Overview

cytado is an academic citation tool for writers who need to connect claims with sources and manage references across document editors and AI assistants. Its strongest case is research that benefits from source matching and printed-page excerpts; writers seeking only quick, broad-style citation formatting may find a simpler free tool a better fit.

Key features

cytado finds academic sources for claims and can return citations with page numbers, quotations, and links to the originals. That makes it more useful for substantiating a draft than a formatter that only turns supplied metadata into a citation. There is an important boundary: page numbers are unavailable for documents without printed pagination, and some sources yield metadata and short quotations rather than full text.

Bibliographies and footnotes can be formatted in APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago, Harvard, and numbered footnote styles. The tool supports in-text citations and exports to Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, and RIS. Users can paste or upload a bibliography for checking against Crossref, OpenAlex, and Google Books. These are practical additions for writers revising references, though five citation styles are a narrower range than a dedicated generator advertising thousands.

Integrations include Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Claude via MCP, ChatGPT, and a Chrome extension. The Citation API can find a source for a claim, retrieve sources for a chapter, and check usage. The source corpus covers English, Polish, and German publications, which makes it more relevant to those language needs than to research in other languages.

Privacy boundaries are stated for two integrations: the Chrome extension receives only text a user selects and submits, while the Google Docs add-on receives the highlighted sentence and user-entered thesis topic, not the rest of the document or other Drive files. Unpaid projects are limited to one at a time, with daily and monthly caps on source searches. Support replies to questions, billing issues, and feedback within one business day.

Pricing

The free options suit different stages of trying or using cytado. Test costs 0.00 USD per month and includes 100 resolved citations and 3 new topics, with no card required. The separate Free plan costs 0.00 USD per free and provides 3 full sources per project, plus summaries and quality scores, without requiring a card. Neither removes the unpaid-project and search-cap limits.

Unlocked project costs 13.00 USD per once. One payment covers a project for as long as the writer works on it, with all found sources, printed-page fragments, a paragraph source finder, and Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, and RIS exports. It is the clearest fit for a single paper or thesis project; it does not offer the monthly citation and topic quotas of the subscription plans.

Basic costs 19.00 USD per month for 400 citations and 5 new topics; extra citations cost $0.04 and extra topics $1.00. Start costs 49.00 USD per month for 1,200 citations and 15 new topics, while Pro costs 99.00 USD per month for 3,000 citations and 40 new topics. Both carry the same extra-use prices. Basic is the lower-commitment recurring choice for modest ongoing research, while Start and Pro suit heavier workloads; the monthly plans matter most to users who need larger citation and topic allowances across continuing work.

Platforms

cytado is available through web, API, and extension. Its named integrations extend use to Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Claude via MCP, and ChatGPT, so it can fit workflows that move between writing tools. The API is especially relevant for teams or applications that need citation-finding endpoints rather than only a standalone interface.

Who it's for

cytado is best suited to students, researchers, and writers who need to source claims, check bibliographies, or work with page-linked citations in English, Polish, or German. The one-time project plan is compelling for a bounded writing project; recurring plans make more sense for users who repeatedly work through citation and topic quotas. It is less suitable for anyone who needs page numbers from unpaginated works, full text for every source, or citation styles beyond its five supported formats.

Pros and cons

Pro: Source finding, bibliography checking, formatting, and exports span the research-to-document workflow, reducing the need to switch among separate citation tasks.
Pro: The 13.00 USD one-time project plan includes all found sources and printed-page fragments, a useful alternative to a monthly subscription for one long-running paper.
Pro: The extension and Docs add-on specify narrow data access, which gives users a clearer privacy boundary when submitting selected text.
Con: Unpaid projects are limited to one at a time and source searches have daily and monthly caps, restricting sustained free use.
Con: Page numbers depend on printed pagination, and some sources provide only metadata and short quotations, so cytado cannot support every source with the same depth.
Con: The five citation styles may not cover writers who need a less common format.

Alternatives

Choose Petal if cloud storage and document annotations matter more than citation export: its free plan includes 1 GB of storage, one seat, three guests, 400 AI credits, two collections, and three annotations per document, but citation export is not included.

NevaScholar Citation Generator is a better fit for a web-only user who wants a free, no-sign-up citation generator with more than 7,000 styles. For a free web tool with DOI, URL, or title lookup and 15 or more styles, consider Yomu AI Citation Generator; its free option also includes bibliography and in-text formats with copy or export.

Pick AllCitations for a free web generator with unlimited citations, more than 30 styles, and no account requirement. CitePlex is worth considering when API access and a free web option are priorities; its free plan offers unlimited generate and copy, 11 styles, two projects, and saves 20 citations per month.

Paperpal is another freemium option, with web and extension access, a free trial, and paid plans for regular research and writing needs. AutoCaret Citation Generator may suit writers seeking a web tool with a free allowance of 20 credits—up to about four documents—and DOCX export. Citation Generator Canada is a free web alternative with AI-powered metadata lookup, citation styles, and DOCX and TXT export.

For a broader comparison, see AI Citation Generators.

Verdict

Choose cytado if your work needs more than citation formatting—especially claim-level source finding, bibliography checks, or page-linked excerpts across writing tools. Its one-time project plan is a strong fit for a single substantial paper, while subscription tiers serve repeated research with higher quotas. Look elsewhere if you need a much wider range of citation styles, unrestricted free searching, or page numbers for unpaginated sources.

	cytado	PDFSimpli
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	$19/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, extension, Web	Linux, macOS, Web, Windows
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Citation styles	5	—
In-text citations	Yes	—
Bibliography export	Yes	—
Document integrations	multiple	—
Citation formats	multiple	—

cytado vs PDFSimpli

cytado

PDFSimpli