To cite Claude, follow your assignment’s or publisher’s style. APA uses an author-date reference, MLA starts with a description of the generated material, and Chicago’s Q&A allows a prose acknowledgment or numbered note. Keep the response and actual chat details, and check instructions for required disclosure and supporting records.
Collect the details before formatting
Record the chat title, relevant prompt, response used, conversation date, and model if known. Add the share URL after checking what your reader can open. Keep the assignment instructions alongside these details.
Use the conversation date, not the export date. Saving an October chat in November does not make it a November conversation. Mark uncertain dates for checking instead of guessing.
The patterns below are illustrative. Replace bracketed placeholders with your details, except APA’s descriptions “[Generative AI chat]” and “[Large language model],” which keep their brackets.
APA: company author and a chat reference
The September 2025 APA guidance separates chat references from tool references. For a retrievable chat, use this adapted pattern:
Anthropic. ([year], [month day]). [Title of chat] [Generative AI chat]. Claude [known model, if included]. [Chat share URL]
Use the date the chat occurred or concluded, and write its title in sentence case.
In text, use (Anthropic, [year]) or the narrative form Anthropic ([year]).
Use a general tool reference when citing a particular chat would be inappropriate or unhelpful. Its year is the tool’s update year:
Anthropic. ([update year]). Claude [known model, if included] [Large language model]. [Tool URL]
The in-text forms stay the same. APA no longer requires a version number by default, so don’t invent one.
MLA: describe the generated material first
The MLA Style Center’s August 13, 2025 guidance leaves AI out of the author field. Describe the generated content, name Claude as the container, and give the model or version as specifically as possible. Add Anthropic, the generation date, and the stable conversation URL.
Illustrative works-cited pattern:
“Explain the difference between precision and accuracy” prompt. Claude, model [known model], Anthropic, [day month year], [stable chat URL].
The in-text reference can shorten the description: (“Explain the difference”). Match it to the start of your works-cited entry.
MLA prefers a stable, shareable URL, allowing the tool’s general URL when that feature is unavailable. Check before substituting the homepage. If you cannot share the material, agree on how to document it with your instructor or editor.
Chicago: acknowledgment or a numbered note
The Chicago Manual of Style’s public Q&A allows naming the tool in your prose. For a formal citation, it gives a numbered footnote or endnote identifying the tool, company, date, and shared conversation.
Adapted note pattern:
- Text generated by Claude, Anthropic, [month day, year], [chat share URL].
Put the note number after the passage using the output. A prose acknowledgment might say, “Claude generated the comparison used in this exercise.” Adapt this example to describe your actual use.
If the prompt is absent from the body, the Q&A allows you to put it in the note. Disclose significant editing of the generated text. Ordinary typographic changes do not need that explanation.
This is the Q&A’s acknowledgment and notes approach. If your instructions require Chicago’s author-date system or a particular bibliography, follow them and check the relevant manual guidance.
Keep the prompt and your own work distinguishable
A reference identifies the source. Your reader may also need to know what you asked and how you used the answer. MLA’s guidance on describing AI use explains when significant assistance needs explanation alongside a citation.
Keep the original exchange, the passage you used, and your explanation separate. You can then find quoted words or correct commentary without reconstructing which answer led to a change.
APA also recommends keeping prompt records. With your instructor’s or editor’s agreement, useful prompts can accompany a disclosure or go in an appendix or supplement. Keep follow-up instructions: a title alone doesn’t show how you developed the answer.
Use the AI disclosure guide for a required statement about your process. Put the citation beside the relevant material and the process explanation where the assignment requests it.
Choose a share link, a PDF, or both
Choose a share link or saved file according to the submission instructions and what your reader can open.
Claude’s public-link rules let Free, Pro, Max, and Ultra accounts share public snapshots that readers can open without an account. Later messages need an updated snapshot, and attached files are excluded. Team and Enterprise links work only for signed-in members of the same organization. Turning off a public link disables it but cannot recall copies already saved.
Open the URL and check that it shows the cited response and preceding prompt. Ask about restricted submission if you cannot share the material publicly. The guide to sharing Claude chats explains the access choices.
For an attachment, DocMyChat saves the open claude.ai conversation as PDF or Word in desktop Chrome. Metadata includes the model if known. Add timestamps is available and off by default. The export follows the displayed branch, so it does not record every retry. Follow the PDF export steps and check the saved pages before citing them.
Example: documenting help with a lab report
Suppose your course permits Claude to help explain precision and accuracy. You compare its explanation with the course materials, then revise a paragraph of your lab report.
Save the prompt, response, and course passage you checked. Mark words quoted from Claude as a quotation with the appropriate citation. Cite the course source for factual explanations you took from it. The chat does not independently prove those facts.
Name the transcript clearly, such as lab-report-ai-transcript.pdf. Add a separate cover note identifying the assignment section it supports. Keep later explanations outside Claude’s answer so the reader can tell the conversation from your commentary.
The assignment transcript walkthrough covers separate attachments and Word appendices. See saving Claude work for study for organizing the rest of your coursework.
Check the reference against what you will submit
Compare the final passage with your reference, transcript, and assignment instructions. Check the chat title and date, fill any remaining placeholders, and make sure the reader can find the exact response.
Open the actual attachment. If it contains a later revision than the answer cited, use the correct record or fix the reference. Keep the original exchange and explanatory corrections separate.
Questions
Do I need to attach the whole conversation?
Check your assignment or publisher’s instructions. A citation does not decide how much of the transcript to submit. If a full exchange is required, include the prompts and replies, not just the answer you quoted.
What if I cannot recover the model name?
Don’t guess from the model selector you see today. APA allows the tool name alone. If another style calls for a model you cannot identify, ask your instructor or editor how to handle that missing detail.
Does exporting the chat generate a finished citation?
No. The export gives you a record and some metadata. Choose the reference format your work requires, then check each field against the actual conversation.
Should I cite DocMyChat as the AI that wrote the answer?
No. Claude generated the answer, and DocMyChat saved the record. Check with your instructor or publisher if they also require you to explain how you exported it.