Free Citation Checker
Paste your paper and every in-text citation, footnote and reference entry is checked against each other and against your style. Mistakes are marked in the text, most fix in one click, and nothing leaves your browser.
Paste a paper to check that:
- every citation has an entry in the list, with the same names and year;
- every entry in the list is cited somewhere;
- et al., "and" or "&", commas and page numbers follow the style;
- numbered references run in order of first citation;
- footnotes use ibid and cross-references the way the style requires.
Checked in your browser. Your paper is never uploaded or stored.
Citations meet the list
Every citation is matched to an entry, and every entry to a citation, with near misses like a misspelt name caught and corrected.
Footnotes in order
Ibid, "(n 3)" cross-references and note numbering are followed note by note, the way a marker reads them.
Fix in one click
Each mistake with one right answer has a fix, Fix all applies them together, and Undo takes any of them back.
Need to fix an entry itself?
Paste the DOI, ISBN or link into the citation generator and get the entry and its in-text citation formatted correctly.
Free citation generatorCheckers for each style
Questions
What does the citation checker check?
It matches every in-text citation or footnote to the reference list, and every entry in the list back to a citation. It then checks each citation against the rules of your style: author names and years, et al., "and" or "&", commas, page numbers, the order of works in one citation, the order of the list, numbering in order of first citation, ibid and cross-references in footnotes, and the format of DOIs.
Is it free, and is my paper private?
Yes to both. There is no account and no limit. The checking runs entirely in your browser, so your paper is never uploaded, stored or used for anything.
Can it fix the mistakes for me?
Most of them. Each problem that has one right answer, such as a missing comma, "&" in running text, a misspelt author or a list out of order, comes with a one-click fix, and Fix all applies every one at once. Problems that need your judgement, such as a quotation with no page number or an entry nobody cites, are explained instead. Undo takes back any change.
Which styles can it check?
APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 (notes and author-date), Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE, Vancouver, AMA, ACS, Nature, ASA, APSA, OSCOLA, the Bluebook and AGLC4. It detects the style from your citations, and you can change it.
Does it check that the sources are real?
Not yet. It checks that your citations and your list agree and follow the style, not the details of each source. To get an entry right in the first place, paste its DOI, ISBN or link into the free citation generator.
How do I check footnotes?
Paste the text with its note numbers, then the notes themselves under a "Footnotes" or "Notes" heading, one note per line starting with its number, then the bibliography. The checker follows the notes in order, so it can tell whether ibid refers to one source and whether "(n 3)" points to the note that first cites the work.