Citing AI-generated content requires you to identify the company that made the tool, the specific model or tool name, the date you used it, and a link to the conversation when possible. The exact format depends on which style guide you’re following. APA, MLA, and Chicago each have published rules for citing AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and DALL-E, and they differ in important ways.
What Every AI Citation Needs
Regardless of style guide, you’ll want to collect the same core information each time you use an AI tool for a paper, article, or project. Think of this as your checklist before you close the chat window:
- Company name: The organization that developed the tool (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc.).
- Tool and model name: The general tool (ChatGPT, Gemini) and, if available, the specific model (GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5 Flash).
- Date: The exact day you generated the content.
- Prompt: The text you typed to get the response. Some styles want this in the citation itself; others want it described in your paper’s text.
- URL: A shareable link to the conversation. Many tools, including ChatGPT and DALL-E, let you generate a share link from the chat interface.
One universal rule: AI is never listed as the author. The tool is not a living person, so every major style guide assigns authorship to the company behind it or leaves the author slot empty.
APA Style (7th Edition)
APA treats an AI chat as a source with four elements: author, date, title, and source. The author is the company that developed the tool, not the AI itself. The date is the specific year, month, and day your chat took place or concluded.
For the title, use the name of the chat (in italics) followed by a bracketed label clarifying the source type, such as [Generative AI chat]. The source element includes the name of the AI tool or model and the URL of the chat. APA no longer requires a version number by default. You can use the general tool name (ChatGPT) or a specific model name (ChatGPT-5), but you don’t need to hunt down a version number.
A reference list entry looks like this:
OpenAI. (2025, June 15). Explaining compound interest for beginners [Generative AI chat]. ChatGPT. https://chatgpt.com/share/example-link
Prompts are not part of the reference entry. If the prompt matters for context, describe it in the body of your paper instead. APA does not require an access date for AI citations.
MLA Style
MLA does not treat the AI tool as an author. Instead, the entry starts with a description of what was generated, which can include information about the prompt you used. The AI tool name goes in the “Title of Container” slot, the specific model in the “Version” slot, and the company name in the “Publisher” slot.
A Works Cited entry follows this pattern:
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607.
Notice that MLA wants you to be as specific as possible about the model. If you know you used GPT-4o or Gemini 2.5 Flash, include that. For the location element, provide the stable, shareable URL. If the tool doesn’t offer shareable links, give the general URL for the tool itself.
Chicago Style
Chicago takes a different approach from APA and MLA. Rather than a bibliography entry, Chicago generally recommends citing AI-generated content in a footnote or endnote. The reason: most AI chat URLs require your login to access, making them similar to personal communications like emails or phone calls.
A footnote looks like this:
1. Text generated by ChatGPT, OpenAI, March 7, 2023, https://chat.openai.com/chat.
If your prompt isn’t already described in the text of your paper, you can fold it into the note:
1. ChatGPT, response to “Explain how to make pizza dough from common household ingredients,” OpenAI, March 7, 2023.
Only include an AI source in your bibliography if you can provide a publicly accessible link that anyone can open without logging in. If you edited the AI-generated text before using it, note that in your text or at the end of the footnote with a phrase like “edited for style and content.”
Citing AI-Generated Images
When you use an image created by a tool like DALL-E or Midjourney, the same principle applies: give credit to the source. A caption or credit line should name the tool, the company behind it, and the date you generated the image. OpenAI recommends language such as “This image was created with the assistance of DALL-E 2.”
A more formal credit line in Chicago style might read:
“A modern office rendered as a cubist painting,” image generated by OpenAI’s DALL-E 2, March 5, 2023.
For APA and MLA, apply the same citation structures described above, adjusting the bracketed description (APA) or the prompt description (MLA) to reflect that the output is an image rather than text.
Practical Tips for Any Style
Save or export your AI conversations before you close them. Many tools let you share a link, but some conversations can be lost if you clear your history. Copy the shareable URL right away and store it alongside your other research notes.
Record the exact date of each session. If your chat spans multiple days, use the date the conversation concluded (for APA) or the date the specific content you’re citing was generated.
When your instructor or publisher hasn’t specified a style, default to whatever citation format the rest of your paper uses. The key principle across all three major styles is transparency: your reader should be able to tell that AI generated the content, which tool produced it, when the exchange happened, and what you asked. Even if the formatting details differ, meeting those four goals will keep your citation accurate and honest.