Chicago 17th edition
Free Chicago citation generator
Build a Chicago 17 bibliography entry along with the full and short footnotes to match. Pick a source type, fill in what you have, and copy each piece — footnotes and bibliography have their own copy buttons. It runs in your browser and nothing you type is uploaded.
How to cite a source in Chicago (notes–bibliography)
Chicago’s notes–bibliography system pairs numbered footnotes with a bibliography. The two are formatted differently.
The bibliography entry
Lee, Jordan, and Sam Rivera. “The Ethics of Ambiguity, Revisited.” The Atlantic, March 14, 2024. https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/ethics-ambiguity.
The first (full) footnote
1. Jordan Lee and Sam Rivera, “The Ethics of Ambiguity, Revisited,” The Atlantic, March 14, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/ethics-ambiguity.
The short footnote (every time after)
2. Lee and Rivera, “Ethics of Ambiguity.”
Chicago FAQ
What is Chicago 17?
Chicago 17 is the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. This generator uses its notes–bibliography system — numbered footnotes in the text plus a bibliography — which is common in history and the humanities.
What’s the difference between the full note and the short note?
The first time you cite a source, use the full footnote with all the details. Every citation of that source after that uses the short note: author’s last name, a shortened title, and the page. The generator produces both.
How do footnotes get their numbers?
Footnotes are numbered in the order they appear in your paper. On the web tool’s bibliography workspace, the Footnotes view numbers them for you in sequence.
How is the bibliography formatted?
Alphabetize by author’s last name, use a hanging indent, and single-space each entry with a blank line between them. “Copy formatted” preserves the hanging indent when you paste.
More citation guides
- ✓MLA citation generator — author–page in-text and a hanging-indent Works Cited entry.
- ✓APA citation generator — author–date in-text and a References entry.
- ✓IEEE citation generator — bracketed numbers in text and a numbered reference list.
- ✓The full web tool — all four styles, plus the bibliography builder and paste-a-link auto-cite.