the publisher and year. Since the 17th edition, the publisher's city is no longer required, so an entry ends with the publisher name and the year rather than "Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020".

For an article, the article title goes in quotation marks and the journal title is italicized, followed by the volume, the issue as "no. 3", the year in parentheses, and the full page range of the article.

  • Book: Smith, John A. The Craft of Research. 4th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2020.
  • Article: Smith, John A. “The Role of Machine Learning in Academic Writing.” Journal of Educational Technology 41, no. 3 (2023): 215–32.

Assembling and alphabetizing the list

Alphabetize by the first author's surname, ignoring A, An, and The when a title stands in the author position. Give each entry a hanging indent so the surnames line up down the left margin and the list can be scanned.

Where you cite several works by the same author, Chicago replaces the repeated name in subsequent entries with a three-em dash, and orders those entries alphabetically by title.

What belongs in a Chicago bibliography

In the notes-bibliography system the bibliography conventionally lists everything you consulted, not only what you cited — which is precisely the difference from an MLA works cited page or an APA reference list. If your brief asks only for cited works, follow the brief; otherwise include the background reading that shaped your argument.

Bibliography or reference list?

This page covers notes-bibliography, the footnote-based Chicago system used in history and the humanities. Chicago's other system, author-date, uses parenthetical citations such as (Smith 2020, 45) and ends with a reference list whose entries place the year immediately after the author. The two are not interchangeable, so confirm which system your course uses before formatting the list.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Chicago bibliography entry include page numbers?

Not for a book — the entry describes the whole work, and the page number belongs in the footnote. For a journal article, give the article's full page range, which is a different thing from the single page you cited.

Do I still write the publisher's city?

No. From the 17th edition onward the city is omitted, so the entry ends with the publisher and year. Older guides that show "Chicago: University of Chicago Press" are following the 16th edition or earlier.

How do I list several works by the same author?

Give the full name in the first entry, then replace it with a three-em dash in each following entry by that author, ordering those entries alphabetically by title.

Is a bibliography the same as a works cited page?

No. A Chicago bibliography conventionally includes everything you consulted; an MLA works cited page and an APA reference list include only what you cited in the text.

Is the Chicago bibliography generator free?

Yes. Chicago bibliography entries, BibTeX, and RIS export are free with no sign-up required.