UlvixorAPA 7 Citation Generator
Fill in a source's details — website, book, academic journal article, newspaper/magazine article, video, or report — and instantly get both the full reference and the in-text citation (parenthetical and narrative) in APA 7th edition style, ready to copy. All formatting happens in your browser, without sending your data to any server.
How it works
- Choose the source type: website, book, journal article, newspaper/magazine article, video, or report.
- Fill in the author, year, and title; these fields are common to every type.
- Fill in the fields specific to the chosen type (site name and URL for websites; publisher and edition for books; journal, volume, issue, and pages for journal articles; platform for videos; institution for reports).
- The APA-formatted reference is generated and updates automatically as you fill in the fields.
- Below the reference, also copy the in-text citation ready to drop into your writing: the parenthetical form '(Surname, Year)' or the narrative form 'Surname (Year)'.
- Copy whichever result you need with one click; remember to apply italics to the title manually, since plain text can't represent that formatting.
Use cases
- Quickly generate both the reference and the in-text citation for an academic paper or thesis.
- Correctly format a website, YouTube video, or institutional report reference cited in an essay.
- Put together a book or article citation without memorizing APA 7's exact element order.
- Verify that a citation already written by hand (or generated by another tool) has the correct format and order, in both the reference list and the body text.
Use cases
- Quickly generate both the reference and the in-text citation for an academic paper or thesis.
- Correctly format a website, YouTube video, or institutional report reference cited in an essay.
- Put together a book or article citation without memorizing APA 7's exact element order.
- Verify that a citation already written by hand (or generated by another tool) has the correct format and order, in both the reference list and the body text.
Common mistakes
- Writing the author's name as 'First Last' instead of 'Last, Initial'.APA requires the 'Surname, A. A.' format (surname, comma, initials with periods). Adjust the author field to that format so both the reference and the in-text citation come out correct.
- Forgetting the title should be italicized and copying it as-is without applying that formatting.This tool generates plain text, which can't include italics. Apply italics to the title manually after pasting the citation into your document, as noted below the result.
- Leaving the year empty for a source that does have a publication date.If the year field is left empty, the citation uses '(n.d.)' (no date), which in APA only applies to sources that genuinely have no identifiable publication date. Fill in the year whenever you know it.
- Using the full reference inside a paragraph instead of the short in-text citation.Inside your writing you use the short in-text citation, not the full reference: '(Surname, Year)' or 'Surname (Year)'. The full reference (with title, publisher, URL, etc.) only goes in the reference list at the end of the document.
Frequently asked questions
No. Both the reference and the in-text citation are generated entirely in your browser from the data you enter.
Use the in-text citation this tool automatically generates below the reference: the parenthetical form '(Surname, Year)' for the end of a sentence, or the narrative form 'Surname (Year)' when you mention the author directly in your writing.
With two authors, the in-text citation uses '&' in parenthetical form ('García & López, 2023') and 'and' in narrative form ('García and López (2023)'). With three or more authors, APA 7 abbreviates with 'et al.' from the very first citation: '(García et al., 2023)'. This tool automatically works out which form applies based on how many authors you enter.
This tool generates plain text, which can't represent italics. APA requires italics for book and website titles; apply it manually when pasting the citation into your word processor.
Yes, type all the authors in the author field following APA's format for multiple authors (for example, separated by commas with '&' before the last one), since the field accepts free text.
Yes. Choose the 'Video' source type and enter the platform (YouTube or another) and the URL, or choose 'Report' and enter the responsible institution or organization. Both generate the reference in the format APA 7 requires for that source type.
This tool generates one source at a time. If you need a complete, alphabetized reference list with several sources, use this site's Bibliography Generator.
Alternatives
Reference managers like Zotero or Mendeley generate APA citations automatically from metadata, and Word has a built-in citation generator. This tool is convenient for a quick, one-off citation — including the in-text version, which many simple generators skip — without installing a full reference manager.