How to Cite a Website

How to cite a website: identify who wrote the page (a person or the organization), when it was published or updated, the title of the specific page, the name of the website and its URL, then format these in your style. Add the date you visited when the page has no date or your style asks for it. Paste any link into the generator below to cite the website in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE or AMA.

Cite a website in any style

Paste the address of the page. A small server request reads only the page's public metadata (title, author tags, date, site name) and nothing you type is stored. Check the author and the date against the visible page, then switch styles in the menu as needed.

Enter the source details: Website or webpage

Fields marked with * are needed for a complete reference. Check every field: registry data can differ from what the style guide prints.

Authors

Leave the author empty when a page has no named author. Use Organisation for a company, agency or channel.

Lookups copy the capitalisation the publisher uses. APA writes article and book titles in sentence case, and AMA does the same for article titles: capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns.

Publication date(optional)

AMA prints "Published" or "Updated" before the date.

Use the day you read the page. Some styles print it for web sources.

Preview (APA 7th)

Fill in the title to see the formatted reference.

Your bibliography0 sources

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No sources yet. Cite a DOI, URL or ISBN, or enter a source manually, and it appears here.

A citation tool formats references; it does not check that you quoted or paraphrased the source correctly. Citation styles and locales from the Citation Style Language project (citationstyles.org), licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, used unmodified; a few documented corrections are applied to the output. Formatting by citeproc-js (CPAL 1.0 or AGPL 1.0). Source code.

The pattern at a glance

  • APA 7Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL
  • MLA 9Author. "Title of Page." Site Name, Day Mon. Year, URL.
  • Chicago (notes-bibliography)Author. "Title of Page." Site Name, Month Day, Year. URL.
  • Harvard (Cite Them Right)Author (Year) Title of page. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Finding author and date on a real website

Start at the top of the article: bylines usually sit under the headline. If there is none, scroll to the end, where many institutional pages print "Written by" or "Penulis" lines. University news pages are a good example; their metadata may contain an editor's login name while the visible text names the actual writer.

If no person is named, the organization behind the site is the author: the World Health Organization for its fact sheets, NIST for its programme pages. Do not use the web designer, the CMS or the domain name as an author.

For the date, look for "Published", "Updated", "Last reviewed" or a date under the title. The copyright year in the footer applies to the whole site and is not a page date. If nothing is shown, write no date (n.d.) and record your access date.

When a website citation is the wrong choice

  • Online newspaper or magazine article: use the newspaper or magazine format.
  • Journal article on a publisher's site: use the journal format with DOI.
  • PDF report hosted on a website: cite the report.
  • Online dictionary or encyclopedia entry: many styles have an entry format with the reference work as container.
  • Whole website mentioned in passing: APA lets you give the URL in the text without a reference entry.

Style differences at a glance

APA italicises the page title and puts the date after the author. MLA and Chicago put the page title in quotation marks; MLA writes the date day-month-year, Chicago month-day-year. Harvard (Cite Them Right) italicises the page title, puts the year after the author and always adds an access date for web sources. IEEE adds "Accessed:" and "[Online]. Available:", and AMA ends with "Accessed" and the URL without a final period.

Is the website worth citing?

A citation tells readers where to check a claim, so the source must be one they can trust and reach. Prefer pages from organizations with expertise in the topic, pages that name their authors and dates, and pages that cite their own evidence. A page that summarises a study should lead you to the study, which you can then cite directly.

Avoid citing pages that require a login, search result pages, and AI-generated summaries; none of them give readers a stable, checkable source. Archived copies help when a page is likely to change.

Field by field: the webpage form

Six fields cover every style for web pages.

FieldWhat to enterWhere to find it
AuthorPerson or organization.Byline, end of article, or site owner.
TitleTitle of the specific page.Main heading.
Website nameName of the whole site.Logo or footer.
DatePublication or update date shown on the page.Under the title or at the end.
URLExact page address.Address bar.
AccessedDate you viewed it.Your notes.

Website citation examples in four styles

Two web pages visited on 25 October 2026, each formatted by the engine in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 and Harvard.

University news article with a byline (MIT News)

APA 7th: Reference entry

Dizikes, P. (2026, October 23). At MIT, Martha Minow speaks on sustaining democracy, both by using and overcoming AI. MIT News. https://news.mit.edu/2026/martha-minow-speaks-on-sustaining-democracy-using-overcoming-ai-1023

In-text citation: (Dizikes, 2026)

MLA 9th: Reference entry

Dizikes, Peter. “At MIT, Martha Minow Speaks on Sustaining Democracy, Both by Using and Overcoming AI.” MIT News, 23 Oct. 2026, https://news.mit.edu/2026/martha-minow-speaks-on-sustaining-democracy-using-overcoming-ai-1023.

In-text citation: (Dizikes)

Chicago 18th (notes and bibliography): Reference entry

Dizikes, Peter. “At MIT, Martha Minow Speaks on Sustaining Democracy, Both by Using and Overcoming AI.” MIT News, October 23, 2026. https://news.mit.edu/2026/martha-minow-speaks-on-sustaining-democracy-using-overcoming-ai-1023.

First footnote: Peter Dizikes, “At MIT, Martha Minow Speaks on Sustaining Democracy, Both by Using and Overcoming AI,” MIT News, October 23, 2026, https://news.mit.edu/2026/martha-minow-speaks-on-sustaining-democracy-using-overcoming-ai-1023.

Harvard (Cite Them Right 12th ed.): Reference entry

Dizikes, P. (2026) At MIT, Martha Minow speaks on sustaining democracy, both by using and overcoming AI, MIT News. Available at: https://news.mit.edu/2026/martha-minow-speaks-on-sustaining-democracy-using-overcoming-ai-1023 (Accessed: 25 October 2026).

In-text citation: (Dizikes, 2026)

Peter Dizikes is named on the page, so he is the author and MIT News is the site. The comma inside the headline stays in every style.

Checked against the page itself (checked on 25 October 2026). Byline Peter Dizikes, MIT News Office, 23 October 2026.

Agency page with the organization as author (NIST)

APA 7th: Reference entry

National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2024, October 18). Quantum information science. NIST. https://www.nist.gov/quantum-information-science

In-text citation: (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2024)

MLA 9th: Reference entry

National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Quantum Information Science.” NIST, 18 Oct. 2024, https://www.nist.gov/quantum-information-science.

In-text citation: (National Institute of Standards and Technology)

Chicago 18th (notes and bibliography): Reference entry

National Institute of Standards and Technology. “Quantum Information Science.” NIST, October 18, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/quantum-information-science.

First footnote: National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Quantum Information Science,” NIST, October 18, 2024, https://www.nist.gov/quantum-information-science.

Harvard (Cite Them Right 12th ed.): Reference entry

National Institute of Standards and Technology (2024) Quantum information science, NIST. Available at: https://www.nist.gov/quantum-information-science (Accessed: 25 October 2026).

In-text citation: (National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2024)

No person is credited, so the agency's full name is the author and the short form NIST is the site name. The date is the publication date in the page metadata (18 October 2024); the page was modified later, which is one more reason to keep the access date.

Checked against the page itself (checked on 25 October 2026). Page metadata: published 18 October 2024, modified 22 August 2025.

Formatted by the same citation engine that runs the generator above (citeproc-js with the official CSL style file). Italics follow the style.

In-text citations for websites

Use whatever starts the reference entry, plus the year in author-date styles.

  • APA 7: (Dizikes, 2026)
  • MLA 9: (Dizikes)
  • Chicago author-date: (National Institute of Standards and Technology 2024)
  • Harvard: (Dizikes, 2026)
  • No author: Use a short version of the page title instead of the author.

Website citation mistakes

  • Citing only the URL. A bare link is not a reference; add author, title and date.
  • Footer copyright year as date. Use n.d. when the page itself has no date.
  • CMS username as author. Metadata can show a login name; use the byline on the page.
  • Website type for everything. Articles, reports and dictionary entries have better formats.

How to cite a website: FAQ

How do I cite a website with no author?

Use the organization that owns the site. If that is unclear, start the reference with the page title.

How do I cite a website with no date?

Write n.d. in APA and Chicago author-date, leave the date out in MLA, and add the date you accessed the page.

Do I need an access date?

Harvard, IEEE and AMA always use one for web pages; APA, MLA and Chicago mainly when the page has no date.

Is the website generator free?

Yes. The citation generator is free in every style and keeps your list only on your device.

Style guides used on this page

Rules on this page were checked against these pages on 25 October 2026.

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