How to Cite a Website in APA, MLA and Chicago

First, check what you are actually citing

Plenty of things you find through a browser are not “websites” for citation purposes. A journal article you read online is cited as a journal article, with its DOI. A report from a government agency or charity, downloaded as a PDF, is cited as a report. A story on a newspaper's site is cited as a news article. The webpage format is for content that exists only as a page on a site: an organization's explainer, a museum's collection page, an online encyclopedia entry, a guide like this one.

Getting this right first saves effort, because the other formats are often simpler and more convincing to your reader. It is also the moment to ask whether the page is worth citing at all. Many instructors will not accept an open wiki or an unsigned page as evidence; use it to find better sources, then cite those. The guide to finding credible sources covers what to look for.

What to record from a webpage before you close it

Collect these details while the page is open. Coming back later is how citations end up with a dead link and a guessed date.

1. 1Author: a named person in the byline, or the organization responsible for the page, usually named in the footer or the About page.
2. 2Page title: the heading of the specific page, not the site's name or the text on the browser tab.
3. 3Website name: the name of the overall site, such as a museum's or an agency's.
4. 4Date: the publication or “last updated” date shown for that page. Ignore the copyright year in the footer, which usually covers the whole site.
5. 5URL: the address of the page itself, not a search-results link or one that only works while you are logged in.
6. 6Access date: the day you viewed it, needed when the page has no date or is likely to change.
7. 7A saved copy: print the page to PDF, so you can show what it said if it changes.

How to cite a website in APA (7th edition)

APA's pattern is Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL. The page title is italicized in sentence case, the site name is plain, and there is no period after the URL. If the author and the site name are the same organization, give the name once, as author.

In-text, use the author and year: (Nguyen, 2024). For an organization with a familiar abbreviation, give both the first time, (World Health Organization [WHO], 2024), then (WHO, 2024). With no author, use the page title in italics and title case; with no date, (Nguyen, n.d.). Webpages rarely have page numbers, so for a quotation give a paragraph number or section heading. The APA citation guide covers the rest of the system. The reference examples below use an invented page at an example.org address; italics cannot be shown here, so italicize each page title in your own list:

• Named author: Nguyen, T. (2024, March 5). How tides work. Coastal Science Notes. https://www.example.org/tides
• Organization as author: Coastal Research Council. (2023, June 12). Sea level basics. https://www.example.org/sea-level
• No date: Nguyen, T. (n.d.). How tides work. Coastal Science Notes. Retrieved September 12, 2026, from https://www.example.org/tides
• No author: How tides work. (2024, March 5). Coastal Science Notes. https://www.example.org/tides

How to cite a website in MLA (9th edition)

MLA's pattern is Author. “Title of Page.” Title of Website, Publisher, Day Month Year, URL. The page title goes in quotation marks and the website name in italics. Leave out the publisher when it is essentially the same as the website name. MLA abbreviates most month names (Jan., Mar., Sept.) and generally drops the “https://” from the URL.

In-text, MLA uses the author's last name alone, (Nguyen), because webpages have no page numbers, and you should not invent them. With no author, use a shortened title in quotation marks: (“How Tides Work”). The MLA citation guide explains the core-elements template behind these entries.

• Named author: Nguyen, Thu. “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes, 5 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/tides.
• No date: Nguyen, Thu. “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes, www.example.org/tides. Accessed 12 Sept. 2026.
• No author: “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes, 5 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/tides.
• Organization as author and publisher: “Sea Level Basics.” Coastal Research Council, 12 June 2023, www.example.org/sea-level.

How to cite a website in Chicago (17th edition)

In Chicago, the page title goes in quotation marks and the website name is set in roman type, without italics, unless it is the name of a publication such as a newspaper. Use the publication date if there is one, write “last modified” before an update date, and give an access date only when the page shows no date at all.

When a page has no named author, start with the organization that owns the site, or with the page title if that reads more clearly. The Chicago style citation guide covers notes, bibliographies and author-date in full.

• Full note: 1. Thu Nguyen, “How Tides Work,” Coastal Science Notes, March 5, 2024, https://www.example.org/tides.
• Short note: 2. Nguyen, “How Tides Work.”
• Bibliography: Nguyen, Thu. “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes. March 5, 2024. https://www.example.org/tides.
• No date: Nguyen, Thu. “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes. Accessed September 12, 2026. https://www.example.org/tides.
• Author-date reference list: Nguyen, Thu. 2024. “How Tides Work.” Coastal Science Notes. March 5, 2024. https://www.example.org/tides. In-text: (Nguyen 2024).

Website citation rules side by side

Use this as a quick check once you have drafted an entry and want to confirm each detail matches your style.

Special cases: news sites, blogs, reports and pages that change

A few kinds of online content have their own formats, and using the right one makes your list easier to check:

• News stories: in APA, an article from a newspaper with a print edition is cited like a newspaper article, while a story on an online-only news site is cited as a webpage. MLA and Chicago cite both as articles, with the publication's name in italics.
• Blog posts: APA treats the blog like a periodical, with the post title plain and the blog name in italics. MLA puts the post title in quotation marks and the blog name in italics.
• Reports and PDFs from a site: cite them as reports, with the organization as author and any report number.
• Pages that change often, such as a live data dashboard or a wiki: give an access or retrieval date, and if a permanent or archived version exists, cite that instead.