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6 Best AI Citation Generators You Can Actually Rely On

ByDhruvir Zala Updated on
Best AI citation generator

Citations suck. They’re the academic equivalent of doing your taxes.

But you can’t escape them.

They are like the academic version of death and taxes—inevitable and slightly painful.

Enter AI citation generators!

They actually enjoy formatting bibliographies. However, not all AI citation tools are created equal.

That’s why I’ve suffered through testing a metric shit-ton of these things to bring you the cream of the crop.

Ready to stop hating your bibliography?

Let’s do this.

How we picked

Accuracy is king, no doubt about it. I’ve found that the best tools nail those tricky formatting details every single time. We’re talking perfectly placed periods, immaculate italics, and spot-on sequencing.

Accuracy means squatting if you can’t figure out how to use the darn tool. That’s why user-friendliness was high on my list. The top contenders had to be intuitive enough for even the most tech-phobic among us.

You know how it goes – one professor wants APA, another swear by MLA, and your thesis advisor is all about Chicago style. The best AI citation generators don’t break a sweat over this. They offer countless citation styles, letting you switch between them faster.

We looked for options that offer solid value, whether they’re free or come with a reasonable price tag.

Our Top Recommendation

1. CitationGenerator.AI (by Paperguide)

CitationGenerator.AI

Pros

  • Being completely free without ads or hidden fees makes it accessible to all users, particularly beneficial for students or researchers with limited resources.
  • Support for multiple citation styles (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, AMA, Turabian, etc).
  • The ability to generate citations from URLs, titles, ISBNs, or DOI’s significantly speeds up the citation process, especially useful for large bibliographies.
  • Web-based nature allows seamless transitions between devices, benefiting researchers who work across multiple locations or devices.
  • Protects against data loss, which is particularly valuable for extensive research projects or users with unreliable hardware.

Cons

  • Unlike some paid tools, it doesn’t directly integrate with popular reference managers like Mendeley or Zotero.
  • It does not offer more advanced features found in some paid tools, such as collaborative bibliography building or generative AI.
  • The lack of a clear revenue model raises questions about long-term sustainability and continued development of the tool.


CitationGenerator.AI is a free online tool that automatically generates accurate citations for academic papers.

Most people hate citing sources. It’s not hard to see why. Traditional methods are time-consuming and error-prone.

Many existing citation tools are either expensive or riddled with ads.

CitationGenerator.AI takes a different approach.

First, it’s completely free. No hidden fees, no premium tiers, and no ads.

The core feature is its Autocite function. You input a URL, title, ISBN, or DOI, and it generates a citation instantly. This saves time, but more importantly, it reduces the chance of error.


Accuracy is crucial in academic writing. CitationGenerator.AI formats citations according to the latest guidelines for each style.

It supports APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, AMA, and Turabian, among many others.

Different citation style options

CitationGenerator.AI encrypts and securely stores all data. Your research remains your business.

It even offers multi-level folders for categorizing citations. This is particularly useful for long-term projects or researchers working on multiple papers simultaneously.

Lists and folders creation in CitationGenerator.AI

Import and export capabilities set CitationGenerator.AI apart from many competitors. You can move citations in and out using formats like BibTeX, Word, and Google Docs.

Features

CitationGenerator.AI features
  • Instant Citations with Autocite: Enter a URL, title, ISBN, or DOI, and watch as your perfectly formatted citation appears in seconds.
  • Pinpoint Accuracy: Generate citations that adhere to the latest style guidelines.
  • Always Free, Zero Ads: Access all features without spending a dime or battling pop-ups.
  • Anytime, Anywhere Access: Create and manage citations from any device with the internet.
  • Citation Style Variety: Switch seamlessly between APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and more. Adapt to any citation style your heart (or professor) desires.
  • Citation Portability: Import and export citations in BibTeX, Word, and Google Docs formats.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.
  • Other: Chrome extension.

Pricing

As of writing this, CitationGenerator.AI is free forever.

SIDENOTE: If you are looking for a full-fledged AI research assistant and a reference manager software, check out Paperguide by the same founders of CitationGenerator.AI.

2. Afforai

Afforai

Pros

  • Combines citation generation, reference management, and AI research assistance.
  • Access to 10,000+ citation styles.
  • Integrates top-notch AI models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Azure GPT-4 Omni.
  • Collaborative features for team projects.

Cons

  • Might be overkill if you just need quick citations.
  • The full feature set requires a paid plan.
  • Currently, web-app only.


Afforai is the overachiever of citation tools. It is a reference manager that’s had a few too many espressos.

You throw in your PDFs, Word docs, and even PowerPoints, and it organizes them faster than you can say “procrastination.”

Afforai dashboard

It’s got tags and folders to keep your digital academic life orderly.

But Afforai isn’t content with just being a fancy file cabinet. Its Notebook feature turns your static PDFs into interactive playgrounds. Highlight text, add sticky notes, and chat with AI about specific sections.


The real kicker is Afforai’s AI research assistant. It comes in three flavors:

Document Retrieval for chatting with multiple papers at once, Semantic Scholar for digging through 200 million academic papers, and Google Search for when you need to venture into the wild west of the internet.


It’s powered by some serious AI muscle like Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Azure GPT-4 Omni. These aren’t your grandma’s chatbots – they can actually understand your research jargon.

When it comes to citations, Afforai’s got you covered with over 10,000 styles.


Overkill? Maybe.

But you’ll never again break into a cold sweat wondering if you’ve correctly formatted your Chicago-style footnotes.

Afforai even lets you invite research buddies, share libraries, and mention each other in notes.

Features

Afforai Citation Generator
  • Afforai Notebook: Annotate, highlight, and take notes like a boss. Add sticky notes and even chat with AI about specific parts of your paper.
  • Citation Generation: With 10,000+ styles, you’ll never be caught in a citation faux pas again.
  • Collaboration Tools: Invite team members, share libraries, and mention colleagues in notes. Because misery loves company, especially during lit reviews.
  • AI Model Variety: Choose from models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3 Haiku, and Azure GPT-4 Omni.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.

Pricing

Afforai pricing

Afforai comes with a forever free plan with 20 AI queries/day and 500 MB storage. It offers three paid plan options:

  • Student plan: $4.99/month ($3.99/month annually). Unlimited AI queries and 5 GB storage.
  • Professional plan: $9.99/month ($7.99/month annually). 10 GB storage and access to advanced AI models.
  • Unlimited plan: $19.99/month ($16.99/month annually). For when you’re ready to go all-in on your academic empire.

Afforai discount alert: use the coupon code DHRUVIR at checkout for a 10% discount on your first payment. You’re welcome.

Try Afforai

FURTHER READING: Afforai Review: Smarter Than Your Average Citation Tool

3. Scite

Scite

Pros

  • Smart Citations feature is like a gossip column for research papers. “Did you hear what Study A said about Study B?”.
  • Search Citations Statements are scary powerful. It’s like Google but for nerds with PhDs.
  • Scite’s Chrome extension is handy whenever you come across any research paper or information that seems suspicious.
  • Zotero and Mendeley integration. Scite plays nice with your existing citation frenemies.
  • AI research assistant. For when you’re too lazy to read all those papers yourself.

Cons

  • User interface that screams “I was designed by a scientist, not a designer”.
  • Limited citation formats. Hope you like APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE, or BibTex. If not, tough luck.
  • Might be overkill if you just need to cite that one book your professor mentioned once.


Scite is a context-rich AI academic research assistant with a not-so-great user interface and navigation.

One of the uniquely good things about Scite is how it helps you understand what research articles say about each other.

This is thanks to their Smart Citations feature. It provides further context about the citation including, but not limited to, supporting and contrasting evidence for the cited claim.

Smart Citations feature in Scite

In fact, they have a dedicated Chrome extension for this.

Scite Chrome browser extension

Additionally, their Search Citations Statements feature is powerful.

Search Citation Statements in Scite

It lets you search by title, author(s), keywords, DOI, etc., and searches for the most relevant factual answers from a database of over 1B citations and 187M publications.


Inside the search results page, there is a lot to play around with.

For instance, you can filter the results based on:

  • Author
  • Year
  • Journal
  • Affiliation
  • Topics
  • Etc.

Additionally, you can see the number of publications:

  • Supporting the research
  • Mentioning the research
  • and contrasting the research.

With a click of a button, you can create a citation for any search result. Right now, Scite only allows generating citations in the following formats:

  • APA
  • MLA
  • Chicago
  • Harvard
  • Vancouver
  • IEEE
  • and BibTex.


If you would like to get a general understanding of your search query, Scite enables you to automatically analyze all the search results with a click of a button.


What’s more? Scite’s AI research assistant.

You type in your question as a natural language input. It comes up with an output backed by relevant citations.

It’s simply brilliant!

If you want to check the reliability of a specific paper’s references, paste a paper URL or upload the document and Scite will do the job.

Finally, Scite integrates with Zotero and Mendeley, making it easier to manage citations and literature.

Features

  • Smart Citations: Get the tea on what research papers are saying about each other. Supporting evidence, contrasting views, and all the academic drama.
  • Search Citations Statements: Find factual answers from over 1B citations and 187M publications.
  • Result Filtering: Sort through the academic noise by author, year, journal, affiliation, and more.
  • Automatic Analysis: Click a button, and Scite does the heavy lifting of analyzing all search results.
  • AI Research Assistant: Ask questions in plain English, and get answers backed by citations. It’s like Siri for scholars, minus the attitude.
  • Paper Reliability Checker: Upload a paper and let Scite tell you if those references are legit or if the author just cited their cat.
  • Chrome Extension: Adds Smart Citations to your browsing experience. Because regular web surfing isn’t nerdy enough.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.
  • Chrome Extension.

Pricing

Scite pricing

Scite offers a 7-day free trial, after which you can continue to use it at $20 per month (or $12 per month on annual billing).

Try Scite

4. Petal

Petal

Pros

  • One of the simplest citation generators.
  • Tackles the citation problem head-on with support for 10,000+ styles.
  • Doesn’t discriminate between sources – treats academic papers and podcasts with equal respect.

Cons

  • Can be overwhelming for some with a lot of citation styles and input options.
  • It’s difficult to navigate between the citation generator and the document analysis platform.
  • As of writing this, Petal is a web-only app.


Petal is an easy-to-use AI-powered document analysis and citation generation tool.

Petal comes with two different sub-products:

  1. Document analysis platform.
  2. Citation generator.
Two core features of Petal

We’ll focus on the latter as it aligns with our topic goal here.

Like Afforai, Petal also supports and enables you to create citations with over 10,000 citation styles.

Petal citation style options

However, Petal works in a slightly different way.

You start by creating a list. The list is just a folder where all your sources can be maintained. You can create different lists as you see fit.

Lists in Petal

The best part?

Petal’s source input options are diverse. You have everything from a journal article to a webpage to a podcast (even a song).


Once your citation is created, it will be saved in your list.

You can then edit, copy, and export the citation. And even create in-text citations.


Petal’s citation generator is as easy as it can get.

Features

  • Citation Organization: Lists for organizing your sources without pulling your hair out.
  • Citation Generator: Because life’s too short to manually format citations.
  • Document Analysis: Turns the drudgery of literature review into something almost enjoyable with generative AI.
  • Multi-source Input: From scholarly articles to that one insightful tweet, if it exists, Petal can cite it.
  • In-text Citation Creator: Ends the “where does this citation go again?” internal debate.
  • URL Metadata Capture: Grabs source info and create citations super quickly.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.
  • Chrome extension.

Pricing

Petal pricing

Petal offers a free individual plan with 1 GB of cloud storage, unlimited access to citation generation features with export limitations, and limited AI features.

Now, there are different paid plans for Individuals and Teams.

For Individuals, the paid plans range from $2.99 per month to $29.99 per month.

For Teams, there are two paid plan options:

Petal pricing for teams
  1. Starter ($59.99 per month).
  2. Pro ($119.99 per month).

NOTE: The above-mentioned price for Petal is for monthly billing. If you go with the yearly billing, you get a flat 15% discount on all plans.

Try Petal

5. SciSpace

SciSpace

Pros

  • User-friendly interface with no registration required for basic use.
  • Supports over 2,551 citation styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard.
  • AI-powered features for enhanced research and writing assistance.
  • Chrome extension is available for convenient access.

Cons

  • Limited support for certain source types (e.g., videos, lectures, images).
  • Lacks advanced search options like DOI or ISBN lookup.


SciSpace (formerly known as TypeSet) is primarily an AI chat interface for scientific and academic research.

However, it is an all-in-one platform to assist researchers with literature reviews, document management, and academic writing.

Before we get into SciSpace’s citation generation, a quick mention of all of its other core features.

SciSpace has a built-in scholarly paraphrasing tool and academic AI detector.

Next, it also comes with a Chrome extension and a GPT inside ChatGPT.

Furthermore, SciSpace also has a dedicated feature for conducting efficient literature reviews and chatting with your PDFs.

There is also this AI assistant that enhances the reading experience by providing summaries, definitions, and explanations of complex concepts found within research papers.

Finally, there is also a Notebook feature. It’s a blank page that allows you to write your research paper with/without the help of AI.

And then we have the SciSpace citation generator.

SciSpace AI citation generator

SciSpace supports a wide range of citation styles (over 2551), including APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, and Harvard, among others.

SciSpace citation styles

The source input options are fewer than Petal but include all the essentials like:

  • Journal Article
  • Book
  • Webpage
  • Patent
  • Report
  • Etc.
SciSpace source input options

However, it lacks support for certain types of sources like videos and images, which may limit its utility for some.

SciSpace allows both manual and automatic data retrieval. You can search for citations by URL or title, but it does not support searching by DOI or ISBN.

Features

  • AI Chat Interface: Your personal research assistant who understands scientific jargon. Ask questions, and get explanations.
  • Literature Review Sidekick: Efficiently comb through research papers while the AI provides summaries and explanations.
  • Citation Generator: Support for over 2,551 citation styles.
  • Document Management: The Library feature keeps your research organized with customizable workspaces.
  • Notebook Feature: Write your magnum opus with or without AI assistance.
  • Academic AI Detector: Ensures your work stays authentically human.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.
  • Chrome extension.
  • GPT (inside ChatGPT).

Pricing

SciSpace pricing

SciSpace comes with a basic plan and premium plan at $30 per month ($12 per month if billed yearly).

Either way, their citation generator is free to use.

Try SciSpace

SciSpace discount alert: Use code DHRUVIR40 to get 40% off on SciSpace’s annual plan. Use code DHRUVIR20 to get 20% off on SciSpace’s monthly plan.

6. QuillBot

QuillBot's citation generator

Pros

  • User-friendly interface with a simple citation generation process.
  • Highly accurate with support for over 7,000 citation styles.
  • Integrates with popular writing platforms (Google Docs, Microsoft Word).
  • Covers a wide range of source types (books, articles, websites, etc).
  • Saves citations to your account for future use.

Cons

  • Not as comprehensive as dedicated citation management tools.
  • Not as advanced as some competitors in terms of AI research assistance.


QuillBot is an AI-powered writing assistant that offers a suite of tools to help improve your writing.

QuillBot’s Citation Generator allows you to quickly and easily create accurate citations in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles for a variety of source types, including:

  • Books
  • Journal articles
  • Websites
  • News articles
  • Videos
  • And more.

QuillBot’s citation generator is highly accurate, supporting over 7,000 citation styles.

You can generate citations either by uploading your PDF, citing manually, or searching by title, URL, DOI, ISBN, or keywords.

It is user-friendly, with a simple interface that makes it easy to find sources and generate citations.

Generating citations in QuillBot

You can also save citations to your account for future use.

While it may not be as advanced as Afforai and others, it is the simplest to use and gets the job done.

Features

  • Multiple Input Methods: Generate citations by uploading PDFs, manual entry, or searching by title, URL, DOI, ISBN, or keywords.
  • Save and Organize: Store citations in your account for easy access and management.
  • Writing Assistant Tools: Access to additional features like grammar checking and paraphrasing.

Platform Availability

  • Web app.
  • Mobile app: Android and iOS (iPhone).
  • Desktop app: Windows and macOS.
  • Browser extensions: Chrome and Edge. Safari coming soon.

Pricing

QuillBot pricing

If you want to use Quillbot only for citation generation, then it’s free. If you want to use other QuillBot’s features, then it’s freemium.

QuillBot premium costs $9.95 per month (or $4.17 per month if billed yearly).

Try QuillBot

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Citations are a pain, but these tools can make them slightly less hellish.

Now go and complete those unfinished bibliographies.

Or don’t.

I am not your professor.

DISCLOSURE: Some links in this blog post may be affiliate links. This means that if you make a purchase or sign up for a service through these links, I may earn a small commission. However, I want to assure you that this does not affect the price you pay. I only recommend products and services that I genuinely believe in. Learn more.

Dhruvir Zala

Article by
Dhruvir Zala

I started this blog to provide brutally honest reviews of useful Generative AI tools and business productivity software. My objective is to help businesses choose exceptional products.

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