APA vs Chicago
Updated July 2026
APA (7th edition) is the standard in psychology, education, nursing, business, and the social sciences. Chicago (17th edition) is the standard in history, art history, and publishing. They differ in how they cite in the text, how they format references, and what they emphasize — APA prioritizes when research was published — currency of evidence; Chicago prioritizes uninterrupted prose — discussion happens in the notes.
Your field or instructor decides which you need. Here are the differences that matter, side by side.
The differences at a glance
- In-text citation: APA — (Rasch & Born, 2013); Chicago — a footnote: ¹ Björn Rasch and Jan Born, … 685..
- Reference list title: APA — References; Chicago — Bibliography.
- Ordering: APA alphabetizes by author; Chicago alphabetizes by author.
- APA traits: Authors are inverted with initials: Alvarez, M.; Titles use sentence case — only the first word, proper nouns, and the word after a colon are capitalized.
- Chicago traits: First author inverted, additional authors in natural order; Titles use Title Case; articles in quotes, containers in italics.
The same journal article in both styles
Identical facts, different arrangement — note the author names, casing, and where the date sits. Already have a citation in one style? Convert it to the other in one click.
Rasch, B., & Born, J. (2013). About sleep's role in memory. Physiological Reviews, 93(2), 681-766. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012
In-text(Rasch & Born, 2013)
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About sleep's role in memory." Physiological Reviews 93, no. 2 (2013): 681-766. https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012.
In-text(Rasch and Born 2013)
And the same book
Martin, R. C. (2008). Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Prentice Hall.
In-text(Martin, 2008)
Martin, Robert C. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Prentice Hall, 2008.
In-text(Martin 2008)
How citing in the text differs
APA: APA cites in the text with author and date: (Alvarez, 2024) for a paraphrase, with a page or paragraph locator for quotes — (Alvarez, 2024, p. 12) or (Alvarez, 2024, para. 3). Three or more authors shorten to et al. from the first citation: (Harris et al., 2020).
Chicago: Chicago's notes-bibliography system cites with footnotes: a superscript number in the text pointing to a note with the source details and page. The bibliography entry shown here contains everything the footnote needs — un-invert the author's name and swap most periods for commas to form the note.
Which should you use?
Whatever your assignment, department, or journal requires — that overrules everything. When the choice is genuinely yours: pick APA if your work sits in psychology, education, nursing, business, and the social sciences, and Chicago for history, art history, and publishing. Structurally, choose APA when when research was published — currency of evidence matters more to your readers, and Chicago when uninterrupted prose — discussion happens in the notes does.
Then be perfectly consistent — a clean paper in either style beats a hybrid of both, and mixed styles are the first thing graders notice. Since the generator renders both styles from one paste, switching late costs nothing.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the main difference between APA and Chicago?
- The in-text citation: APA uses (Rasch & Born, 2013) while Chicago uses a footnote: ¹ Björn Rasch and Jan Born, … 685.. The reference lists also differ — APA's is titled References, Chicago's is Bibliography.
- Can I convert APA citations to Chicago?
- Yes — paste any citation into the free Citation Converter and it re-renders in every style instantly. The underlying source data doesn't change, only the arrangement.
- Which is more common, APA or Chicago?
- They dominate different fields, so neither is universally more common: APA in psychology, education, nursing, business, and the social sciences; Chicago in history, art history, and publishing. Your discipline's convention is the one that counts.
- Do both styles support the same source types?
- Yes — websites, books, journal articles, videos, reports, and more all have defined formats in both. The generator covers every combination.