A citation with the page number and a link to the source.
Enter your topic and get verified academic sources with printed page numbers, ready-to-paste footnotes and a formatted bibliography. No hallucinated citations.
Free plan: 3 full sources per project, no card required.
Someone always checks the citations. AI chatbots make them up.
Generic AI tools invent sources that don't exist and page numbers that don't match. cytado works the other way round: we download the actual PDFs, read the printed page numbers from the pages themselves, and only then build your footnote.
Already have a bibliography? Check it's real — free
Paste or upload your list of sources. We verify each entry against academic databases (Crossref, OpenAlex, Google Books and more) and flag anything we can't find — before your reader does. We never call a source “fake”, only “couldn't confirm”.
Checking students' work? Verify every bibliography — at scale
The same engine that builds real citations also checks them. Since AI chatbots flood submitted work with invented sources, cytado lets you confirm a whole bibliography in seconds — which entries exist, whether the page numbers are real, whether the quote is actually in the source. We flag what can't be confirmed; we never call a source “fake”.
Not just a link — a complete footnote
We build every citation from real metadata: authors, title, journal, volume and issue, and the printed page. Exactly what a careful reader expects — ready to copy.
A link you can open right now
We download the PDF and link the original. More than half the corpus is open access — you open the link and read the whole publication, free. No invented entries, nothing you'll have to hunt for elsewhere.
Real page number
Read from the document itself — even unusual ones like “p. E138”. Never guessed.
Recognized type
Journal, book, report or thesis — each formatted its own way.
Complete footnote
With the publisher, or the journal’s volume and issue — ready to paste.
How it works
- 1.
Enter your topic
Optionally paste your outline — we match sources to every chapter.
Social media’s effect on youth - 2.
We gather sources
Academic databases and the open web, across languages. Every source is quality-scored.
…and adolescent self-esteem★ 8.2Digital media & youth…★ 7.5 - 3.
Copy footnotes with page numbers
Fragments that back your claims, with the printed page number and a ready citation in your style.
M. Iwanowska, Związki…, 2023, p. 47.
Copy footnote - 4.
Export the bibliography
Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS — sorted and formatted.
WordPDFLaTeXBibTeXRIS
Know it's true but can't cite it?
Paste a paragraph of your text and cytado finds source fragments that back your claims — with page numbers and a ready footnote. A generous fair-use allowance covers the whole project.
From source list to finished text
Tick the sources you want, and your bibliography formats and sorts itself — in APA 7, MLA, Chicago and more. Export to Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX or RIS and paste it straight into your document.
More about the bibliography generator →cytado vs. the usual workarounds
| cytado | AI chatbot | Google Scholar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sources actually exist | sometimes | ||
| Printed page numbers for citations | |||
| Ready-to-paste footnotes | risky | ||
| Finds sources for a specific paragraph | |||
| Sources in your language, not just English | partly | partly | |
| Bibliography export (Word, LaTeX…) | partly |
Simple pricing: pay per project, not per month
Free
0
- 3 full sources per project
- Summaries and quality scores
- No card required
Unlocked project
$13/ one-time
- All found sources
- Fragments with printed page numbers
- Paragraph source finder — generous fair-use limit
- Export: Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS
- More sources on demand
One payment covers the project for as long as you write.
Put that price in context
$10–20 / month
subscription research tools — over a semester that's $60–120
$30–60 / hour
an hour of professional proofreading
$13 once
cytado — for the whole project, months of writing
And the real cost of a rejected bibliography? Weeks of corrections and credibility that is hard to win back.
Frequently asked questions
Are the sources real?+
Yes. We download the actual PDF of every source, extract its text and read the printed page numbers from the document itself. Every source carries a link to the original — a DOI or a direct address — and for more than half of them that link opens the full text, because they are open access.
Where do the sources come from?+
Academic databases (open-access journals, repositories) and the open web — including local-language university repositories and journals. Each document is quality-scored before you see it.
Can I use the full text of the sources?+
You see metadata, summaries, short quotes with page numbers and a link to the original. For copyrighted sources we never republish full texts — you cite them and read the original at the source.
What citation styles are supported?+
APA 7, MLA and Chicago — for footnotes and the bibliography, plus BibTeX/RIS for reference managers. More regional styles are on the way.
Is this cheating?+
No. cytado is a research tool: it finds real literature and formats citations. The reading, thinking and writing are yours — like a very fast library.
Do I need a subscription?+
No. You pay once per project and it stays unlocked for as long as you write.
Are there any usage limits?+
cytado is priced per project, not per query — but to keep it sustainable and prevent abuse we apply generous fair-use limits: one unpaid project at a time, plus daily and monthly caps on source searches. They sit well above normal day-to-day writing and stay out of your way; if you ever need more, just ask via the contact form.