How to cite ChatGPT and other AI tools in MLA 9

MLA published its first guidance on citing AI in March 2023 and has since updated it. A guide that uses the version format from that first post is out of date. The current guidance is the Style Center’s updated and revised post.

Works Cited format

MLA does not treat the AI tool as an author. The entry starts with a description of what the tool generated, and the tool is the container.

"Description of what the tool generated or the prompt" prompt. Tool Name, model name or number, Company, Day Month Year, URL.

“Explain how tidal energy differs from wind energy” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 21 Jan. 2025, chatgpt.com/share/example-id.

• Title of source. Describe what the tool produced. You can use the prompt itself, in quotation marks, followed by the word “prompt.”
• Container. The name of the tool.
• Version. The specific model, such as GPT-4o, if you know it.
• Publisher. The company that makes the tool.
• Date. The date the content was generated.
• Location. A stable, shareable link to the conversation if the tool offers one. If it doesn’t, give the tool’s general web address.

In-text citation

With no author, the in-text citation uses the first words of the entry, in quotation marks: (“Explain how tidal energy”). Don’t add a page number.

AI summaries in search results

MLA advises against citing a summary written by a search feature such as Google’s AI Overviews as if it were a source. Click through, find the original pages it draws on, and cite those.

Be open about how you used AI

MLA also recommends describing how you used AI in your work, for example in a note or in your text, in addition to citing it. Your instructor may have a policy that is stricter than any style guide. Follow it first.

For APA, see how to cite ChatGPT in APA 7.