TikTok Citation Generator
Paste a TikTok link and get APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard citations, with the exact upload date decoded from the 19-digit video ID.
How to use the TikTok Citation Generator
Paste the TikTok link
Drop in any video URL of the form tiktok.com/@username/video/…. The tool reads the 19-digit video ID and decodes the exact upload date from it, so you never have to guess from a "3d ago" label.
Check the citation fields
Creator display name, @handle, caption and date are filled in for you. Edit any field before generating. For example, add the creator’s real name if you know it and only the handle was found.
Pick your citation style
Choose APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago (notes-bibliography) or Harvard (Cite Them Right). Each style applies its own caption rule: APA keeps the first 20 words, Chicago the first 160 characters, MLA the full caption.
Copy the reference and the in-text citation
You get both the reference-list entry and the matching in-text or note form, ready to paste into your paper. The rule each style follows is shown next to the output so you can defend it to a marker.
Where the exact date of a TikTok comes from
Every citation style wants a real date, but TikTok’s interface only shows relative ones like "3d ago" or "2022". That gap is the single most common problem people hit when citing a TikTok, and hunting through the app never fully solves it.
The date is hiding in the URL. Every TikTok video address ends in a 19-digit ID, and the top 32 bits of that 64-bit number are a Unix timestamp of the moment the video was uploaded, usually within about 5 seconds of the platform’s own creation time. The ID 6854717870488702213, for example, decodes to 29 July 2020.
This generator does that decoding the instant you paste a link, so the day, month and year in your APA, MLA, Chicago or Harvard citation come from the video itself rather than from a screenshot of a vague label. No other field on the page depends on you finding a date manually.
How APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago and Harvard treat a TikTok differently
The four styles disagree most about the caption, which stands in for a title. APA 7 keeps only the first 20 words and counts every URL, hashtag or emoji as one word each. Chicago 17 keeps the first 160 characters at most, truncated at a sensible point with an ellipsis. MLA 9 quotes the full caption with its original capitalization, allowing bracketed first-letter corrections like "[I]f u like dark academia…". Harvard puts the caption in single quotes. The generator applies the right rule per style automatically.
They also slot the creator’s two names differently. TikTok accounts carry both a username (up to 24 characters, no spaces) and a display name (up to 30 characters, spaces allowed). APA wants "Name. [@handle]", as in Cook, P. [@chemteacherphil]. MLA accepts the name with the handle in brackets, or the handle alone if that is all you know. Chicago writes "Firstname Lastname (@handle)", and Harvard leads with the handle or surname.
Dates and placement differ too. Harvard, following the Cite Them Right convention, requires an Accessed date on every entry. Note that UK universities vary in their exact Harvard flavour, so check your handbook. Chicago cites TikToks in notes only, adding a bibliography entry just when a video is discussed in depth; often a narrative mention with name, handle and date is enough. APA and MLA both use a standard reference-list entry with a short in-text form such as (Cook, 2021) or (Lilly).
Profiles, Lives, deleted videos and captionless posts
A TikTok profile is cited differently from a video. In APA 7 a profile takes (n.d.) as its date, uses the first 20 words of the bio as its title, is labelled [TikTok profile], and must carry a retrieval date ("Retrieved February 22, 2022, from URL") because profile content changes over time.
A TikTok Live that was not archived cannot be recovered by your reader, so APA treats it as a personal communication: cite it in the text only, with no reference-list entry. If the Live was saved and reposted as a video, cite the video instead.
Because posts get edited and deleted, the Chicago Manual of Style explicitly advises saving a screenshot of any post you cite. Do that the day you cite it; if the video later disappears before your paper is graded, you still hold the evidence, and the citation you generated remains valid as a record of what you consulted.
A video with no caption still gets a title slot: APA style uses a bracketed description of the content in place of the missing caption. And emoji in captions should be preserved, not stripped. In APA each emoji counts as one word of the 20, so removing them silently changes where the title cuts off.
Checked against the official style guides, updated for 2026
The templates here follow the primary sources for each style: the APA Style TikTok references page (guidance updated June 2024), the MLA Style Center’s official TikTok Q&A, the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition’s rules for social media, and the Cite Them Right convention for Harvard. Where a style body has published a worked example, the generator’s output matches it.
The platform numbers are current as of 2026: TikTok captions run up to 4,000 characters in the app (2,200 when posted through third-party tools), usernames are capped at 24 characters and display names at 30. Field validation in the generator follows those limits, so a citation built here reflects what can actually appear on TikTok.
The tool is free, needs no account, and runs entirely in your browser: the link you paste is parsed on your machine. Citing a TikTok is legitimate academic practice. Both APA and MLA publish official formats for it, and a correctly formatted, dated, screenshotted citation is what turns a video into a usable source.
Frequently asked questions
How do you cite a TikTok video in APA 7?
Use the pattern: Author. [@handle]. (Year, Month Day). First 20 words of the caption [Video]. TikTok. URL. Each URL, hashtag or emoji in the caption counts as one word toward the 20. For example: Cook, P. [@chemteacherphil]. (2021, September 17). Fighting fire with fire [Video]. TikTok. The in-text form is (Cook, 2021).
How do I find the exact date a TikTok was posted?
Decode it from the video URL: the 19-digit video ID contains a Unix timestamp in its top 32 bits, accurate to within about 5 seconds of upload. TikTok’s own interface only shows relative dates like "3d ago", which is why so many guides tell you to hunt for the date manually. This generator reads the exact day, month and year from the ID the moment you paste a link.
Do I use the creator’s real name or their @handle?
Both, when you have both; each style slots them differently. APA writes Name. [@handle], MLA writes Name [@handle] or the handle alone if that is all you know, Chicago writes Firstname Lastname (@handle), and Harvard leads with the handle or surname. TikTok usernames are at most 24 characters with no spaces; display names allow spaces and run up to 30 characters.
How do I cite a TikTok in MLA if I only know the username?
Use the handle alone as the author; MLA explicitly allows it. Quote the full caption with its original capitalization (a bracketed correction like "[I]f u like dark academia…" is fine), give TikTok as the italicized container, then the year and the URL without the https:// prefix. The in-text citation is just the author name in parentheses, for example (Lilly).
Can you cite a TikTok with no caption or no date?
Yes. With no caption, APA style substitutes a bracketed description of the video’s content in the title slot. A truly dateless TikTok video is rare, because the upload date is recoverable from the 19-digit video ID even when the app only shows "3d ago"; profiles, which do change over time, take (n.d.) plus a retrieval date instead.
How do I cite a TikTok profile or a TikTok Live?
A profile in APA 7 takes (n.d.) as its date, the first 20 words of the bio as its title, the label [TikTok profile], and a required retrieval date, because profile content changes. A TikTok Live that was not archived is cited as a personal communication (in the text only, with no reference-list entry), since readers cannot retrieve it.
Is TikTok a credible source for an academic paper?
It can be: both APA and MLA publish official formats for citing TikTok, which settles whether it is citable at all. Credibility then depends on the video, not the platform. Evaluate the creator’s expertise as you would any source. Because posts get edited and deleted, the Chicago Manual of Style recommends screenshotting anything you cite on the day you cite it.
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