How to cite ChatGPT: APA, MLA and Harvard examples

If ChatGPT's words or ideas appear in your work, yes. The MLA Style Center says to cite a generative AI tool "whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate" content it created. APA's guidance, updated in September 2025, takes the same view. Using its sentences without saying so passes off text you did not write as your own. Our blog on types of plagiarism explains why that counts as plagiarism.

Not every use of ChatGPT is the same, though. Mahima had used it in four ways, and each one needed something different:

The MLA Style Center separates these too. Functional uses, such as editing or translating, should be acknowledged "in a note, your text, or another suitable location". Library guides that summarise MLA's 2025 revision add that using AI only to find sources does not need a citation: you cite the source itself.

On 9 September 2025, APA Style published new guidance on citing generative AI in three blog posts by Timothy McAdoo, Shelby Denneny and Chelsea Lee. It replaces APA's 2023 post on ChatGPT, now kept only as an archive. The author is always the company, here OpenAI, because an AI tool cannot be an author. There are two formats.

1. A specific chat. Most chat tools, ChatGPT included, can make a shareable link to a conversation. When you have one, cite that chat:

Mahima's brainstorming chat became: OpenAI. (2026, August 14). Survey questions for lake boatmen [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/share/ followed by the code in her link.

2. The tool in general. When you mean ChatGPT itself, or a chat link would be unhelpful or inappropriate, cite the tool. The year is the year the tool was most recently updated: OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com

The in-text citation is the same for both: (OpenAI, 2026) in brackets, or OpenAI (2026) in a sentence. Not (ChatGPT, 2026), which is what Mahima first wrote.

MLA works differently. The MLA Style Center first published its guidance on 17 March 2023 and revised it in August 2025. It does not treat the AI tool as an author, so the entry has no author at all. Instead, it starts with a description of what the tool made, usually your prompt.

1. Title of source.Describe what was generated, including the prompt, in quotation marks, followed by the word prompt.
2. Container.The name of the tool, in italics: ChatGPT.
3. Version.The version or model, as specifically as you can. The 2025 revision asks for the model name or number here.
4. Publisher.The company that made the tool: OpenAI.
5. Date.The date the content was generated.
6. Location.A stable, shareable link to the chat if the tool gives one; if not, the tool's general web address.

Mahima's friend Rukhsar, doing her MA in English at the same university, used MLA for a paper on lakes in Rajasthani folk songs. Her entry: "Explain the meaning of the lake in this folk song in simple English" prompt. ChatGPT, model name as shown in the tool, OpenAI, 3 Sept. 2026, chatgpt.com/share/ followed by her link's code.

In the text, MLA uses a shortened form of that title: ("Explain the meaning"). Cut long prompts to their first few words, so the reader can find the matching entry.

Harvard is not one style. Each university keeps its own version, and their advice on AI differs widely, as our blog on citation styles explains. Three examples:

• A full reference. The University of Greenwich's guide, based on Cite Them Right, lists the company as author with the year, the type of content in square brackets, the tool, your prompt, the date and the chat link with the date you accessed it. In the text: ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2026).
• A personal communication. The London School of Economics library says that where the output exists only for you, as with a private chat, you cite it as a personal communication, described in the text.
• In the text only. The guide from Queensland University of Technology says AI content is generally cited where it occurs in the text and left out of the reference list. If it does go in, it should link to a public copy of the chat.

So for Harvard, ask which guide your department follows and copy its AI example exactly.

Chicago. Chicago prefers notes. A footnote such as "Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, August 14, 2026," followed by the shared link, is usually enough, and Duke University's library guide notes that chats are usually left out of the bibliography.

IEEE. IEEE's author guidelines ask for AI-generated content to be disclosed in the acknowledgments section: name the AI system, identify the sections that use its content, and briefly explain how much it was used. Using AI only for editing and grammar falls outside that rule, but IEEE still recommends disclosing it. Conferences may add their own rules.

A ChatGPT answer changes every time you ask, and nobody else can open your private chat. That is why APA and MLA now prefer a shared link to the exact conversation.

1. Create the shared link.Use the share option in ChatGPT for the conversation you are citing, and copy the link it gives you.
2. Say what you asked.Give the prompt in your text when it matters, as APA suggests: "When asked to suggest questions for a survey of boatmen, ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2026) proposed..."
3. Quote like any other source.Exact words go in quotation marks with the in-text citation. A paraphrase still needs the citation.
4. Keep a record.Save your important prompts and answers. APA's guidance suggests putting them in an appendix or supplementary material when they matter for understanding your work.

Think before you share. Anyone with the link can read the chat, and a thesis in a repository such as Shodhganga can be read by anyone. Never share a chat containing unpublished data or participants' details.

A citation only says where words came from. It does not make them true. ChatGPT predicts likely text and can state wrong facts confidently. For a definition, a number or a scientific claim, examiners expect a source someone is answerable for: a textbook, a journal paper or an official report.

Dr. Bhandari told Mahima to find where the idea actually comes from. She found a definition of eutrophication in a limnology textbook in the department library, read the chapter, and cited the textbook instead.

The five references ChatGPT had suggested needed the same care. The MLA Style Center asks writers to "take care to vet the secondary sources" an AI tool cites. If you read the original paper yourself, cite that paper; ChatGPT was only the route you took to it. Mahima searched each title on Google Scholar. Three were real and relevant. One was real but about a lake in another state. One she could not find anywhere, so it did not go in.

Our blog on using AI in research honestly explains why chatbots invent references and how to check them.

A citation marks one passage. A disclosure is a short statement about how you used AI across the whole work. Some universities and journals ask for both.

APA's guidance notes that a citation alone may not explain how AI was used, and suggests describing substantial use in the text, the methods, the acknowledgments or an appendix. Where the disclosure goes depends on your university: a declaration page, the acknowledgments, or a line in the methods.

Mahima's disclosure, placed after her declaration page, read: "I used ChatGPT (OpenAI) to correct the grammar of Chapter 1 and to brainstorm draft questions for the boatmen's survey in Chapter 3, as described there. I checked and edited all text and remain responsible for the content of this dissertation."

Mahima's department follows APA, 7th edition. Here is what changed between the circled draft and the version she submitted.

Her reference list ended up with one ChatGPT entry. Most of her use needed a real source or a line of disclosure, not a citation. Once you sort what ChatGPT did for you, the citation itself is the easy part.

At her viva, the external examiner turned to Appendix B and asked why she kept only six of ChatGPT's twelve questions. She explained that four assumed the boatmen owned their boats, and two used words they never use. The examiner nodded and moved on.