APA Style Guide, 7th Edition: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Formatting a reference to ChatGPT/AI

To create a reference entry for ChatGPT or other AI software, follow the guidelines in Chapter 10.10 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) for computer software, mobile apps, apparatuses, and equipment.

Format Example

The format for citing AI use follows the four basic elements of a citation, adding the version after the title.

Author: Who is responsible for this work? The author of the model, e.g. Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, X, Inflection, Meta

Date: When was this work published? The year of the version you used. Only include the year, not the exact date.

Title: What is the work called? The name of the model, e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, Grok, PI, LLama

Include the version number after the title in parentheses, e.g. (Feb 14 version)

Bracketed text: Use bracketed text for additional descriptions when needed to help a reader understand what is being cited, such as using large language models, e.g. [Large language model].

Source: Where can I retrieve this work? When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source of the reference: move directly to the URL. Provide the URL of the software you used, e.g. https://chat.openai.com/chat (the URL for ChatGPT). Use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source--the page where you accessed the model, not the publisher's homepage.