APA to Chicago Converter — Free
Convert APA 7 citations to Chicago 17 Notes-Bibliography. Parenthetical to footnote form, how the bibliography entry changes, and a worked example.
Ready to convert?
The full converter lives at /tools/citation-converter with this pair pre-selected. It supports bulk input and 14+ other style pairs.
Why APA 7th Edition → Chicago 17th (Notes-Bibliography) isn’t just a reformat
APA → Chicago is the most common cross-discipline conversion for graduate students working with interdisciplinary committees. The big structural change is moving from parenthetical in-text citations to footnote-based referencing.
Chicago's Notes-Bibliography system (the humanities variant) uses superscript footnote numbers in the body text, with full citation information in the footnote on first use and shortened form thereafter. The bibliography at the end has slightly different formatting from the footnote.
If you're converting an APA paper to Chicago, you'll need to decide whether to use Notes-Bibliography (for humanities/history/arts) or Author-Date (for sciences/social-sciences that use Chicago). This converter assumes Notes-Bibliography unless specified; see the worked example for the footnote + bibliography pair.
Key differences
- Citation placement: APA parenthetical → Chicago footnote (superscript number in body)
- Bibliography heading: `References` → `Bibliography`
- Footnote vs bibliography: different punctuation (commas vs periods) between elements
- Shortened notes: after first full citation, Chicago uses shortened form for subsequent notes
- Author format: initials (`Smith, J.`) → full names (`Smith, John`)
- DOIs: Chicago accepts DOIs but often omits them for print-first publications; include when the paper is primarily online
Worked example
APA 7th Edition (input)
Smith, J., & Jones, A. (2024). The role of spaced repetition in long-term retention. *Journal of Educational Psychology*, 116(3), 234–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000999
Chicago 17th (Notes-Bibliography) (output)
Footnote (first use): 1. John Smith and Alex Jones, "The Role of Spaced Repetition in Long-Term Retention," *Journal of Educational Psychology* 116, no. 3 (2024): 234–251, https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000999. Bibliography entry: Smith, John, and Alex Jones. "The Role of Spaced Repetition in Long-Term Retention." *Journal of Educational Psychology* 116, no. 3 (2024): 234–251. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000999.
Note the punctuation difference: footnote uses commas between elements; bibliography uses periods. This is intentional and is not a copy-paste error.
Related converters
- APA to MLA converter — Convert APA 7 citations to MLA 9.
- MLA to APA converter — Convert MLA 9 citations to APA 7.
- Harvard to APA converter — Convert Harvard citations to APA 7.
- BibTeX to APA converter — Convert a BibTeX `@article` or `@book` entry to an APA 7 reference.
Frequently asked questions
- What's the biggest difference between APA 7th Edition and Chicago 17th (Notes-Bibliography)?
- Citation placement: APA parenthetical → Chicago footnote (superscript number in body)
- Is there a free APA to Chicago tool?
- Yes — the full CiteDash citation converter at /tools/citation-converter handles this pair and 14+ other style conversions. It's free and requires no signup for single-citation use.
- Will this converter handle bulk bibliographies?
- The full converter at /tools/citation-converter supports bulk input (paste multiple citations, one per line) on the free tier. For very large bibliographies (500+ entries), the Pro plan removes rate limits.
- Why does my converted Chicago 17th (Notes-Bibliography) citation look slightly different from my advisor's?
- Citation styles have variants — journal-specific house rules, institutional style guides, and edition differences. The canonical format produced here follows the official style manual; if your advisor uses a custom house style, spot-check a sample entry against their guidance.