Your references, looked up

Citation Checker: Confirm the Sources Behind Your Work

Your sources are part of the evidence. Make sure they hold up.
Paste a passage with its reference list. As many as eight sources get their own web search, and each comes back valid, warning, or not found, with a short reason.

No sign-up needed
Eight sources max per check
Five checks per day

0 words

Each source the check looks up is listed here as valid, warning, or not found, with a short reason.

Citations are taken from the first 2,000 words and looked up online—eight sources at most per check, five checks a day—and a work that is paywalled, just published, or kept offline may not turn up.

When a detector flags your draft

An AI score is an estimate. Your sources can be checked.

If your own writing is questioned, the reference list is one of the few parts a reviewer can verify directly. Make sure every entry points to a work that exists, with the right details.

1. Save the flagged version
Keep the exact text and its result before you change anything, so any conversation is about the draft that was actually assessed.
2. Check the passage with its entries
Paste the section that carries the citations, plus the reference-list entries those citations name. One check covers a maximum of eight sources.
3. Open what the check returns
Follow each link, compare the author, title, and year, and find the page or paragraph that supports your sentence.
4. Gather your research trail
Library records, saved PDFs, and notes that tie each claim to a source show how the work was built. Have them ready if you are asked about the result.

What the check looks for

Three ways a reference list lets you down.

Most reference problems are honest slips: a year typed from memory, a title shortened in your notes, a source a chatbot suggested that nobody opened. Each one weakens the claim it is attached to.

References that lead nowhere

An entry with a believable author, journal, and title that matches no published work. These often come from AI-drafted text, and they are the first thing to remove.

Details that don’t line up

The work exists, but the year, authors, or title in your entry differ from what the search finds. Correct the entry against the original record.

Sources the web can’t reach

Paywalled articles, recent papers, print-only books, and archives may not appear in a web search. For these, a no-match result means checking the printed or downloaded copy you worked from.

How a check runs

From your passage to a short list of sources to open

Each source gets its own search, one after another, and the progress panel shows which one is being verified.

01
Add the passage and its sources
Paste the paragraphs that cite sources along with the matching reference entries. Text with no citations ends the check early and still uses one of the day’s five.
02
The key sources are picked
The checker pulls out the distinct works you cite, favoring full reference entries over repeated in-text mentions, and keeps at most eight, choosing by importance.
03
Each one is searched
Each source it kept gets a web search, and what comes back is lined up against the authors, title, year, and venue in your entry.
04
You read and decide
Each source comes back with a status, a short explanation, and a link when the search returned one. Keeping, correcting, or replacing it is your call.

Reading the results

Valid, warning, not found: what each one asks of you.

A status describes what the web search turned up and nothing more. It does not rate the quality of a source or tell you whether it backs your point.

ResultYour next move

Valid: The search found a publication whose authors, title, and year match your entry. Open it anyway and confirm that the passage you rely on is really there.
Warning: The evidence was partial: the journal or publisher turned up but not the specific work, or details in your entry differ from what was found. Compare the entry with the original record and fix what is wrong.
Not found: No credible match came back, or the search returned nothing at all. Look the work up by DOI, in your library’s database, or on the journal’s own site. If it still does not turn up, swap in a source you can open, or rewrite the claim it was meant to support.
The source link: The link is the closest search result, not proof that it is your source, and it can sit beside a warning or a not-found result too. Check that the page describes the same work.
The valid count: The summary counts only the sources in this check, eight at most. Entries the check did not reach are not part of the number.

Limits worth planning around

Eight sources, five checks, 2,000 words.

The limits are fixed. Deciding how to split the draft before you start lets each of the day’s checks reach sources the others did not.

Eight sources at most per check

A longer list needs several runs. Split the draft by section and paste each part with only the entries it cites, so each run covers sources you have not looked up yet.

Five checks a day

The count is kept per browser and resets at midnight UTC. Every run counts, including one that finds no citations, so look over the paste before you start.

The first 2,000 words

Anything past the first 2,000 words is not read. In a long paper the reference list sits at the end, so paste the section you are checking with its entries rather than the whole document.

Before you submit

Finish the review the search started.

These ticks are your own to-do list on this page; they do not vouch for the reference list.

Source review checklist

0 of 5 reviewed

Every result openedI have followed each link or found each source myself, including the ones marked valid.
Warnings resolvedI have corrected authors, titles, and years against the original record.
Not-found sources settledI have located each one through a library or publisher record, or replaced it.
Claims match their sourcesI have reread each passage I cite and confirmed it says what my sentence says.
Research trail savedI have kept the notes, files, and drafts that show how I used each source.

Frequently asked questions

Citation checker questions, answered.

Free use, daily limits, flagged drafts, and what a web lookup cannot confirm.

Do I need an account to check citations?

No. The citation checker is free and needs no sign-up. Each browser gets five checks a day, and the count resets at midnight UTC.

Can verified sources prove I didn’t use AI?

No. Real, accurate references are useful context if a draft is questioned, but no citation check establishes who wrote the text.

Why was a real source marked not found?

The lookup relies on web search, so paywalled articles, very recent work, print-only books, and offline archives may not show up. Check it against the copy you read or a library record before you replace it.

Why are only eight sources checked?

Each check keeps a maximum of eight distinct sources, chosen by importance, and gives each one its own search. For a longer list, check the draft section by section.

Does it check APA or MLA formatting?

No. It searches for each work and compares your authors, title, and year with what turns up. Validating a citation style or generating a bibliography is outside what it does.

Where does my passage go during a citation check?

Your passage is processed to pull out the citations and run the searches, which can involve third-party processing services. It is not used to train AI models built by ChatGPTDetector.me, and the Privacy Policy explains how it is handled.

Sources first

Know which references hold up before anyone asks.

Paste a section with its reference entries, read each result, and open every source before your draft goes out.

Check My Sources

Eight sources at most per check, and five checks daily without an account.