Build an APA 7 citation
Pick the source type, fill in the fields you can see, and the reference entry updates as you type. You get the reference-list entry (italics included), the parenthetical in-text citation and the narrative version — the three things almost every APA assignment needs. When a citation looks right, add it to the list at the bottom of the tool.
APA 7 citation builder
100% private — runs in your browserAdd authors in order — surname, then first name(s). Leave the second box empty for a group or organization author. Titles go in sentence case: only the first word, proper nouns and the word after a colon get capitals.
Paste a DOI and it becomes a proper https://doi.org/ link.
Three or more authors? Add them all — the tool names everyone in the reference (up to 20) and switches the in-text citation to et al.
Leave the author boxes empty if the page names no author — the title moves to the front of the citation instead.
APA adds the page locator only for direct quotations.
Fill in at least a title — your reference appears here.
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Your APA reference list
0 sourcesThe export is a plain text file, so italics do not survive it — apply italics to titles after pasting into your document. The list itself stays on this device only.
What changed in APA 7 (compared with the 6th edition)
Most lost marks on referencing come from 6th-edition habits. APA 7 made several rules simpler, so if your notes are older than 2020, update them first. Here is the short version of what the 7th edition changed for the sources students cite most.
- No more publisher location. A book reference ends with the publisher's name alone. “New York, NY: Guilford Press” became “Guilford Press.”
- et al. from the first citation. Any work with three or more authors is cited as first surname plus et al. every time. The 6th edition spelled out up to five names the first time a source appeared.
- Up to 20 authors in one reference. List every author. For 21 or more, give the first 19, then an ellipsis (…), then the final author — and no ampersand before that last name.
- DOIs became URLs. Write https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx with no “doi:” label. For journal articles found in academic databases, you show the DOI or nothing — database URLs are no longer required.
- Ebooks are simpler. No “Kindle version” note and no database name; publisher and year are usually all you need.
- Web pages got a clearer shape. The site name follows the page title, and a retrieval date appears only when the content is designed to change over time, like a live price index.
- Same author, same year. Add lowercase letters — 2020a, 2020b — ordered by title, in both the reference list and every in-text citation.
APA in-text citation rules that cost marks
The in-text system is author-date: surname plus year, matching a full entry in the reference list. Direct quotations also need a page locator. The table shows the patterns for the author combinations that come up most.
| Who wrote it | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Okafor, 2021) | Okafor (2021) |
| Two authors | (Okafor & Bello, 2021) | Okafor and Bello (2021) |
| Three or more | (Okafor et al., 2021) | Okafor et al. (2021) |
| Organization, first mention | (Global Health Council [GHC], 2022) | Global Health Council (GHC, 2022) |
| Organization, later mentions | (GHC, 2022) | GHC (2022) |
| No author (article title) | (“Interview methods,” 2023) | “Interview methods” (2023) |
| Direct quote | (Okafor, 2021, p. 15) | Okafor (2021) wrote that “…” (p. 15). |
Three details trip people up. The ampersand belongs inside parentheses, but “and” belongs in your sentence: (Okafor & Bello, 2021) versus “Okafor and Bello (2021) found…”. Second, cite a work once per paragraph when the paragraph is clearly about it — you do not need (Okafor, 2021) after every sentence. Third, page numbers appear only for quotations: p. for a single page, pp. for a range, as in (Okafor, 2021, pp. 101–104).
Edge cases: no author, no date and secondary sources
Real bibliographies are messy. Some pages hide their author, some sources carry no date, and sometimes you can only reach a study through a textbook. APA 7 has a rule for each of these, and the generator above applies them automatically when you leave fields empty.
No author. The title moves to the author position. Standalone works keep their italics — Quarterly labour market report — while article or chapter titles take quotation marks. In the in-text citation, shorten a long title to its first few words.
No date. Write (n.d.) — “no date” — wherever the year would sit: (Okafor, n.d.). Use it only when the source genuinely shows no date; a copyright year in the footer counts.
Secondary sources. When Smith's study is quoted inside Jones's book and you cannot get the original, cite both in the text — (Smith, 2019, as cited in Jones, 2024) — but only Jones goes in the reference list. Treat this as a fallback, not a habit: tutors expect you to find the original.
Personal communications. Emails, interviews and messages are cited in the text only — (R. Okafor, personal communication, March 3, 2025) — and never appear in the reference list, because a reader cannot retrieve them.
Copy the patterns you need straight into your notes:
Formatting the reference list itself
The list runs alphabetically by the first author's surname; when a source has no author, alphabetize by the first significant word of the title. Every entry gets a hanging indent of 1.27 cm (half an inch) — the first line sits at the margin, the rest are pushed in. This is what one looks like:
Okafor, A. J., & Bello, T. (2021). Pricing under uncertainty in emerging markets. Sage.
Titles stay in sentence case, journal names keep their title-case capitals, and both keep their italics in the final document. Long URLs may break across lines — put the break before punctuation, never mid-slug. The list you build with the tool is already alphabetical when sorted that way, so the export drops straight into your document; you only need to re-apply italics and the hanging indent, because a .txt file cannot carry formatting.
Need the other styles too? The MLA 9 citation generator and the Harvard referencing generator follow the same fill-in pattern, and the annotated bibliography generator attaches notes to every source. All of them live in the free writing tools hub.
Short on time before the deadline?
If the references are the easy part and the paper is the hard part, a quoted, deadline-bound writer can take the draft off your hands — you keep the plan and the sources, and get a written draft to work from.
Frequently asked questions
Does an APA 7 reference include the publisher's city?
No. The 7th edition removed the place of publication. A book entry ends with the publisher's name only — “Guilford Press.” — with no city and no colon.
When do I write “p.” and “pp.”?
In in-text citations, only for direct quotations: (Okafor, 2021, p. 15) for one page, pp. 101–104 for a range. In the reference list, journal page ranges appear without p. or pp. at all.
How do I cite a source with no date or no author?
No date becomes (n.d.) where the year sits. No author means the title takes the first position of the reference, and your in-text citation uses a shortened version of the title — in quotes for articles, italics for standalone works.
What is the et al. rule in APA 7?
Any work with three or more authors is “first author et al.” from the first in-text citation onwards. Two authors are always named together. In the reference list, though, up to 20 authors appear in full — et al. is an in-text shortcut, not a reference-list one.
Where does the page number go in a narrative citation?
For a direct quote, the page locator goes in parentheses right after the quotation: Okafor (2021) called this “the anchor problem” (p. 15). The tool shows (2021, p. 15) inside the narrative form for convenience — both are accepted, but keep it consistent within one paper.
Is my reference list saved anywhere private?
It stays in your browser's local storage on this device — nothing is uploaded and no account exists. Clearing your browser data or pressing “Clear list” removes it, so export the .txt file before you close the tab.
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