PaperCitation

Citation generator · Chicago 18

Chicago citation generator

Get a Chicago author-date reference-list entry and in-text citation from a title, DOI, ISBN or web address.

  • Author-date reference list and in-text citations
  • Follows the 18th edition (2024)
  • Footnotes and bibliography entries are not generated
  • Free, no signup, no ads

What are you citing?
Papers and books
Web and media

Your citation

Start with a title, or search above. Your citation appears here as you type.

What the generator does

Choose the kind of source, then search by title, DOI, ISBN or web address, or type the details in. Records are read from Crossref, DataCite, OpenAlex, PubMed, Open Library and Google Books, or from the page itself. The form tells you what is missing, such as a year or a publisher, before you copy.

The output is a Chicago author-date reference-list entry and the in-text citation that points to it, for example:

LeCun, Yann, Yoshua Bengio, and Geoffrey Hinton. 2015. “Deep Learning.” Nature 521 (7553): 436–44.

(LeCun, Bengio, and Hinton 2015)

Two systems, one edition

Chicago has two ways to cite. In notes and bibliography, a footnote or endnote marks each source and a bibliography follows. In author-date, a short citation in the text points to a reference list. This generator covers the second. Chicago’s 18th edition came out in 2024, and the author-date examples here follow the pattern in its quick guide: author, year, title, then publication details.

Things to check

  • Names in the reference list. The first author is inverted (Last, First) and the others are not, and “and” is used instead of an ampersand.
  • Title capitalization. Chicago writes titles in headline style. Database titles sometimes arrive in sentence case or capitals.
  • Page numbers. The generator can’t know the page you cite. Add it to the in-text citation after the year.

Questions people ask

Does this make footnotes?

No. Chicago has two systems. This generator writes the author-date system: short citations in your text and a reference list at the end. The notes and bibliography system, with numbered footnotes or endnotes, is not generated here. If your instructor wants footnotes, the official quick guide shows the note format.

How do I know which Chicago system to use?

Ask your instructor or read the assignment. As a rule of thumb, history and many humanities courses use notes and bibliography, and the sciences and social sciences use author-date. If the assignment only says “Chicago,” ask which one.

What does the in-text citation look like?

Author's last name and year, then a comma and the page if you cite a specific page, all in parentheses: (Dittmar and Schemske 2023, 480). There is no comma between the name and the year. With three or more authors, the text names only the first followed by “et al.”

Do I still need the city of publication for a book?

Not in the author-date reference list. Chicago's current quick guide says the place of publication is no longer required for books.

How is the reference list ordered?

It is titled “Reference list” in the official guide and is arranged alphabetically by author.

Last reviewed . Style rules on this page are paraphrased from the official sources listed here.

Official sources

We paraphrase official guidance and link to it. When in doubt, follow the source and your instructor.