How to Cite a Website in APA 7th Edition (With Examples)

Here is the basic APA 7th edition format for a web page:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL

Example:

Rivera, M. (2024, March 3). How sleep affects memory before exams. Campus Health Notes. https://www.example.com/sleep-memory

The page title goes in italics, and the site name doesn’t. There is no “Retrieved from” before the URL, and no full stop after it. Most students lose marks on those small details, so let’s go through each part.

Each part explained

• Author. Last name, then initials. If the author is an organisation, use its full name, for example World Wildlife Fund.
• Date. Use the most specific date shown on the page, such as (2024, March 3). If you only have a year, use (2024).
• Title. Use sentence case, which means only the first word, the first word after a colon and proper nouns get capitals. Put it in italics.
• Site name. Write it in plain text. Leave it out if it’s the same as the author.
• URL. Paste the full link. Don’t add a full stop after it, because that can break the link.

Examples for common situations

Organisation as author (site name left out because it matches):

National Institute of Example Studies. (2023, November 12). Healthy screen time for teenagers. https://www.example.org/screen-time

No author: start with the title instead.

Ten tips for better note-taking. (2022, August 5). Study Skills Hub. https://www.example.com/note-tips

No date: use (n.d.), which stands for “no date”.

Chen, L. (n.d.). Introduction to photosynthesis. Biology Basics. https://www.example.com/photosynthesis

A page that changes over time: add a retrieval date when the content is designed to change and isn’t archived, such as a live statistics page or a dictionary entry that gets updated.

Example City Council. (n.d.). Population dashboard. Retrieved October 9, 2026, from https://www.example.gov/population

(The examples above use example.com addresses for illustration only. Always use the real URL of the page you read.)

In-text citations

Every source in your reference list needs a matching in-text citation, and vice versa.

• Parenthetical: (Rivera, 2024)
• Narrative: Rivera (2024) found that…
• Organisation: (World Wildlife Fund, 2023)
• No author: use a shortened title in italics, for example (Ten Tips, 2022)
• No date: (Chen, n.d.)
• Direct quote: add the paragraph number, because web pages have no page numbers, for example (Rivera, 2024, para. 4)

Not every website is a “web page”

APA cites some online sources differently:

• Online news articles are cited like newspaper articles, with the newspaper name in italics.
• Journal articles found online use the journal format and include a DOI if there is one.
• YouTube videos, social media posts and online reports each have their own format.

If you’re not sure which type you have, ask yourself: is this a standalone page on a site, or is it part of a publication such as a newspaper or journal? Only standalone pages use the website format.

Formatting your reference list

• Title the page References, centred and in bold.
• List the entries in alphabetical order by the first word of each entry.
• Use a hanging indent: the first line sits at the margin and the following lines are indented by 0.5 in (1.27 cm).
• Double-space everything, unless your teacher says otherwise.

Let a tool do the formatting

Getting every comma and italic right by hand is tedious. Our free citation generator builds APA, MLA and Harvard references for you. Always check the result against the source, because the generator can only use the details you give it.

Not sure which style your course uses? Our comparison of APA vs MLA vs Harvard explains the differences.

Quick checklist

1. Author, or organisation, or the title if there is no author.
2. The date in brackets, or (n.d.).
3. The page title in italics and sentence case.
4. The site name, unless it’s the same as the author.
5. The URL with no full stop at the end.
6. A matching in-text citation in your essay.

FAQs

Do I need “Retrieved from” in APA 7? Only when you also give a retrieval date for a page that changes over time. APA 6 used “Retrieved from” much more often.

Should the URL be a live hyperlink? Either is fine in APA 7. Just keep it consistent and make sure the link works.

What if the web page has no title? Describe the page in square brackets, for example [Homepage of the Example Museum]. This is rare, though, as nearly every page has a title.

Related guides

• How to Cite a Website in MLA 9 (Format and Examples)
• How to Cite a Website in Harvard Style (With Examples)
• APA vs MLA vs Harvard: Which Citation Style Should You Use?

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