MLA citation generator

Choose the source type, enter its details and copy the reference.

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MLA citation generator processes your input in this browser. Inputs and results are excluded from analytics. Recent tools save tool names, visit counts and last-visit times. Saved tools store only their names. Draft saving is optional and stays on this device; delete saved text with the draft controls. Loading text from a URL is optional and contacts that server; its URL and your IP address are visible to the server. An optional “Use in” action keeps a handoff in this tab. The next tool removes it on arrival and ignores it if more than a minute has passed.

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Source type

Citation style

Title

Authors, year and publication details

Authors: family name, given name; next author

Publication year (if known)

Publisher

Website or journal title

Journal volume

Journal issue

Page range

Source URL

DOI

Access date (YYYY-MM-DD, if required)

Reference

In-text citation or note

Check your course or publisher’s style requirements. Plain-text exports do not preserve italics or hanging indents.

Citation formatting by citeproc-js, Frank Bennett, with styles from Citation Style Language.

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Keyboard shortcuts

Updated 2026-09-26

Make a MLA citation

Choose Book, Website or Journal article before filling in the source details. Enter each person as family name, given name; separate authors with semicolons. Use an organization’s full name for a corporate author.

Leave an unknown publication year blank. The selected style decides how missing dates, authors and online details appear. Check the finished reference against the source.

The MLA example keeps the author’s given name and puts the publisher before the year.

Next: Citation generator

A worked example

For Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, published by T. Egerton in 1813, the MLA plain-text reference is: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. T. Egerton, 1813.

Before you use the result

Institutions and journals can require variants of a style. These are the bundled CSL styles for APA, MLA, AMA, Harvard Cite Them Right 12 and Chicago author-date or notes (17th edition). The output covers one reference at a time, so numbering and repeated-author disambiguation across a bibliography need review. Plain-text copying does not preserve italics or hanging indents. No source lookup is performed.

Next: Word counter

Cite this page

Citation style

ToolOctopus. “MLA citation generator.” Updated 2026-09-26. https://tooloctopus.com/mla-citation-generator.

Add an access date if your instructions require one.

Citation formatting uses citeproc-js by Frank Bennett and Citation Style Language styles. Licence and source code.