MLA 9 AI-generated content citation format
“Your prompt text.” AI Tool Name, version, Company, Day Month Year, URL.
Example (ChatGPT):
“Explain the causes of World War I in three paragraphs.” ChatGPT, GPT-4o, OpenAI, 12 Jan. 2024, chat.openai.com.
Example (Google Gemini)
“Summarise recent research on microplastics in drinking water.” Gemini, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Google, 8 Mar. 2024, gemini.google.com.
Example (Anthropic Claude)
“Write a sample MLA 9 Works Cited entry for a blog post.” Claude, Claude 3 Opus, Anthropic, 2 Feb. 2024, claude.ai.
Required fields
| Field | What to include |
|---|---|
| Prompt | The exact text you submitted to the AI tool, in quotation marks |
| Tool name | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, etc. — italicised |
| Version | GPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Claude 3 Opus, etc. |
| Company | OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Microsoft, etc. |
| Date | The exact date you generated the response (Day Month Year) |
| URL | The tool’s homepage or conversation URL |
Why cite AI?
MLA 9 treats AI-generated text as a source that must be cited, just like a book or website. Failing to acknowledge AI-generated content may constitute academic dishonesty. Always check your institution’s policy on AI use before including AI-generated content in academic work.
In-text citation
(“Explain the causes”) — shortened form of the prompt in quotation marks
If you submitted multiple AI prompts, number them or use enough of the prompt to distinguish them.