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APA to MLA converter

Paste APA references, get MLA. Free, no sign-up.

Paste references written in APA and get them back in MLA, ready to copy into Word or Google Docs. The main changes: author–date in-text citations become author–page citations, your “References” list becomes “Works Cited” and titles switch to title case. CiteSwap looks each reference up in the open Crossref catalogue, so authors, years and page numbers come from the publisher’s record rather than being rewritten by hand.

APA vs MLA: the same sources side by side

Each example below was formatted by CiteSwap’s engine, exactly as the converter outputs it.

Journal article

APA

Suri, T., & Jack, W. (2016). The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science, 354(6317), 1288–1292. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309

In-text: (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290)

MLA

Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. “The Long-Run Poverty and Gender Impacts of Mobile Money.” Science, vol. 354, no. 6317, Dec. 2016, pp. 1288–92, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309.

In-text: (Suri and Jack 1290)

Book

APA

Achebe, C. (1958). Things fall apart. Heinemann.

In-text: (Achebe, 1958, p. 1290)

MLA

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Heinemann, 1958.

In-text: (Achebe 1290)

Web page

APA

World Health Organization. (2023, December 4). Malaria. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria

In-text: (World Health Organization, 2023, p. 1290)

MLA

World Health Organization. “Malaria.” World Health Organization, 4 Dec. 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria.

In-text: (World Health Organization 1290)

Key differences between APA and MLA

11 of 12 rules differ; they are listed first.

RuleAPAMLA
Reference list headingReferencesWorks Cited
In-text citationsauthor and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri & Jack, 2016), with a page number for quotationsauthor and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290)
Author namesSurname and initials for every author, e.g. Suri, T., & Jack, W.First author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack
Many authorsList up to 20 authors; for 21 or more, give the first 19, an ellipsis, then the last authorThree or more authors: first author followed by “et al.”
DateStraight after the authors, in parentheses: (2016).Near the end, after the journal or publisher details
Title capitalisationSentence caseTitle case
Article titlesPlain text, no quotation marks, sentence caseIn quotation marks, title case
ItalicsJournal name and volume number; book and report titlesContainers: journal, website and book titles
Journal namesFull journal name in title caseFull journal name in title case, followed by vol. and no.
Page rangesFull page range, e.g. 1288–1292Shortened range with “pp.”, e.g. pp. 1288–92
DOIs and linksDOI as a link: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5309DOI written as https://doi.org/… at the end; URLs without “https://” are also accepted
List order(same)Alphabetical by first author’s surnameAlphabetical by first author’s surname

When to use MLA

MLA is the usual choice for English literature, modern languages and other humanities subjects, where quoting and pinpointing pages matters more than dates. It is published by the Modern Language Association; CiteSwap follows the 9th edition (2021).

APA is more common in psychology, education, nursing, while MLA is usual in literature, languages, cultural studies. If your department or journal names a style, always follow it.

APA to MLA: frequently asked questions

How do I convert APA citations to MLA?

Paste your APA reference list into the box above (one reference per line, numbered, or separated by blank lines), check that “From” says APA or Auto-detect and “To” says MLA, then press Convert. You can also paste DOIs, BibTeX or RIS. Copy the result or download it for Word.

How do in-text citations change from APA to MLA?

APA uses author and year in parentheses, e.g. (Suri & Jack, 2016), with a page number for quotations. MLA uses author and page number in parentheses with no comma, e.g. (Suri and Jack 1290). For the same article and page: APA gives (Suri & Jack, 2016, p. 1290), MLA gives (Suri and Jack 1290).

What is the reference list called in MLA?

In APA the list is headed “References”; in MLA it is “Works Cited”. Change the heading when you paste the converted list into your document.

Do titles need different capitalisation in MLA?

Yes. MLA uses title case for article and book titles, so words like “Poverty” and “Gender” are capitalised. CiteSwap applies this automatically.

How are author names written in MLA?

MLA: First author inverted with full names, the second in normal order, e.g. Suri, Tavneet, and William Jack. APA: Surname and initials for every author, e.g. Suri, T., & Jack, W. When a reference is matched in Crossref, CiteSwap uses full first names from the publisher’s record, so it can produce either form.

Is the APA to MLA converter accurate?

Each reference is matched against the Crossref catalogue (over 150 million records) and only accepted automatically when the title, year and first author agree. Anything uncertain is marked “Needs review” so you can pick the right match, and references that aren’t in the catalogue, like websites or local journals, are parsed from your text and marked so you can check them.