APA 7th edition references for journal articles, books, websites and YouTube videos. Auto-fill from a DOI, link or ISBN, get the parenthetical and narrative in-text citations, and copy your reference list straight into your paper. Free, no sign-up, no ads.
Or choose the source type and type the details yourself.
Reference list entry
Your citation appears here as you type.
In-text citation
(Author, Year)
References
Sources you add appear here in alphabetical order, ready to copy or download as a Word file. They stay saved in this browser.
How to use the APA 7 citation generator
Auto-fill or type. Paste a DOI, a web address or a book’s ISBN and press Auto-fill, or choose the source type and fill in the fields.
Check the details. The reference updates as you type. Notes under it point out anything missing, such as a volume number or a DOI, and list any words sentence case lowercased so you can keep names capitalized.
Add it to your References. The list sorts itself alphabetically by the first author’s surname, the way APA requires.
Put it in your paper. “Copy References” pastes into Word or Google Docs with the italics kept, or download a Word file already set double-spaced, with a bold centered “References” label and hanging indents.
Cite in the text. Each source shows its parenthetical and narrative citation. Type a page (or a time stamp for a video) when you quote.
APA 7 format and examples by source type
Every APA reference answers four questions in the same order: who (author), when (date), what (title) and where (source: journal, publisher, website, DOI or URL).
Journal article
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article. Journal Name, volume(issue), pages. https://doi.org/…
Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Journal name and volume in italics, issue in parentheses (not italic), full page range with an en dash, then the DOI as a link with no period after it.
Book
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case (2nd ed.). Publisher. https://doi.org/…
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000
No publisher location in APA 7. An edited book with no author starts with the editors: Hanks, J. (Ed.). (2020).
Web page
Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
World Health Organization. (2018, May 24). The top 10 causes of death. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death
The site name is dropped here because it is the same as the author. No date? Write (n.d.).
YouTube video
Channel or Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of video [Video]. YouTube. URL
Harvard University. (2019, August 28). Soft robotic gripper for jellyfish [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guRoWTYfxMs
The channel is the author. A person with a different channel name: Khan, S. [Khan Academy]. Cite a time stamp in the text: (Harvard University, 2019, 0:45).
Authors and in-text citations in APA 7
Authors
Reference list
Parenthetical
Narrative
One
Jackson, L. M. (2019).
(Jackson, 2019)
Jackson (2019)
Two
Salas, D., & D’Agostino, J. V. (2020).
(Salas & D’Agostino, 2020)
Salas and D’Agostino (2020)
Three to 20
Grady, J. S., Her, M., & Moreno, G. (2019).
(Grady et al., 2019)
Grady et al. (2019)
21 or more
First 19, then “. . .”, then the last author
(Kalnay et al., 1996)
Kalnay et al. (1996)
Group
World Health Organization. (2024).
(World Health Organization, 2024)
World Health Organization (2024)
None
Title moves to the author position
(Short Title, 2020)
Short Title (2020)
Add a page for a direct quote: (Jackson, 2019, p. 45), or a range: (Jackson, 2019, pp. 45–46). Sources without pages can use a paragraph number (para. 4) or, for videos, a time stamp.
How to format the APA reference list
Start the list on a new page after the text, with the label References bold and centered.
Sort entries alphabetically by the first author’s surname; works with no author by the first significant word of the title.
Two works by the same author are ordered by year, oldest first, with (n.d.) before dated works.
Double-space everything and use a 0.5-inch hanging indent.
Use the same font as your paper (APA 7 allows Times New Roman 12, Calibri 11, Arial 11 and others).
The Word file from “Download Word (.docx)” is already set up this way. In Google Docs, open it with File → Open → Upload, or paste the copied list and set the hanging indent under Format → Align & indent → Indentation options.
Common APA mistakes and the fix
These are the slips the “Check my References” tab catches. Paste your list there to find them in seconds.
Wrong
APA 7
Smith, John, and Mary Lee.
Smith, J., & Lee, M. (initials, comma, and “&”)
Smith, J., et al. (2020).
List up to 20 authors; “et al.” only in the text
Smith, J. 2020.
Smith, J. (2020). (date in parentheses after the author)
The Future Of Smart Cities
The future of smart cities (sentence case)
Urban Review, Vol. 12, Issue 3, pp. 45-67
Urban Review, 12(3), 45–67
doi:10.1037/ppm0000185
https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185
Retrieved from https://www.site.com
https://www.site.com (no “Retrieved from”)
https://doi.org/10.1037/xyz.
https://doi.org/10.1037/xyz (no period after a link)
New York, NY: Penguin.
Penguin. (no location in APA 7)
(Smith and Lee, 2020)
(Smith & Lee, 2020) / Smith and Lee (2020)
What changed from APA 6 to APA 7
No publisher location for books (“Penguin”, not “New York, NY: Penguin”).
Up to 20 authors in a reference, instead of 7.
“et al.” from the first in-text citation for three or more authors.
DOIs as https://doi.org/ links; no “doi:” label and no “Retrieved from” before a URL.
Video and other media descriptions in square brackets: [Video], [Audio podcast episode].
Why this generator, not another
No ads, no sign-up, no pop-ups. Cite, copy and download without an account.
It shows its work. Each reference lists the rules applied, what is still missing, and which words sentence case changed, so a capitalized name never slips through.
Both in-text forms. Parenthetical and narrative citations side by side, with the page or time stamp you type.
A checker for the list you already have. Paste a reference list from any tool and see what to fix.
Study your sources. Turn the list into flashcards: who wrote each source, when, and how to cite it, plus the APA rules themselves.
The formats here follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020), and the reference examples published on the APA Style website. Always follow your instructor or journal if their requirements differ.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this APA citation generator free?
Yes. Citing sources, auto-fill, in-text citations, copying entries or the whole reference list, the checker and the flashcards are free with no account. A free Word download holds up to 10 sources. Pro adds a separate reference list for each paper, Word downloads of any size and exporting every list at once.
Does it follow APA 7th edition?
Yes. References follow the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020): author surnames with initials and “&”, up to 20 authors, the date in parentheses after the author, sentence-case titles, italic journal names and volume numbers, DOIs as https://doi.org links, no publisher location and no “Retrieved from” unless a page is designed to change.
How do I cite a journal article in APA 7?
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of the article in sentence case. Journal Name in Title Case, volume(issue), page–page. https://doi.org/10.xxxx. The journal name and the volume are italic; the issue number is not. Paste the DOI into the generator and it fills in the rest.
How do I cite a website in APA 7?
Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of the page in italics. Site Name. URL. Leave out the site name when it is the same as the author (a World Health Organization page by the World Health Organization). With no date, write (n.d.). Add “Retrieved Month Day, Year, from” only for pages designed to change, like a live dashboard.
What is the difference between parenthetical and narrative citations?
A parenthetical citation puts the author and year in parentheses at the end of the sentence: (Grady et al., 2019). A narrative citation uses the name in your sentence with the year after it: Grady et al. (2019) found… Two authors take “&” inside parentheses and “and” in a narrative citation. The generator shows both for every source.
When do I use “et al.” in APA 7?
Only in the text. For three or more authors, every in-text citation uses the first author plus “et al.” from the first citation on: (Smith et al., 2020). In the reference list itself, list up to 20 authors in full.
Why are titles in lowercase?
APA uses sentence case for the titles of articles, books, web pages and videos: capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns. The generator converts titles for you and lists the words it lowercased, so you can spot a name or place that should stay capitalized. Journal names keep title case.
Are my citations saved?
Your list is saved in this browser, so it is still there when you come back on the same device. Nothing is uploaded unless you look up a URL, DOI or ISBN, which is sent to our server only to fetch the source details.
