APA Citation Generator
Generate APA 7th edition references and in-text citations for books, websites and journals. Free APA citation generator with copy button.
About the APA Citation Generator
This free APA citation generator formats your source details into a correct APA 7th edition reference and matching in-text citation. Choose the source type — book, website or journal article — fill in the fields, and get a ready-to-paste citation you can copy straight into your reference list.
APA style puts the author first, then the year in parentheses, then the title (with sentence-case capitalisation and italics for book and journal titles), then publication details. The in-text citation uses the author-date format, such as (Sharma, 2023). Getting these details right — the punctuation, italics and order — is exactly what this tool automates.
Students, researchers and academic writers use APA across psychology, education, the sciences and social sciences. Always check the output against your institution's guide, since edge cases exist. Everything runs in your browser with no signup.
How to Use the APA Citation Generator
- 1Select the source type: book, website or journal article.
- 2Enter the author, title, year and the relevant publication details.
- 3Read the formatted APA reference and in-text citation.
- 4Copy the citation into your reference list with one click.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I cite a book in APA 7th edition?
The format is: Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the book (in italics, sentence case). Publisher. For example: Sharma, R. (2023). Understanding statistics. Academic Press. The in-text citation is (Sharma, 2023).
How do I cite a website in APA?
Use: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page (in italics). Site Name. URL. If there is no date, use (n.d.). The tool adds a retrieval date only for content likely to change, in line with APA 7 guidance.
What is the difference between a reference and an in-text citation?
The reference is the full entry in your reference list at the end. The in-text citation is the short pointer in the body of your text — author and year, like (Sharma, 2023) — that directs the reader to the matching reference. This tool produces both.
How do I handle two or more authors in APA?
In the reference list, list up to 20 authors separated by commas with an ampersand before the last. In text, cite two authors with an ampersand (Sharma & Khan, 2023), and three or more with 'et al.' (Sharma et al., 2023).
Does APA use sentence case or title case for titles?
For the titles of books, articles and web pages, APA uses sentence case — capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. Journal names, by contrast, keep title case. The generator applies these rules for you.