How to Cite a Website in APA
Updated October 2026
APA 7 formats a website citation as Author. (Date). Title. Site Name. URL — four pieces in a fixed order. Here's each piece, the edge cases, and the in-text form, or paste your URL into the generator and skip the manual work.
The format
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in sentence case. Site Name. https://url
National Library of Medicine. (2025, December 9). Healthy Sleep. MedlinePlus. https://medlineplus.gov/healthysleep.html
In-text(National Library of Medicine, 2025)
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Citation style
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition (2020). The 7th dropped the publisher location and the "Retrieved from" prefix that the 6th required.
Step by step
- Author — the person or organization responsible. Invert personal names: Alvarez, M. Organization authors keep their full name uninverted.
- Date — publication or last-updated date, as specific as the page provides: (2024, March 18). Nothing anywhere? Use (n.d.).
- Title — italicized, sentence case: capitalize the first word, proper nouns, and the first word after a colon.
- Site name — plain text, then the full URL of the specific page. Live links stay live; don't add a period after the URL.
The edge cases
No author: the title takes the author position — Title of page. (2024, March 18). Site Name. URL. Author = site name (a CDC page written by the CDC): drop the site name to avoid repetition. Content that changes (wikis, dictionaries, live stats): add a retrieval date — Retrieved June 12, 2026, from URL. Stable articles don't need one.
In-text citation
Standard author–date: (Alvarez, 2024). No author? Short title in quotes: ("How memory consolidation works," 2024). Quoting a page without page numbers? Use a paragraph number: (Alvarez, 2024, para. 3). Full patterns: APA In-Text Citations.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Citing the homepage instead of the exact page you used.
- Using the domain (sciencedaily.com) as the site name instead of the publication name (Science Daily).
- Title Case In The Page Title — APA wants sentence case.
- Adding "Retrieved from" before every URL — APA 7 dropped it except for changing content.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- Do I need an access date for APA website citations?
- Only for content designed to change (wikis, dashboards, dictionary entries). Stable articles and pages: no retrieval date in APA 7.
- How do I cite a website with no author in APA?
- Move the title into the author position: Title of page. (Date). Site Name. URL. In text, use a short quoted title: ("Title words," 2024).
- What if the page has no date at all?
- Use (n.d.) in both the reference and in-text citation: Alvarez, M. (n.d.). The generator detects missing dates and applies n.d. automatically.
- Should the URL be a live hyperlink?
- APA accepts either live links or plain text, as long as it's consistent. No period after the URL either way.