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MLA Citation Generator

Generate correctly punctuated MLA 9th edition works-cited entries for websites, books, journals, and papers.

Privacy: your files never leave your device. All processing happens locally in your browser.

How to use

  1. 1.Choose your source type: website, book, journal article, or newspaper article.
  2. 2.Enter the author name(s), title, container (website/journal/newspaper name), date, and any volume, issue, page, or URL details that apply.
  3. 3.Copy the formatted MLA 9th edition works-cited entry and paste it into your document.

About MLA Citation Generator

This MLA citation generator produces works-cited entries that follow the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, released by the Modern Language Association in April 2021. Unlike older editions that relied on rigid source-type rules, MLA 9 keeps the container-based "core elements" model introduced in the 8th edition: every source is described with the same ordered set of facts — Author, Title of Source, Title of Container, Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, and Location — assembled with consistent punctuation. That is why one flexible template can handle a website, a book, a scholarly journal, and a newspaper without memorizing four separate formats.

The tool supports the four most common source types students and researchers cite: websites, books, journal articles, and newspaper articles. It applies the exact MLA rules that graders check for: the title of a standalone work (book, journal, website, or newspaper) is set in italics, while the title of a shorter part (an article or a web page) is wrapped in quotation marks with the closing period placed inside the quotes. Author names follow MLA's inversion rules — a single author is listed Last, First; two authors as Last, First, and First Last; and three or more collapse to Last, First, et al.

Dates are formatted the MLA way, in Day Month Year order, and months are abbreviated per the Handbook (Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.), while May, June, and July are spelled out in full. URLs are rendered without the http:// or https:// protocol, which MLA 9 recommends for print-style works-cited lists. Missing fields are simply skipped rather than throwing errors, so partial sources still generate a usable entry.

A frequent point of confusion is how MLA differs from APA. MLA emphasizes the author's full first name and places the publication date near the end of the entry, whereas APA uses initials and moves the year up front in parentheses. MLA also italicizes container titles and uses "vol." and "no." labels for journals, where APA uses a different volume-and-issue style. This generator is MLA-specific, so you get MLA conventions every time.

Everything is computed locally in your browser — nothing you type is uploaded, logged, or stored. Copy the finished citation with one click and paste it straight into your works-cited page.

Methodology & sources

Formatting follows the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook (Modern Language Association, 2021) and its container-based core-elements model: standalone-work titles are italicized, shorter-work titles are quoted with the period inside the closing quotation mark, author names use MLA inversion (Last, First / and First Last / et al.), dates are Day Month Year with MLA month abbreviations, and URLs are shown without the http(s):// protocol. Templates are cross-checked against style.mla.org and the Purdue OWL MLA guide.

Frequently asked questions

Which MLA edition does this generator follow?
It follows the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, published by the Modern Language Association in April 2021. MLA 9 uses the same container-based core-elements model as the 8th edition, so entries are built from one flexible template rather than separate rules per source type.
How does it format multiple authors?
One author is listed as Last, First. Two authors are listed as Last, First, and First Last (only the first name is inverted). Three or more authors are shortened to Last, First, et al., which is the MLA rule for three-plus contributors.
Should the URL include https:// in an MLA citation?
No. For a standard works-cited list, MLA 9 recommends dropping the http:// or https:// protocol and citing the address without it. This tool removes the protocol automatically. (The one exception in MLA is DOIs, which keep https://.)

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