Runs in your browser; auto-fill uses our server. Citations are formatted in your browser. Only if you use Auto-fill is the DOI, ISBN or web address you enter sent to our server, which looks it up with Crossref or Open Library, or reads that page's title, author and date. Nothing is stored.
Free MLA Citation Generator for Your Works Cited Page
The Tools Kit’s free MLA Citation Generator builds MLA 9th edition Works Cited entries for the three sources students cite most: websites, books and journal articles. Enter the author, title and publication details, or auto-fill them from a DOI, ISBN or web address, and the entry is formatted as you type. The first author is reversed, titles go in quotation marks or italics where MLA requires them, and the commas, periods and vol./no./pp. labels land in the right places. The matching in-text citation, such as (Smith 24), appears under the entry.
It is a quick way to cite a website in MLA, format a book for an English or humanities paper, or check a journal entry without memorizing MLA punctuation. Copy Citation keeps the italics when you paste into Word or Google Docs, and Add to list builds a Works Cited page you can copy in one go. There is no account and no limit on how many citations you make.
How to Make an MLA Citation
- 1
Auto-fill or choose the source type
Paste a DOI, ISBN or web address into the auto-fill box and click Fill in, or pick Website / Web Page, Book, or Journal Article and fill in the form yourself.
- 2
Enter or check the author names
Type each author as First Last, separating several authors with commas, for example Jane Smith, John Doe. The tool reorders the first author to Last, First for you. After auto-fill, check the names and capitalization.
- 3
Fill in the title and other details
Add the title plus whatever else you have: site or journal name, publisher, URL, volume, issue, pages, year and access date. The citation appears as soon as a title is entered.
- 4
Copy the citation or add it to your list
Click Copy Citation to paste the entry with its italics into Word or Google Docs, or click Add to list to build your Works Cited page and copy it all at once.
Auto-fill uses the details the source publishes, which are not always right. Check every field, especially author names and title capitalization, because titles are used as found. The saved list is already sorted alphabetically, and Copy all keeps the italics and hanging indent. In your paper, double-space the Works Cited page as MLA requires.
MLA Format Examples: Website, Book and Journal Article
MLA 9 builds every entry from the same core elements in a fixed order (author, title of source, title of container, version and number details, publisher, date and location) and skips any element a source does not have. Here is what the generator produces for each source type:
- Website: Smith, Jane. “How Bees See Color.” National Geographic, 2024, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/bees. Accessed 14 July 2026.
- Book: Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Knopf, 1987.
- Journal article: Smith, Jane, and John Doe. “Reading in the Digital Age.” Journal of Literacy Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45-52.
The generator shows National Geographic, Beloved and Journal of Literacy Studies in italics, because they are the larger works (a website, a book and a journal), and the italics carry over when you copy. The page and article titles stay in quotation marks. The publisher city is not part of an MLA 9 book entry, so it is left out even if you fill in the Publisher City field.
The Year Published field is inserted exactly as typed, so you can enter a full date such as 5 Mar. 2024 when a web page or article gives one. If you need APA or Chicago instead, the APA citation generator and the Chicago citation generator use the same fields, and the multi-style citation generator switches between MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE and more from one form.
How to Cite Multiple Authors in MLA
Type every author as First Last and separate them with commas (semicolons, “and” or “&” also work). The generator then applies the MLA 9 author rules:
- One author: Last, First. A middle name or initial stays after the first name.
- Two authors: the first reversed, then “and” and the second in normal order: Smith, Jane, and John Doe.
- Three or more: only the first author, reversed, followed by “et al.”: Smith, Jane, et al.
Do not type a name as Smith, Jane: because commas separate authors, that entry would be read as two people. If a source has no named author, leave the field empty and the entry starts with the title, which is how MLA alphabetizes authorless works.
MLA In-Text Citations and Formatting the Works Cited List
Each Works Cited entry pairs with a short in-text citation in the body of your essay: the author’s last name and the page number in parentheses, such as (Smith 24), or (Smith and Doe 24) for two authors and (Smith et al. 24) for three or more. The generator shows this in-text citation under the entry: type the page number in the Page box and copy it. With no author, it uses the title instead, the same word the entry starts with.
Click Add to list for each source and the generator builds your Works Cited list, sorted alphabetically, in this browser only. The same list appears on the APA and Chicago pages in their own format. Copy all pastes every entry with italics and a hanging indent, and you can also download the list as a .txt or BibTeX (.bib) file.
Before you submit, it is worth running the essay through a grammar checker to catch punctuation slips around quoted material, and confirming you are inside the assignment’s length limit with the word counter. If you are working a quotation into your own words, the paraphrasing tool can suggest a rewrite, but a paraphrase still needs an MLA in-text citation and a Works Cited entry.
Common uses
- Building a Works Cited page for an English, literature, history or other humanities essay
- Citing a website or online article in MLA format for a class assignment
- Formatting a book or scholarly journal article as an MLA 9 entry
- Double-checking the punctuation and author order of a citation you wrote by hand
- Preparing sources for a research paper you will later polish with the essay checker
More tools for researching and writing papers are collected on the writing and citation tools page.
MLA citation terms explained
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Works Cited | The alphabetical list of sources at the end of an MLA paper; each entry is what this generator builds |
| Core elements | The MLA 9 sequence of author, title of source, title of container, contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date and location |
| Container | The larger work that holds a source, such as the website that hosts a page or the journal that publishes an article |
| Location | Where the source is found inside its container: a URL for a web page, a page range (pp.) for an article |
| et al. | Latin for "and others"; MLA uses it after the first author when a source has three or more authors |
| Hanging indent | Formatting where the first line of each entry starts at the margin and following lines are indented half an inch |
| In-text citation | The short parenthetical reference in your sentences, such as (Smith 24), that points to the full Works Cited entry |
Frequently Asked Questions
An MLA 9 website entry runs: Author. "Title of Page." Website Name, Date, URL. Accessed Date. Paste the web address into the auto-fill box, or choose Website / Web Page and enter the author, page title, site name, URL and year or date. Add a Date Accessed if the page has no publication date or may change. Example: Smith, Jane. "How Bees See Color." National Geographic, 2024, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/bees. Accessed 14 July 2026.
An MLA 9 book entry is Author. Title. Publisher, Year. Choose Book and enter the author, title, publisher and year, or auto-fill from the ISBN. Example: Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Knopf, 1987, with Beloved in italics. MLA 9 does not use the publisher city, so the generator leaves the city out even if you fill it in.
Choose Journal Article and enter the authors, article title, journal name, volume, issue, year and page range. The generator formats it as Author. "Article Title." Journal Name, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45-52, with the journal name in italics. If the article has a DOI, paste it into the auto-fill box to fill the fields. The journal form has no DOI or URL field, so add the DOI to the end of the entry yourself if you want it shown.
List the first author as Last, First, then add "and" and the second author in normal order: Smith, Jane, and John Doe. Type both names as First Last separated by a comma and the generator applies this order automatically.
MLA 9 lists only the first author, reversed, followed by "et al." For example, a source by Jane Smith, John Doe and Ana Ruiz becomes Smith, Jane, et al. The generator shortens any list of three or more authors this way.
No. Type each name as First Last, such as Jane Smith. The generator treats commas as separators between authors, so typing Smith, Jane would be read as two different people. It reverses the first author to Last, First on its own.
Yes. The book title, website name and journal name are shown in italics, and Copy Citation copies them as rich text, so the italics stay when you paste into Word or Google Docs. Article and web page titles go in quotation marks. Titles are used as you type them, so check the capitalization.
MLA 9 treats the access date as optional. It is recommended when a web page has no publication date or is likely to change. Fill in Date Accessed and the generator adds it to the end of a website entry as Accessed 14 July 2026; leave it blank and it is omitted. Auto-filling a web address sets it to today.
Yes. The Year Published field accepts any text and places it in the citation exactly as typed, so you can enter a full MLA-style date such as 5 Mar. 2024 when your source gives one.
Yes. The in-text citation appears under the Works Cited entry, with a Page box and its own Copy button. Enter page 24 and you get (Smith 24), (Smith and Doe 24) for two authors, or (Smith et al. 24) for three or more.
Yes. Click Add to list after each citation. The list is titled Works Cited, sorted alphabetically and kept only in this browser. You can copy it all with italics and hanging indents, download it as .txt or BibTeX, remove single entries or clear it.
It is free with no signup or limit. Citations you type are formatted in your browser and are not sent to a server. If you use auto-fill, the DOI, ISBN or web address goes to our server, which asks Crossref or Open Library or reads the page; nothing is stored. Your saved list stays in this browser.
Reviewed by Raja Jahangir · Last reviewed: October 7, 2026
How do you cite a book in MLA format?
An MLA 9 book citation follows the pattern: Author last name, first name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year. For example - Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Knopf, 1987. The title is italicised, and the works cited entry takes a hanging indent of half an inch.
How do you cite a website in MLA format?
An MLA 9 website citation runs: Author. "Title of Page." Website Name, Publisher, Date, URL. The page title sits in quotation marks and the site name is italicised. MLA 9 no longer requires an access date unless the page has no publication date of its own.
What changed between MLA 8 and MLA 9?
MLA 9 keeps the MLA 8 container system and adds guidance rather than replacing it: fuller instruction on inclusive language, annotated bibliographies, and in-text citations, plus clearer rules for DOIs and URLs. Citations built correctly under MLA 8 remain valid under MLA 9.