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Cite ChatGPT correctly in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 17, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver. OpenAI and the tool's URL are already filled in; add the version from the model picker, the date and your prompt, and copy the reference entry with every in-text form. Built on the guidance APA, MLA and Chicago published for citing ChatGPT.
The version is in the product's model picker or settings. The prompt makes MLA, Chicago and Harvard entries complete; APA works without it.
OpenAI. (n.d.). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/
(OpenAI, n.d.)
The company is the author, so it carries the citation; the model is named in your sentence.
OpenAI (n.d.)
When prompted, ChatGPT generated... (OpenAI, n.d.)
APA suggests describing the prompt in the text or method section; longer transcripts can go in an appendix.
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Open the model picker or settings in ChatGPT and note the exact version you used. AI tools change weekly, so the version is what makes your citation reproducible, the same way an edition dates a book.
Record when the text was generated and what you asked. MLA and Chicago build the citation around the prompt itself, and every style dates the exchange somewhere.
Pick APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE or Vancouver and copy the entry with italics intact, plus the in-text forms and the note or disclosure wording the style expects.
APA answered the ChatGPT question directly in 2023, and the APA output here matches that answer: OpenAI as author, version in parentheses, bracketed descriptor, tool URL.
Company and URL are filled in. What is left is exactly what only you know: which model answered, on which date, to which prompt.
MLA leads with your prompt, Chicago writes a footnote and skips the bibliography, IEEE adds an acknowledgment. Each output changes shape to match its manual.
From dated releases to GPT-5, ChatGPT's version naming has changed repeatedly. The version field takes whatever the model picker shows and puts it where each style wants it.
When the style manuals finally addressed generative AI in 2023, every one of them used ChatGPT as the worked example. The APA Style blog's post was literally titled with it, and the pattern it set, OpenAI as author, the model italicized, the version in parentheses, a bracketed descriptor and the tool's URL, became the template other tools now borrow. The MLA Style Center used a ChatGPT prompt about The Great Gatsby; the Chicago Manual's Q&A wrote its footnotes around a ChatGPT pizza-dough recipe. To cite any AI tool today is, in practice, to apply rules first drafted for this one.
The detail that has shifted since those examples is versioning. Early ChatGPT releases were dated, which is why APA's example reads (Mar 14 version); today the model picker shows names like GPT-5. The rule survived the renaming: record the exact system that generated your text, in the form the product displays. The model picker at the top of your chat is where that answer lives, and it belongs in the version field together with the date of the conversation, since the same prompt can answer differently between releases and even between days.
Two boundaries are worth keeping crisp. ChatGPT cannot be an author of your paper: the ICMJE, COPE and publishers including Nature and Science all hold that an AI cannot take responsibility for the work, so it is cited as a source or disclosed as a tool, never credited as a colleague. And papers ChatGPT recommends are not sources it wrote: verify each one against a real database before it enters your reference list, because language models invent convincing references, complete with plausible DOIs.
For the verification workflow, see the hallucinated-citation audit. Citing other AI tools too? The AI citation generator covers ten model families, with Claude and Gemini each having a dedicated page.
One ChatGPT conversation, taken apart in six styles. Hover any coloured part of the reference entry or the in-text variations to see what it is and the rule behind it.
OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (GPT-5 version) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/
The pattern the APA Style blog published for ChatGPT, applied to any AI model. Alphabetize under the company's name in the reference list.
(OpenAI, 2026)
OpenAI (2026)...
When prompted, ChatGPT generated... (OpenAI, 2026)
APA recommends describing the prompt in the text or method section; a full transcript can go in an appendix.
(OpenAI, 2026)
AI output has no page numbers, so no p. locator is possible; make clear in the sentence that the words are the model's.
Hover or tap any coloured part for what it is and the rule behind it.
Six conventions that separate a correct ChatGPT citation from an improvised one.
In APA and the styles that follow its logic, the company takes the author position: it is credited with the algorithm that produced the text. ChatGPT itself is the italicized title of the work.
The same prompt answers differently on GPT-5 than it did on the dated releases APA's example cited. The version in parentheses is what lets a reader know which system spoke.
MLA builds the whole entry around the prompt, Chicago quotes it inside the footnote, and Harvard names it in the description. Keep your prompts; they are bibliographic data now.
APA dates the version; MLA and Chicago date your conversation. The generator keeps the year and the generation date as separate fields so each style can pick the one it wants.
A ChatGPT footnote never gets a bibliography line, in either Chicago system. If your reference software insists on one, that is the software being wrong, not the manual.
A citation covers ChatGPT's words in your text. A disclosure statement covers ChatGPT's role in your process. Journals increasingly want both, in the methods or acknowledgments.
The same exchange formatted for every style the generator supports. Note where the prompt appears, where it does not, and which styles keep ChatGPT out of the reference list entirely.
Reference list entry
OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (GPT-5 version) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/
Works Cited entry
"Explain the difference between correlation and causation for a first-year statistics student" prompt. ChatGPT, GPT-5 version, OpenAI, 14 July 2026, chatgpt.com.
Footnote (Chicago cites AI in notes only)
ChatGPT, response to "Explain the difference between correlation and causation for a first-year statistics student," OpenAI, 14 July 2026.
In-text citation (no reference list entry)
(ChatGPT, 14 July 2026)
Reference list entry
OpenAI ChatGPT (2026) ChatGPT response to prompt 'Explain the difference between correlation and causation for a first-year statistics student', 14 July.
Reference list entry
[1] OpenAI, ChatGPT (GPT-5 version) [Large language model], 2026. [Online]. Available: https://chatgpt.com/ (accessed 14 July 2026).
Reference list entry
1. ChatGPT (GPT-5 version) [Large language model]. OpenAI; 2026 [cited 14 July 2026]. Available from: https://chatgpt.com/
All seven come from the generator above. The prompt and dates are examples; substitute the details of your own conversation.
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