If you wrote your last essay, book review, or term paper with the help of ChatGPT, you will then have to do the citation. But you have to be very careful with what you find on the first page of Google. It was in August 2025 that MLA revised its guidance on citing generative AI. Plus, on September 9, 2025, APA published three new posts with updated citation guidance. In other words, there’s a huge risk of using totally outdated formats that can still be found in many citation guides and even some library pages. We made this guide to inform you about all the existing rules (the newest), with copy-paste examples for both styles.
One thing before the formats: check your syllabus first. Citation styles tell you how to credit ChatGPT, not whether you were allowed to use it. If your instructor banned AI for the assignment, a perfect citation won't help you – and if the rules feel unclear, our guide to using AI writing tools ethically walks through where the lines usually sit.
Do You Actually Need a Citation, or Just an Acknowledgment?
Both APA and MLA now draw the same line, and it's the question to answer before anything else:
- You need a full citation when ChatGPT’s output ends up in your work – whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate any content it created, whether text, image, or data.
- You need an acknowledgment, not a citation, when you use it as a helper. MLA says to acknowledge functional uses of the tool, like editing your prose or translating words, in a note or in your text. APA is pretty similar: cite specific chats when AI-generated ideas, content, or information, but if you only used it to edit, polish, or organize your own writing, you can simply mention the tool without a formal citation.
So if ChatGPT wrote some paragraph and you somehow paraphrased it, you now have to cite it. If it fixes your comma splices, just add a sentence something like “I used ChatGPT (GPT-5) to check grammar in this essay” in a footnote.
How to Cite ChatGPT in APA (September 2025 Format)
Here’s what has changed: chat is not something unretrievable for APA anymore. Taking into account the fact that ChatGPT now generates shareable links, it’s no wonder that the current approach treats an Artificial Intelligence-based chat like any other authored, dated, titled source (author, date, title, source) instead of the old workaround. The company is the author because quoting ChatGPT is like sharing an algorithm's output, so you credit the algorithm's author.
Citing a specific chat (most common for essays)
AI Company Name. (Date of chat). Title of chat [Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of chat
Example:
OpenAI. (2024, December 15). Feminist data theories [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68c481654884819186280eeae38f2508
Use ChatGPT’s “Share” button to create that URL. The chat title is the one ChatGPT assigns in your sidebar (you can rename it to something descriptive).
Citing the tool in general
Use this format when you’re discussing ChatGPT itself, not one conversation:
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (GPT-5) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/
APA in-text citations
In-text citations work like any corporate author: (OpenAI, 2024) in parentheses, or “OpenAI (2024)” if you name it in the sentence. And when you quote a response, APA advises including the prompt you used. Plus, it tells you describing how you used the tool in your methodology section or introduction.
How to Cite ChatGPT in MLA (August 2025 Format)
MLA uses its template of core elements, and MLA does not recommend treating AI tools as authors. Instead, the entry starts with the title. After the August 2025 update, we can see the key changes: a stable, shareable URL to the conversation is now preferred over a general link, and the model name or number (like GPT-4o) should be included in the Version element.
MLA works cited format
"Title of prompt" prompt. ChatGPT, version number, publisher, Day Month Year the content was generated, shareable URL
Example:
“Describe the use of symbolism in the poem ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ by T. S. Eliot” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 7 Apr. 2025, chatgpt.com.
Breaking that down by element:
- Title of Source. This is where your prompt comes in quotation marks, followed by the word “prompt” or a short description of what was generated.
- Title of Container. The name of the Artificial Intelligence tool that was used in italics.
- Version. The specific model, as precisely as possible, e.g., the GPT-4o model of ChatGPT.
- Publisher: OpenAI.
- Date. It means the date the cited content was generated.
- Location. The stable URL for the conversation, where possible. Otherwise, the general URL of the tool.
MLA in-text citations
For the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title in parentheses. Example: Eliot’s poem uses symbolism to show alienation and anxiety in modern society (“Describe the use of symbolism”).
What About Chicago Style?
In this case, the situation is different. Cite content created by Artificial Intelligence in a note or parenthetical citation. However, you are not supposed to include it in your bibliography. The reason is that a private AI conversation is closer to a phone call than a published source. The 18th edition also requires authors to be 100% honest about how they used the tool, whether in the text, a preface, or a similar spot. A typical footnote names ChatGPT, OpenAI, and the date you generated the text. If your course uses Chicago, you have to talk to your tutor in order to confirm the exact note format. And if you’re citing a mix of AI and human sources in one paper, our guide on how to cite an essay with AI and human sources covers how the two work together.
You Stay Away from the Following Mistakes
- Citing ChatGPT as a factual source. Citation styles tell you how to credit AI output. But you have to keep in mind that they don't make it a credible source. We all know that ChatGPT is not the one to trust in all cases. That’s why you shouldn't cite it as a source of factual information. It is better to cite it when its output is genuinely part of your work, and back facts with real sources.
- Reusing the sources ChatGPT “found” without opening them. MLA warns against using sources cited by AI tools without reading them yourself, both because AI can create fake citations and because it can misrepresent real ones. Every source in your reference list should be one you actually opened — our guide on how to find academic sources for your essay covers faster ways to do this properly, and here’s how to get correct citations from AI when you do use it in your research workflow.
- Losing the conversation. Both styles now want chat URLs. Generate the share link the day you use the response, and save the transcript – you may need to show it if your work is questioned.
Quick Checklist Before You Submit
- Ensure your tutor is OK if you use AI for this assignment
- You know the exact citation (AI content in your work) vs. acknowledgment (AI as helper)
- Include the model (GPT-4o, GPT-5) – required in MLA, good practice in APA
- You included shareable chat link where possible
- You verify every factual claim and source independently
- You saved the transcript
If formatting citations by hand is the part that slows you down, the citation formatting feature handles APA and MLA styles automatically – you still verify the sources; it handles the punctuation.
