How do I cite ChatGPT & Other AI Tools in APA Style?
Answer
As AI changes and develops, the answer to this may change or become outdated.
This is APA’s guidance as of September 9, 2025 now that chats can be shared and have unique URLs:
- Treat the company that created the AI tool as the author
- Follow this with the year, month day of the chat
- Title of the chat in italics follows this
- Followed by a description of chat in brackets like [Generative AI chat]
- Then the name of the tool
- Finish with a link to the shareable link to the chat if available.
Company Name. (Date of Chat). Chat title [description of chat]. AI Tool Name. URL of the chat
OpenAI. (2023, March 3). How to make chili [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. chat.openai.com/chatfasldkjfl;asjdfo;kjnfk
In-text, use the company as the author and include the date:
OpenAI (2023) generated the followed when prompted to “Describe a rose in 2 paragraphs”
OR
When prompted to “Describe a rose in 2 paragraphs”...(OpenAI, 2023).
The full text of the AI generated content can be placed in an appendix.
If you have a long prompt or multiple prompts, speak with your professor about abbreviating it or placing the full text of the prompts in an appendix.
For more information, see APA’s full announcement.
If you need further help, contact a librarian.