Citation Formatter Free Online
Format academic citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE style automatically. Paste a URL or DOI and get a perfect citation. Export as PDF. Free.
About Citation Formatter
Format academic citations from PDFs and URLs in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE styles — instantly. Paste a DOI, URL, or upload a PDF and get a correctly formatted citation ready to paste into your bibliography.
Auto-extracts metadata from PDFs — author, title, journal, year, DOI — and formats the citation in your chosen style without manual entry.
Key Features
- APA 7th, MLA 9th, Chicago 17th, Harvard, IEEE, Vancouver styles
- Auto-extract metadata from uploaded PDFs
- DOI and URL auto-lookup via CrossRef
- Manual override for any field
- Copy with one click
- Export bibliography as .docx or .bib for LaTeX
- In-text citation format alongside full citation
- Batch format up to 50 citations
How to Use Citation Formatter Free Online
- Step 1: Paste a DOI, URL, or upload the PDF
- Step 2: Select your citation style
- Step 3: Review the auto-extracted metadata
- Step 4: Copy the formatted citation to your document
Who Uses This Tool
- Format references for a thesis bibliography
- Build a citation list for a research paper submission
- Generate a bibliography from a reading list of PDFs
- Convert a bibliography from APA to Chicago style
Why Choose PDF AI Tools
We've built PDF AI Tools to replace expensive desktop software like Adobe Acrobat for 95% of common document workflows — at zero cost to you. Unlike competitors who gate features behind paywalls, add watermarks, or limit file sizes, our tools are genuinely free and genuinely unlimited. Your privacy matters: files processed client-side in your browser never touch our servers, and even AI-powered features use encrypted, auto-deleting processing pipelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it handle journal articles, books, and websites?
Yes — all major source types: journal, book, book chapter, website, report, thesis, and more.
Can I export citations to BibTeX for LaTeX?
Yes — export a .bib file ready to include in your LaTeX document.
How accurate is auto-extraction from PDFs?
For PDFs with embedded metadata, 95%+ accurate; for scanned papers, OCR is applied first.
Can I format citations in bulk?
Yes — batch-format up to 50 citations at once and export as a bibliography .docx.