Chicago Format & Citations Generator

Generate perfect Chicago citations (CMOS) and format your papers instantly with our free Chicago citation generator. Automatically create footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, and properly formatted documents in Chicago 17th edition style. Whether you need Chicago Notes-Bibliography or Author-Date citations for books, journals, or websites, our tool handles it all—no manual formatting required. Trusted by students, historians, and researchers for accurate, professional citations.

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Chicago Generator

Adds Real citations. Real, verifiable references. In Chicago format.

Preserves Citations Formats References MS Word & Google Doc

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Feature / Model Comparison: Chicago Format Generator vs Cite & Reference in Chicago

Feature / Model	Chicago Format Generator (Existing Citations)	Cite & Reference in Chicago (Plain Text)	Premium Plan Benefit
Best For	Papers with existing citations that need proper Chicago formatting	Plain text drafts that need citations and references added	Unlimited conversions with both models
Input	Essay/paper with citations or footnotes already present	Raw text without citations or bibliography	No daily limits
Output	Formatted .docx with proper Chicago 17th edition structure, bibliography, margins, spacing, footnotes	Adds verifiable citations with complete bibliography entries	Priority processing
Bibliography Generation	Creates bibliography based on existing citations/footnotes	Generates real, verifiable bibliography entries from scratch	Advanced formatting options
Formatting	Applies 1-inch margins, double-spacing, footnotes/endnotes, hanging indents, page numbers	Full Chicago 17th edition formatting plus citation integration	Custom style preferences
Citation Systems	Supports both Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date systems	Full support for both Chicago citation systems	-
Edge Cases	If citations exist without bibliography, attempts to generate bibliography (accuracy may vary)	If citations already exist, replaces them with accurate, verifiable ones	-

Eduwriter's Chicago Citation Generator

Unlock how the Chicago Citation Generator features of Eduwriter are versatile. Designed for educational purposes, this free tool saves time and helps ensure that all scholarly works you produce conform to Chicago guidelines within minutes.

Key Features

Fast and Accurate: Quick citation generation with perfect accuracy saves you hours of manual formatting.
Dual Citation Systems: Supports both Notes-Bibliography and Author-Date citation styles.
User-Friendly Interface: Effortless navigation with a simple design that anyone can understand without difficulty.
Distraction-Free: Ad-free environment helps you focus on creating citations without interruptions.
Current Standards: Fully compliant with Chicago 17th edition guidelines (2017).
Complete Formatting: Automatically applies proper margins (1 inch), double-spacing, footnotes/endnotes, and page numbers.
Bibliography Automation: Generates properly formatted bibliography pages with alphabetical ordering, hanging indents, and correct punctuation.
Footnote Management: Creates properly numbered footnotes with full citations or shortened citations as appropriate.

Who Can Benefit from Chicago Citation Generator?

This is a question we get frequently from our users. The answer is simple: anyone involved in academic writing or historical research for work or school can benefit greatly from this tool. To clarify, here are some users who can take advantage of this tool to make their work easier:

History Students: Writing research papers, essays, and historical analyses requiring Chicago style.
Graduate Students: Preparing theses, dissertations, and scholarly articles in humanities.
Literature Students: Analyzing texts and writing literary criticism papers.
Art History Students: Documenting sources for papers on art, architecture, and visual culture.
Historians and Researchers: Publishing papers in history journals that require Chicago format.
Theology Students: Writing papers and research requiring detailed source documentation.
Business Students: Using Chicago style for business history and organizational studies.
Librarians and Archivists: Creating properly formatted research documents and finding aids.
Authors and Writers: Documenting sources for historical nonfiction and academic books.

Using Chicago Citation Generator is As Easy As ABC

If you're still on the fence about whether to give our Chicago citation generator a try, we're ready to give you plenty of reasons to join us. If we could describe it in one word, it would be: "Ease". Many students and writers find Chicago style (also known as CMOS = Chicago Manual of Style) intimidating with its footnotes and detailed bibliography requirements, and we understand that concern.

But that's not the case with our Chicago citation generator. The interface demonstrates intuitive practicality that users immediately appreciate. There's no fluff here. Everything is functional, from pasting your text to downloading the finished file with properly formatted footnotes and bibliography!

Your Path to Citing in Chicago with Chicago Citation Generator

General Guide to Chicago Style of Citation

Chicago style, established by The Chicago Manual of Style (now in its 17th edition), is used primarily in History, Literature, and the Arts to reference all sorts of content—from books, journals, and articles to websites, archives, and primary sources. Compliance with Chicago details helps coordinate academic papers, making them authoritative, well-documented, and research-friendly among the scholarly community. What makes the process easier is the Chicago Citation Generator developed by Eduwriter, which generates citations that reflect these standards accurately.

Chicago Citation Systems

Two Systems for Different Disciplines

Chicago offers two distinct citation systems, and it's important to choose the right one for your field:

Notes-Bibliography System (NB):

Used primarily in: History, Literature, Arts, Theology.
In-text format: Superscript numbers (¹, ², ³) that correspond to footnotes or endnotes.
End-of-paper list: Bibliography (alphabetical listing of all sources).
Most flexible for citing: Diverse source types including archives and primary sources.

Author-Date System:

Used primarily in: Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, some Business fields.
In-text format: Parenthetical citations (Author Year, Page).
End-of-paper list: Reference List (alphabetical listing with year after author name).
Similar to APA style: But with Chicago-specific formatting.

Eduwriter's Chicago Citation Generator supports both systems and automatically formats citations according to your chosen style.

Chicago Notes-Bibliography System

How Footnotes and Endnotes Work

The Notes-Bibliography system uses superscript numbers in the text that correspond to notes at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of the paper (endnotes). The first citation of a source uses a full note, while subsequent citations use shortened notes.

Full Note (First Citation):

Full Note (First Citation):
Author First Name Last Name, Title of Book (Place of Publication: Publisher, Year), page number.

Example:
Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996), 65.
Shortened Note (Subsequent Citations):
Last Name, Shortened Title, page number.

Example:
Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, 127.

Important Notes:

Footnote numbers: Appear after punctuation marks.
Full notes: Used for the first citation of each source.
Shortened notes: Used for all subsequent citations of the same source.
Ibid.: Acceptable but not required in the 17th edition.

Chicago Bibliography

How to Format a Bibliography

The bibliography appears at the end of your document and lists all sources cited in your paper. It should:

Heading: Use the title “Bibliography” centered at the top of the page.
Alphabetical order: List all sources by the author's last name.
Hanging indentation: First line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches.
Spacing: Single-spaced within entries, with a blank line between entries.
Author names: Invert only the first author's name (Last, First).

Bibliography entries include author, title, and publication information. Eduwriter's Chicago Citation Generator correctly formats this information, guaranteeing all entries are properly styled.

Chicago Author-Date System

How to Use Author-Date Citations

The Author-Date system uses parenthetical citations in the text, similar to APA style but with Chicago-specific formatting:

In-text citation format:

(Author Year, Page)
Example: (Smith 2019, 45)

Narrative citation:

Author (Year, Page) notes that...
Example: Johnson (2020, 23) argues that...

Multiple authors:

Two authors: (Smith and Jones 2018, 34)
Three or more: (Martinez et al. 2021, 67)

The reference list at the end follows the same format as bibliography but with the year immediately after the author's name.

Citation Examples

A research paper is enriched through different source types in Chicago format, yet detailed consistency is necessary for proper citations.

Books

Single Author (Footnote):
1. David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 89.
Single Author (Bibliography):
McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Multiple Authors (Footnote):
2. Lynn Hunt, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, 6th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2019), 234.
Multiple Authors (Bibliography):
Hunt, Lynn, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie G. Smith. The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2019.

Journal Articles

Print Journal (Footnote):
3. Sarah T. Roberts, "Commercial Content Moderation: Digital Laborers' Dirty Work," Media Studies 3, no. 2 (2016): 12–36.
Print Journal (Bibliography):
Roberts, Sarah T. "Commercial Content Moderation: Digital Laborers' Dirty Work." Media Studies 3, no. 2 (2016): 12–36.
Online Journal with DOI (Footnote):
4. Joshua Rothman, "The Equality Conundrum," New Yorker, January 13, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1234/example.
Online Journal with DOI (Bibliography):
Rothman, Joshua. "The Equality Conundrum." New Yorker, January 13, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1234/example.

Websites

Website with Author (Footnote):
5. Rebecca Solnit, "The Loneliness of Donald Trump," Literary Hub, June 1, 2017, https://lithub.com/the-loneliness-of-donald-trump/.
Website with Author (Bibliography):
Solnit, Rebecca. "The Loneliness of Donald Trump." Literary Hub, June 1, 2017. https://lithub.com/the-loneliness-of-donald-trump/.
Website without Author (Footnote):
6. "Privacy Policy," Google, last modified November 15, 2023, https://policies.google.com/privacy.
Website without Author (Bibliography):
"Privacy Policy." Google. Last modified November 15, 2023. https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Primary Sources and Archives

Archival Material (Footnote):
7. Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, January 21, 1812, Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.
Archival Material (Bibliography):
Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John Adams, January 21, 1812. Adams Family Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston.

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Why Educators Recommend Our Chicago Citation Generator

“Chicago style can be overwhelming for students with its footnotes and detailed bibliography. This tool simplifies the process while maintaining accuracy. I recommend it to all my history students.”

— Dr. Michael Rodriguez, History Professor, University of California

“As someone who teaches graduate seminars, I appreciate tools that help students focus on their research rather than formatting. EduWriter's Chicago generator is reliable and produces professional results.”

— Prof. Elizabeth Chen, Literature Department Chair

“I've tested numerous citation tools over the years. This Chicago citation generator handles even complex sources like archival materials accurately. It's become an essential resource for our students.”

— Dr. James Thompson, University Librarian and Archivist

The Ultimate Chicago Style FAQ for Students

The Format Generator is used for papers that already have citations or footnotes but need correct document structure (1-inch margins, double-spacing, proper footnote formatting, bibliography with hanging indents). The Cite & Reference model is used for plain text drafts to add new, verifiable, real citations and a complete bibliography from scratch.

Use Notes-Bibliography if you're writing in History, Literature, Arts, or Theology—it's the most common Chicago system. Use Author-Date if you're in Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, or if your instructor specifically requests it. When in doubt, check your assignment requirements or ask your instructor.

A file ensures complex Chicago formatting rules—such as proper footnote numbering, hanging indents on bibliography entries, and correct margins—are perfectly preserved, which standard copy-pasting often breaks. Footnote formatting is especially difficult to maintain when copying text manually.

Yes. Upload your essay to the Cite & Reference in Chicago model. Our AI analyzes your text, identifies concepts requiring source support, and adds verified Chicago 17th edition citations with complete bibliography entries automatically.

It depends. Chicago style itself doesn't require a title page, but your instructor might. If no title page is required, include your name, instructor's name, course, and date in the upper-left corner of the first page. Many instructors do prefer a separate title page—always check assignment requirements.

The heading “Bibliography” should be centered at the top of the page. Entries should be single-spaced with a blank line between each entry, listed alphabetically by the author's last name, and use hanging indentation of 0.5 inches.

Footnotes appear at the bottom of each page. Endnotes appear together at the end of the paper before the bibliography. Both use the same citation format. Footnotes are more common and convenient for readers. Choose one format and use it consistently throughout your paper.

Use a full note the first time you cite a source, including all publication details. Use shortened notes (author’s last name, shortened title, and page number) for all subsequent citations of that source. Example: First citation: “1. Smith, History of Rome, 45.” Later citation: “5. Smith, History of Rome, 89.”

“Ibid.” is acceptable but no longer preferred. The Chicago Manual now recommends using shortened notes instead because they are clearer for readers. If citing the same source consecutively, simply use another shortened note.

Begin the note with the article or page title in quotation marks, followed by the website name, publication or modification date, and the URL. Example: “Climate Change Facts,” NASA, January 15, 2024, https://www.nasa.gov/climate.

In footnotes, list up to three authors; use “et al.” for four or more. In the bibliography, list up to ten authors; use “et al.” for eleven or more. Example footnote: “1. Smith, Jones, Johnson, et al., Title, 45.” Example bibliography: “Smith, John, Mary Jones, Robert Johnson, et al. Title. Publisher, 2020.”

Include the author (if known), document type or title, date, collection name, repository, and location. Example: “Letter from Abraham Lincoln to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.”

Yes. For online sources, include the full URL. If a DOI is available, use it instead. For sources that may change over time, include the access date. Chicago 17th edition does not require an access date for stable or permanent sources.

Place page numbers in the top-right corner or bottom-center of each page. Use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3). If you have a title page, count it as page 1 but do not display the number—the first page of the text becomes page 2.

Turabian is a student-focused adaptation of The Chicago Manual of Style. Citation formats are nearly identical, but Turabian includes additional guidance for writing academic papers, theses, and dissertations. In most cases, following Chicago 17th edition ensures full compatibility with Turabian.

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