Tool

Free APA Citation Generator — MLA, Chicago, Harvard & More

Free citation generator for APA 7th edition, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, and 10,000+ styles. Paste a DOI, URL, or title — get a perfectly formatted citation in seconds.

Paste a DOI, URL, ISBN, or paper title and get an instant, correctly formatted citation in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, or any of 10,000+ CSL styles. Copy to clipboard, export to BibTeX, or send straight to your Zotero library.

Formatting citations by hand is tedious and error-prone. APA 7th edition alone has dozens of rules for different source types — journal articles, books, websites, preprints, datasets, software. One misplaced comma or italic and your professor or journal reviewer flags it. Most students spend hours on reference lists that add zero intellectual value to their work. Existing citation generators either lock features behind paywalls, inject ads, or produce outdated formats.

Key Features

  • Instant DOI Lookup
  • 10,000+ Citation Styles
  • APA 7th Edition Compliant
  • Batch Citation Generation

Tools

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this APA citation generator free?
Yes, the PapersFlow citation generator is completely free with no ads and no sign-up required. You can generate unlimited citations in APA 7th edition, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, and 10,000+ other styles.
How do I cite a website in APA format?
Paste the website URL into PapersFlow's citation generator and select APA 7th. PapersFlow will extract the author, title, publication date, and site name to generate the correct APA format: Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
What is the difference between APA 6th and APA 7th edition?
Key changes in APA 7th: DOIs are now formatted as URLs (https://doi.org/...), up to 20 authors are listed before using ellipsis (was 7), the publisher location is no longer required, and 'Retrieved from' is dropped before URLs. PapersFlow uses APA 7th by default.
Can I generate citations in bulk?
Yes. Paste a list of DOIs, one per line, and PapersFlow will generate all citations at once. You can also upload a BibTeX file and convert it to any citation style, or export your entire PapersFlow library as a formatted reference list.
Does PapersFlow support MLA and Chicago styles?
Yes. PapersFlow supports MLA 9th edition, Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition (both author-date and notes-bibliography systems), Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, and over 10,000 journal-specific formats via the CSL standard.
How accurate are the generated citations?
PapersFlow pulls metadata directly from CrossRef, OpenAlex, and PubMed — the same authoritative databases that journals and libraries use. This means author names, publication dates, volume numbers, and DOIs are sourced from publisher records, not scraped from web pages.