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APA Style Guide: 7th Edition

Citing Text Content Created by AI

Use this template to quote or reproduce the text content generated by AI in your paper. 

Best practices recommended by APA Style: 

  • Describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper, such as introduction
  • Provide the prompt you have used and any portion of relevant text that was generated in response. This may be provided in an appendix or online supplemental materials.

Formatting Examples

TEMPLATE:

Author of the Model. (Year of the version). Name of the model in italics (Version number) [Descriptor]. https://source_address

 

EXAMPLE:

Microsoft. (2025). Microsoft copilot (365 version) [Artificial intelligence system]. https://copilot.microsoft.com/

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (March 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

Notes:  

  • Author: The author of the model (tool)
  • Date: Year of the version used
  • Title: The name of the model (tool)
  • Version number: Version of the model/tool used. NOTE: the format for the version number in ChatGPT example includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labelling versions
  • Additional description: Using bracketed text, provide extra information to help a reader understand what is being cited. Different versions and software or models from various companies may need different descriptions, based on how the company describe the model
  • Link: Use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (the page where you can access the software, not the company's homepage)

Examples of formatting an in-text citation for this item are outlined below:

Reference Information

Microsoft. (2025). Microsoft copilot (365 version) [Artificial intelligence system]. https://copilot.microsoft.com/

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
In-text Citation Guidelines

Examples                                                                                                           

1.

Note: If you use generative AI in your paper, we recommend that you include the following: 

  • Prompt(s) used to generate the content
  • Generated response as part of paper, appendix, or supplemental materials

 

Using the prompt "what behaviours are affected by the full moon," a number of behaviours were described. . . . (Microsoft, 2025; see Appendix A for the full transcript).

When the prompt of "example of prompt" was used, the response generated stated that... (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).   

2.

 

According to Microsoft's AI system (2025), the prompt "full moon effects," the following behaviours are often displayed .... (see Appendix A for the full transcript).

 OpenAI's (2023) response to the prompt "example prompt" was "consider this a direct quote" (see Appendix A for the full transcript).

Remember, in-text citation formatting may change depending on a number of factors.

See Number of Authors, Publication Date, and Page/Paragraph Number or Heading for more information.