APA citation generator
Free, accurate APA 7th edition citations in seconds. Trusted by students worldwide.
How to cite in APA
APA Style is published by the American Psychological Association. It is the standard in psychology, education, nursing, business and most social sciences. Our generator follows the 7th edition. Each reference goes in an alphabetical list called References, with a hanging indent.
Journal article
LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y., & Hinton, G. (2015). Deep learning. Nature, 521(7553), 436–444. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539
Book
Cormen, T. H., Leiserson, C. E., Rivest, R. L., & Stein, C. (2009). Introduction to algorithms (3rd ed.). MIT Press.
Website
Coltrera, F. (2025, September 24). 5 timeless habits for better health. Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/5-timeless-habits-for-better-health-202509243106
Need an annotated bibliography instead of a plain reference list? Use the annotated bibliography generator.
Citing an image? Use the image citation generator for a reference and a figure note.
Citing a website, a YouTube video or a book? Each has its own generator with a form made for it.
In-text citations
APA uses the author and year in the text. Put both in brackets, or name the author in your sentence with the year in brackets after it. Add a page number when you quote directly.
Parenthetical: (LeCun et al., 2015)
Narrative: LeCun et al. (2015)
With a page number: (LeCun et al., 2015, p. 437)
Frequently asked questions
What changed in APA 7th edition?
Sources with three or more authors are shortened to the first author plus et al. in the text from the first citation. The reference list names up to 20 authors, book references no longer include the publisher’s location, and DOIs are written as https://doi.org links.
Do I need a DOI in APA?
Yes, whenever a source has one. Write it as a full link starting with https://doi.org. If there is no DOI and you found the source online, include the URL instead.
How do I cite a source with no author in APA?
Start the reference with the title, then the date. In the text, use the first few words of the title in place of the author. The generator shows a warning when no author is found so you can check.
What if there is no date?
Use n.d. for no date, both in the reference and in the text, for example (World Health Organization, n.d.).
Should titles be in sentence case in APA?
Yes. APA uses sentence case for the titles of articles, books and web pages, and title case for journal names. The generator converts journal article and book titles for you. Check web page titles, since names and brands can look like ordinary words.