Chicago vs APA vs MLA: Which Citation Style to Use, With Side-by-Side Examples

Chicago, APA and MLA all record the same facts about a source: who made it, what it is called, where it appeared and when. What differs is the order of those facts, how names and titles are written, and how you point to the source from your sentence. This guide shows which style each subject usually expects, then formats the same four sources in all three so you can see the differences directly.

The examples follow the current editions: The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (2024), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition, and the MLA Handbook, 9th edition (2021).

Which citation style should you use?

The short answer is the one your instructor, department or journal names. If the assignment leaves it open, the field you are writing in is the best guide:

There is a rough logic to the split. Author-date styles put the year in the sentence, which helps in fields where readers care how recent a finding is. MLA puts the page number there instead, which suits close reading of texts, where the location of a passage matters more than the date. Chicago notes keep the sentence uncluttered and can handle unusual sources such as archival documents, which the manual gives as the reason many in the humanities prefer the system.

Chicago is really two styles. If a history professor says "Chicago", they usually mean notes-bibliography, but check before you start, because switching later means rewriting every citation.

The same sources in all three styles

Each table below shows one source as it appears in the list at the end of the paper (Chicago: bibliography; APA: reference list; MLA: works cited) and as a citation in your text. Italics in the entries matter, so keep them when you copy.

A book

Chicago's notes-bibliography entry and MLA's works-cited entry look identical for a simple book. The differences appear with more complex sources.

A journal article with a DOI

Look at the article title. APA writes it in sentence case with no quotation marks; Chicago and MLA use title case inside quotation marks. APA also italicizes the volume number, puts the issue in parentheses with no space, gives the full page range (1818–1859) and ends the DOI with no period.

A web page

Corporate authors are handled differently. When an organization is both the author and the publisher, MLA skips the author and starts with the title, so the in-text citation becomes a short title. APA leaves out the site name when it matches the author. Chicago lists the page under its owner in the bibliography but leads with the page title in a note.

A YouTube video

Videos show the clearest split in who counts as the author. APA uses the account that uploaded the video and adds "[Video]" after an italicized title. MLA and Chicago name the speaker or creator and record the uploader separately ("uploaded by", "posted by"). To quote a specific moment, all three let you add a time stamp in the citation.

In-text citations compared

Three details catch people out. APA puts a comma between author and year and uses "p." or "pp."; Chicago author-date uses no comma before the year and no "p."; MLA uses neither a year nor "p.". APA writes "&" inside parentheses but "and" in running text. MLA reserves "et al." for parentheses and the works-cited list, and suggests "and others" when you name the authors in your sentence.

Chicago notes-bibliography works differently. A superscript number follows the clause or sentence, and the note gives the full citation the first time and a shortened note (Yu, Interior Chinatown, 48.) after that.

Key differences at a glance

All three use a hanging indent and alphabetical order in the final list. The capitalization and author-name rows cause most of the errors when a student switches styles for a new course, because those changes affect every entry.

Common mistakes when switching styles

• Keeping APA's sentence case in MLA or Chicago. "Inclusion work: Children of immigrants" is correct only in APA. Switch to title case for the other two.
• Adding "p." in MLA. MLA in-text citations are just the author and the number: (Yu 45).
• Using initials in MLA or Chicago. Both want the name as printed on the source, normally the full first name.
• Mixing Chicago's two systems. Footnotes and parenthetical author-date citations in the same paper are wrong in either system.
• Copying the publication city. The 18th edition of Chicago no longer requires a place of publication, and APA 7 and MLA 9 omit it for books too.
• Leaving "Retrieved from" in APA. The 7th edition dropped it for most sources. Use it only with a retrieval date for content that changes.

Format your references in any style

Writing citations by hand is where these differences become mistakes. The ToolsVerse citation generator formats one set of source details in APA, MLA or Chicago, so switching styles between courses means changing a setting rather than rewriting your list. If you only need one style, use the APA citation generator for the 7th edition with the matching in-text citation, the MLA citation generator for 9th edition works-cited entries, or the Chicago citation generator for notes-bibliography and author-date. They run in your browser, are free and need no account.

For the details behind any rule here, the publishers' own guides are the final word: the Chicago citation quick guide, APA Style and the MLA Style Center. For a step-by-step guide to Chicago footnotes and bibliography entries, see how to cite in Chicago style.

FAQ

Is APA or MLA easier?

Neither is simpler overall. MLA in-text citations are shorter, with no year and no "p.", while APA reference entries follow a fixed order of author, date, title and source. The easier style is the one your field uses, because your readings will already model it.

Can I use Chicago instead of APA or MLA?

Only if your instructor or publisher allows it. Styles are chosen per course or journal, and a well-formatted paper in the wrong style is usually marked as a formatting error.

What is the main difference between APA and Chicago?

APA uses author-date citations in the text with the year right after the author's name, and sentence-case titles. Chicago offers two systems: footnotes with a bibliography, or an author-date system similar to APA but with title-case titles, full first names and no comma between author and year.

Do I need a title page in APA, MLA or Chicago?

APA student papers use a title page. MLA does not require one and puts a heading on the first page instead. For Chicago, practices vary, and many instructors follow Turabian's guidelines for student papers, so check your assignment.