APA citation generator (7th edition)
References and in-text citations in APA 7 style, for websites, journal articles, books, chapters, news, YouTube and ChatGPT. Paste a link or DOI to autofill, then copy with the italics intact.
Create an APA citation
Reference list entry · APA 7th edition
Your citation appears here as you type, set exactly as it will look in your paper.
In-text citation
Fill in the author and date to see the in-text version.
The APA 7 reference pattern
Almost every APA reference answers four questions in the same order, each ending with a full stop: Author. (Date). Title. Source. The source part holds the journal, publisher or website, then the DOI or URL.
- Authors: surname, then initials. Use “&” before the last author. List up to 20; for 21 or more, list the first 19, an ellipsis, then the last author.
- Date: the year in brackets. News articles, blog posts and videos add the month and day: (2023, October 12).
- Title: sentence case. Capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns.
- Italics: the title of a stand-alone work (book, report, web page, video), or the journal name and volume number.
- Links: DOI as https://doi.org/…; otherwise the URL, with no full stop after it.
APA examples
Journal article
Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25(6), 1159–1168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581
In-text: (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014, p. 1160) or Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014, p. 1160)
Web page by an organisation
World Health Organization. (2023, October 12). Climate change and health. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-and-health
In-text: (World Health Organization, 2023) or World Health Organization (2023)
Book, later edition, three authors
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Sommers, S. R. (2019). Social psychology (10th ed.). Pearson.
In-text: (Aronson et al., 2019) or Aronson et al. (2019)
Chapter in an edited book
Hall, S. (1996). Who needs identity? In S. Hall & P. du Gay (Eds.), Questions of cultural identity (pp. 1–17). SAGE.
In-text: (Hall, 1996) or Hall (1996)
YouTube video
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell. (2014, July 1). The immune system explained I – bacteria infection [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQGOcOUBi6s
In-text: (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, 2014) or Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell (2014)
APA in-text citations
Every reference needs at least one matching in-text citation. Use a parenthetical citation (Kimmerer, 2013) or a narrative one, where the author is part of your sentence: Kimmerer (2013) argues… Add a page number for direct quotes: (Kimmerer, 2013, p. 45). The in-text citation guide has an interactive table for one, two and three-plus authors.
Need the full paper layout, from the title page to headings? See the APA format guide.
APA questions
Is this APA 7th edition?
Yes. It follows the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed., 2020): up to 20 authors listed, no publisher location, DOIs written as https://doi.org/ links, and no “Retrieved from” before URLs.
How do I cite a source with no date in APA?
Write (n.d.) where the year goes: Recycle Now. (n.d.). How to recycle plastic film. In the text: (Recycle Now, n.d.). Add a retrieval date only for pages designed to change over time.
What about three or more authors?
In the reference list, name every author up to 20. In the text, use the first author plus “et al.” from the first citation onward: (Aronson et al., 2019).
Do I italicise the article title?
No. In APA the container (the journal name and volume number) is italic; the article title is plain and in sentence case. Stand-alone works such as books, reports, web pages and videos are italic.
How do I format the reference list?
Title it “References” (bold, centred), double-space everything, sort alphabetically by the first author’s surname, and use a 0.5-inch hanging indent. The bibliography builder sorts for you.