Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition)

GenAI: Text generators

If you are using AI to help with a draft or outline, you'll want to acknowledge that with a sentence at the beginning or end of the paper that says something like, "This paper was produced with drafting support from Microsoft Copilot." Your instructor might have specific conventions for how they would like to list this as well, so it is always best practice to check in with them. If you are citing a conversation with an AI tool, either as a source or as an object of study, explore each section below to learn how to cite AI text generators in different styles.

Building Blocks

• Author: Do not treat the AI as an author; MLA is reserving that for human authors. Omit the author section of the citation.
• Title of source: Describe what was generated by the AI tool. If you have not included information about the prompt in the text of your essay, you need to do that here. 
• Title of container: The name of the AI tool. 
• Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible. 
• Date: Include the date the content was generated. 
• Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content. (Note: the style guide post is slightly out of date; you can now send someone a URL of your ChatGPT conversation. This is the URL you should use in your citation.)

Format

"Prompt text" prompt. AI tool, version of tool, company that made the tool, date text was generated. URL. 

Examples

• In-text citation: ("Describe the symbolism")
• Bibliography: “Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, https://chat.openai.com/share/dccb3610-1db9-4eed-88b1-cdb06f67982a.

Check out the MLA Style Guide for more information. (Updated September 16, 2025)

GenAI: Image generators

If you're including an AI-generated image in the body of a paper, give it a figure number (i.e. Fig. 1, Fig. 2). If you're referencing or including an AI-generated image in your papers, you should include information about how it was generated. This is also required for human-created artwork and some human-created photographs. In most citation styles, you don't need to include this in the works cited, only as a caption for the image.

Building Blocks

• Figure number: This corresponds to the number of images you have in your paper. If this is the first image that shows up in your paper, you'd use "Fig. 1." If it's the third image, you'd use "Fig. 3", etc.
• Author: Do not treat the AI as an author; MLA is reserving that for human authors. Omit the author section of the citation.
• Title of work:  Use the full prompt, or the first several words of the prompt, in quotation marks, followed by the word "prompt."
• Title of container: The name of the AI tool. 
• Version: Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible. 
• Date: Include the date the content was generated. 
• Location: Give the URL for the tool. If possible, give the URL for the specific content.

Format

Fig. 1. "Full prompt" prompt, Name of Tool, version of tool, Company Name, date image was generated, URL.

Examples

• Fig. 1. “Pointillist painting of a sheep in a sunny field of blue flowers” prompt, DALL-E, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, labs.openai.com/Links to an external site.

Check out the MLA Style Guide for more information. (Updated September 16, 2025)