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APA Citation Generator

Build APA 7th edition references and in-text citations for books, journal articles, web pages, chapters and videos from the details you type in.

Authors — leave the given names blank for an organisation

This is a manual-entry formatter: it arranges the details you type into APA 7th edition order and punctuation. It does not look up a DOI, ISBN or URL, because that would need a network request — everything here happens in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. Always check the finished reference against your university's style guide.

What is the APA Citation Generator?

An APA citation generator arranges the author, date, title and source details you enter into APA 7th edition order and punctuation, producing a reference-list entry plus matching parenthetical and narrative in-text citations.

  • APA 7th edition rules for books, journals, web pages, chapters and videos
  • Automatic author formatting, including the 21-author ellipsis rule
  • Parenthetical and narrative in-text citations generated side by side
  • Group and organisation authors supported without extra fields
  • Hanging-indent preview so you can see the finished reference
  • Manual entry only — no lookups, no uploads, nothing leaves your browser

How to use the APA Citation Generator

  1. 1

    Choose the source type: book, journal article, web page, book chapter or online video.

  2. 2

    Add each author, putting the surname in the first box and the given names in the second.

  3. 3

    Fill in the year and the title, then the publication details for that source type.

  4. 4

    Add a DOI or URL if the source has one, and a page number if you need it in the citation.

  5. 5

    Copy the reference-list entry and the in-text citation straight into your document.

About the APA Citation Generator

The ByteTools APA Citation Generator turns the details on your source into a properly punctuated APA 7th edition reference. Pick the source type, add the authors, fill in the year, title and publication details, and the reference-list entry appears instantly with the hanging indent APA asks for, alongside the parenthetical and narrative in-text citations.

Author formatting is the part students lose marks on, so it is handled for you: surnames are inverted, given names become initials, two authors are joined with an ampersand, and a list of twenty-one or more collapses to the first nineteen, an ellipsis and the final name. Leave the given-name box empty and the entry is treated as a group or organisation author.

This is a manual-entry formatter by design. It never looks up a DOI, ISBN or web page, because that would mean sending your data to another server — everything you type stays in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed.

Frequently asked questions

How do you cite a website in APA 7th edition?

Give the author, the full publication date in parentheses, the page title in italics, the site name, and the URL — for example: Smith, J. (2023, May 14). Sleep and revision. BBC News. https://example.com. If the author and the site name are the same, the site name is left out.

Does APA 7 still include the publisher's city?

No. APA 6 required a place of publication such as “New York, NY: Routledge”, but APA 7 dropped it. Book references now end with the publisher name alone, which is why this generator has no city field.

When do you use et al. in APA?

In-text citations with three or more authors use the first author's surname followed by et al. from the very first mention. The reference-list entry still lists up to twenty authors in full before switching to the ellipsis format.

Why does this tool not fetch citations from a DOI or ISBN?

Looking up a DOI, ISBN or URL means sending a request to an outside database. Everything on ByteTools runs locally in your browser, so no data is transmitted. You type the details from the source in front of you, which also means the reference matches the edition you actually read.

Do I need to italicise anything after copying the reference?

Yes. Copying as plain text drops formatting, so re-apply italics to the book title, web page title or journal name and volume number in your word processor. The preview on screen shows exactly which part should be italic.

Is APA title case or sentence case used for titles?

Article, book and web page titles use sentence case — only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns are capitalised. Journal names keep title case. Type your title the way you want it to appear; the tool does not change your capitalisation.

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