Free MLA Citation Generator (9th Edition)
Paste a DOI, URL or title and get an MLA 9 Works Cited entry and in-text citation. No sign-up.
Look up a source or type its title, and the reference and in-text citation appear here.
Citing several sources? Build the whole list in the bibliography generator.
Another style? Citation generator for APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard and IEEE
MLA citation examples
Three real sources, formatted by the tool above, with the in-text citation for each.
- Book
- Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions, 2013.
- In-text citation: (Kimmerer 42)
- Journal article
- Kucsko, G., et al. "Nanometre-scale thermometry in a living cell." Nature, vol. 500, no. 7460, 2013, pp. 54–58. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12373.
- In-text citation: (Kucsko et al. 55)
- Web page
- "What are tides?" National Ocean Service. oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/tides.html. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.
- In-text citation: ("What are tides?")
MLA rules the tool applies
- Authors. Last name, first name. Two authors are joined with "and"; three or more become the first author and et al.
- Titles. Books in italics; articles and web pages in quotation marks, with the journal or website name in italics.
- Containers. Journal articles add vol., no., the year and pp. page range, in that order.
- Location. A DOI when there is one, otherwise the URL without https://.
- Web pages. The date you accessed the page goes at the end: Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.
- In text. Last name and page with no comma: (Smith 45), (Smith and Doe 45) or (Smith et al. 45).
More detail in our APA vs MLA comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Does this follow MLA 9th edition?
Yes. Entries follow the MLA 9 core elements: author, title of the source, container (journal or website), volume and number, date, pages and location (a DOI or URL).
How does an MLA in-text citation look?
Author's last name and the page, with no comma: (Smith 45). Two authors: (Smith and Doe 45). Three or more: (Smith et al. 45). With no author, use a short title in quotation marks.
Should I include the URL in MLA?
MLA 9 recommends a DOI when there is one, otherwise the URL without https://. The tool does both. For web pages it also adds the date you accessed them, which MLA suggests when a page has no publication date.
How do I make a Works Cited page?
Add every source to the bibliography generator with MLA selected. It sorts the entries alphabetically under the heading Works Cited, ready to paste.