Paste a DOI, ISBN, URL or title
Need an MLA citation for your essay? Our free MLA citation generator builds accurate MLA 9th edition works cited entries and in-text citations in seconds. Paste a URL, ISBN, or DOI — or enter the details manually — and get a properly formatted MLA citation ready to copy.
The MLA format is the standard citation style in the humanities, especially English, literature, and language courses. A dependable MLA citation generator keeps your works cited page consistent with the MLA Handbook (9th edition), so you can focus on your argument instead of your punctuation.
An MLA citation has two parts: a brief in-text citation and a full entry in the works cited list. The in-text citation points the reader to the works cited entry, which contains complete publication details. The MLA citation generator handles both so your paper stays consistent.
MLA uses a container system. The core elements — author, title of source, title of container, contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, and location — are arranged in a fixed order. An MLA citation generator applies this order automatically for every source type.
MLA 9th edition, published in 2021, kept the flexible container approach of MLA 8 while clarifying how to cite a growing range of sources. The 9th edition added expanded guidance for citing apps, databases, and social media. Our MLA citation generator always follows MLA 9th edition rules.
Citing a website in MLA format requires the author, page title in quotation marks, website name in italics, publication date, and URL. A works cited entry for a website looks like this:
Example
Smith, John. "How to Write a Research Paper." Academic Writing Hub, 1 May 2023, example.com/how-to-write.
In-text: (Smith)
For a book, an MLA citation lists the author, title in italics, publisher, and year. For a journal article, it lists the author, article title in quotes, journal name and volume in italics, issue, year, and pages. Examples:
MLA in-text citations use the author's last name and page number, like (Smith 12). If the author is named in the sentence, only the page number appears in parentheses: Smith argues that citation accuracy matters (12). For two authors, use "and": (Smith and Doe 12). For three or more, use "et al.": (Smith et al. 12).
The works cited page is alphabetized by the author's last name and uses a hanging indent. Every in-text citation must match an entry in the works cited list. Our MLA citation generator keeps both parts in sync.
Yes. Generating MLA citations and works cited entries is completely free with no account required.
Yes. CiteCreate formats every works cited entry using the current MLA 9th edition rules.
The author's last name and the page number, with no comma between them: (Smith 12). For a source with no page numbers, such as a web page, the author's name alone is enough.
Start the works cited entry with the title, and cite it in the text by a shortened version of that title in quotation marks or italics, matching how it appears in the entry.
Websites, books, journal articles, videos, podcasts, PDFs, newspapers, e-books, lectures, social media posts, images, datasets, reports, theses, and dictionary entries.