Skip to Main Content

APA Citation & Format (7th ed.)

APA Guidance for Citing AI Generated Content

APA (7th ed.) Guidelines for Citing Generative AI — Updated September 2025

Guidelines: https://apastyle.apa.org/blog/cite-generative-ai-references 

The September 2025 update to citing AI tools and AI chats now recommends including a link to the chat, not just to the general AI tool.

  • APA reference entry: AI Company Name. (year, month day). Title of chat in italics [Description, such as Generative AI chat]. Tool Name/Model. URL of the chat
    Example: OpenAI. (2025, October 2). Themes in Frankenstein [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68dec13c9d408191b545f5ddbb3f7eec
  • APA in-text citation:  (Author, Year)
    Example: (OpenAI, 2025)

Example 1 from APA Guidelines

When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).

Reference
OpenAI. (2025, October 2). Left brain vs right brain divide [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68dec285918481918947a58935da9a91

Example 2 from APA Guideline

When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2025; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Reference
OpenAI. (2025, October 2). Left brain vs right brain divide [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/s/t_68dec3a86b388191b6868779195ad8bc

 

The Four Elements (From APA Guidelines)

Element Explanation Example

Author

The company responsible for developing the AI tool (ex. OpenAI for ChatGPT).

OpenAI

Date

The specific year, month, and day of the chat.

(2025, October 2)

Title

The title of the chat in italic sentence case, followed by a bracketed description such as [Generative AI chat].

Themes in Frankenstein [Generative AI chat]

Source

Begins with the name of the AI tool, such as ChatGPT, and ends with the URL of the chat.

ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/s/...