MLA citation generator
Fill in what you know about the source and get a correct MLA 9th edition works-cited entry and in-text citation as you type. Look up articles by DOI and books by ISBN, collect your sources, and copy the finished Works Cited list into Word or Google Docs.
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How to use it
- Choose the source type: website, book, journal article, newspaper, chapter or video.
- Enter a DOI or ISBN and click Find, or type the author, title and other details yourself.
- Check the citation, and add a page number for the in-text citation if you quote.
- Add each source to the Works Cited list, then copy the list or download it for Word.
Why use this tool
MLA 9th edition
Follows the current MLA Handbook: core elements in the right order, et al. for three or more authors, abbreviated months and page ranges.
DOI and ISBN lookup
Fills in journal articles from Crossref and books from Open Library, so you only check and correct.
In-text citations
Shows the matching parenthetical citation, like (Smith and Jones 45) or a short title when there is no author.
Works Cited list
Collect all your sources. The list is sorted alphabetically and stays in this browser until you clear it.
Italics kept
Copy pastes with italics into Word and Google Docs. The RTF download is already double-spaced with hanging indents.
Free, no account
No sign-up, no ads between steps and no limit on the number of citations.
MLA citation format examples
| Source | Works Cited entry |
|---|---|
| Book | Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987. |
| Journal article | LeCun, Yann, et al. “Deep Learning.” Nature, vol. 521, no. 7553, 2015, pp. 436-44, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14539. |
| Web page | “How to Cite a Website.” Purdue OWL, Purdue University, 2024, owl.purdue.edu/owl/mla. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026. |
| Newspaper | Lee, Sam. “City Council Approves New Budget.” New York Times, 12 Mar. 2024, p. A1. |
| Book chapter | Doe, Jane. “The Politics of Reading.” A Companion to Literary Theory, edited by David H. Richter, Wiley-Blackwell, 2018, pp. 45-60. |
| YouTube video | “The History of the Internet.” YouTube, uploaded by TED-Ed, 4 Mar. 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc. |
The MLA core elements
MLA 9 builds every entry from the same core elements, in this order, leaving out the ones that don't apply: Author. Title of source. Title of container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.
The container is the larger work that holds the source: the journal for an article, the website for a page, the book for a chapter, or YouTube for a video. Titles of containers and of whole works are in italics; titles of parts are in quotation marks.
In-text citations in MLA
- One author: (Morrison 45)
- Two authors: (Graff and Birkenstein 12)
- Three or more authors: (LeCun et al. 437)
- No author: a short title, like (“How to Cite”)
- No page numbers, as on websites: just the author, like (Lee)
- If you name the author in your sentence, give only the page: Morrison describes … (45).
Formatting the Works Cited page
- Start a new page titled Works Cited, centred, not bold.
- Sort the entries alphabetically by the first word, usually the author's last name.
- Double-space everything and use a hanging indent of 0.5 inch.
- Use the same font as the paper, usually Times New Roman 12 pt.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cite a website in MLA?
Author. “Title of the Page.” Website Name, Publisher if different, date, URL without https://. Add an access date when the page has no publication date. Choose Website above and the tool builds it for you.
What is new in MLA 9?
MLA 9 (2021) keeps the core elements of MLA 8 and adds more guidance: DOIs written as https://doi.org/…, access dates recommended for undated web sources, and more examples for social media, interviews and translations.
How do I cite a source with no author?
Leave the author empty. The entry starts with the title, and the in-text citation uses a shortened title in quotation marks or italics.
When do I use et al. in MLA?
For three or more authors, list only the first author, inverted, followed by et al.: LeCun, Yann, et al. In the text write (LeCun et al. 437).
Do I need to include the URL?
MLA recommends it for online sources. Leave out http:// or https://. If the source has a DOI, use the DOI instead of the URL.
How do I put the list into Word or Google Docs?
Click Copy list and paste. Then select the entries and set double spacing and a 0.5-inch hanging indent. Or download the RTF file, which already has this formatting.
MLA format: the small rules that cost marks
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