Free AI study tool

Citation Generator (APA, MLA, Chicago)

Paste the details of a book, article, website or video and get a correctly formatted reference plus the in-text citation — in APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard.

Result

Your result will appear here.

3 simple steps

How it works

1
Paste the source details
Author, title, date, publisher, URL or DOI — in any order.
2
Choose the style
APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard, and the source type.
3
Copy your citation
Get the reference entry and the in-text citation.

Citations without the headache

Every style guide has its own rules for author names, dates, italics, punctuation and the order of details — and getting them wrong costs marks. The VirtuaChat Citation Generator formats your source correctly so you can focus on your writing.

Paste whatever details you have — author, title, year, publisher, journal, volume, pages, URL or DOI — in any order. Choose APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago (notes-bibliography or author-date) or Harvard, and the type of source. You get the full reference-list entry and the matching in-text citation (or footnote for Chicago).

If something required is missing, such as a publication date or page numbers, the generator tells you exactly what to look for instead of guessing. It never invents details, so your citations stay honest.

Four major styles

APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard, formatted to the rules.

Any source

Books, journal articles, websites, news, videos, reports and more.

No made-up details

Missing information is flagged, never invented.

Frequently asked questions

Paste the URL together with the details you can see on the page (title, author, date). The generator formats what you give it but doesn't browse the web, so it can't look up missing details by itself.

APA 7th edition and MLA 9th edition, the current versions used by most schools and journals.

It formats the citation using the style's rules for missing elements (for example “n.d.” for no date in APA) and lists what you should try to find.

Yes. You can use the Citation Generator free every day, no sign-up needed. A free VirtuaChat account raises your daily limit and adds 100 credits for the AI chat, and paid plans remove the limits altogether.

No. Guests get a few free runs every day. Create a free account (it takes a few seconds) to get more runs, save time with the AI chat and keep 100 free credits.