Like AI itself, the rules for citing AI as a source are in flux and changing rapidly. However, many major academic journals and all three of the most popular citation styles (MLA, APA, and CMS) call for writers to disclose, if not cite, the use of AI. The question of what "the use of AI" entails is not one that always has an obvious answer. Do you need to reveal that you used a back-and-forth with an AI to hone your arguments? What if the AI provided an initial draft of your outline? Did you polish your grammar with AI? Not only students but also faculty publishing in peer-reviewed journals should err on the side of transparency and include a statement acknowledging the assistance of AI, including the tool used and the kind of assistance received.
If there is a particular section or passage in the paper that benefited from a specific use of AI, the writer would be well served to use a footnote with a formal citation. (See the next box for guidance on formatting such citations.)
There are myriad ways to craft a statement acknowledging AI. A good starting point is this template, created by Heinrich Niemann from the Department of Schools and Education of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, for how to potentially disclose the use of AI:
Since citations are built from pieces of information such as author, publisher, place of publication, etc., the trick with citing AI is determining which information correlates with which category.
Style guides have differing advice on what you should use as an author, for instance, or a title. CMS treats the AI tool (i.e., ChatGPT) as the author and the company that created the tool (i.e., OpenAI) as the publisher; APA designates the company as the author and the specific tool as the source. MLA advises not naming an author at all, and using a short description of the prompt as the title and the name and version of the AI tool as a container (analogous to the title of a journal).
Here are links to the most recent guidelines (all as of September 2025):
APA: Citing Generative AI in APA Style
CMS: Citation, Documentation of Sources
MLA: How do I cite generative AI in MLA style?
All of the styles agree that you should provide a stable, shareable URL as the chat's location if it is available. Many AI tools include a share feature that generates a unique URL that retrieves your specific prompt and response. Be sure to choose a public URL if you are given an option; if that option doesn't exist, a third-party web app can be used to generate a link that doesn't require your username and password. Two such apps are ShareGPT and A.I. Archives.