What Citation Machine does

Citation Machine is a web-based academic writing assistance platform founded in 2000 and operated as a wholly-owned service of Chegg Inc., the publicly traded education company (NASDAQ: CHGG) headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Its core product is an automated citation generator supporting more than 7,000 citation styles (including MLA 9th edition, APA 7th edition, Chicago 17th edition, and Harvard) across 50-plus source types such as websites, books, journals, films, and interviews. In September 2019, the platform expanded from a citation-only website into a full writing and research hub, adding an AI-powered Writing Assistant for grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, and paraphrasing, plus a Plagiarism Checker that compares submissions against a large corpus of sources and a Title Page Maker. The service integrates with WorldCat for book metadata and exports bibliographies directly to Google Drive and Microsoft Word.

The technology stack is a self-serve web application delivered at citationmachine.net with no native mobile app and no public API or SDK. Book metadata is powered by WorldCat; plagiarism and grammar scanning run against aggregated source corpora. The user base is primarily college and university students, with secondary segments including high school students, teachers and educators, and independent researchers. Customer acquisition is overwhelmingly organic: SEO for citation-related queries, content marketing through the company blog and citation style guides, social channels (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube), and a Purdue OWL partnership providing academic credibility. The service is positioned as a free tool with Citation Machine Plus offered as a premium monthly subscription that adds Expert Checks (up to 30 per billing period), advanced grammar and plagiarism scanning, and submission checking up to 10,000 words.

Citation Machine operates entirely as a direct-to-consumer, self-serve product with no sales motion, no enterprise or institutional tier, and no third-party distribution. As a subsidiary brand within the Chegg portfolio rather than a standalone entity, it shares infrastructure, support, and brand association with the parent. Its operating status is active, with copyright coverage through 2026, but standalone financial metrics, headcount, and recent product roadmap data are not publicly disclosed.

Name

Citation Machine

Legal name

Citation Machine

Website

https://citationmachine.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Citation Machine is a web-based citation generation and writing assistance platform founded in 2000 and owned by Chegg Inc., serving college and university students, high school students, teachers, and independent researchers with automated citations, grammar checks, plagiarism detection, and a premium monthly subscription tier.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Academic Writing Software

NAICS

Other Publishers (51319)

SIC

Miscellaneous Publishing (2741)

akta.pro primary industry

AI-Generated Content Detection & Authorship Verification (EDAFALAB)

Keywords

• Citation generation
• Academic writing tools
• Plagiarism detection
• Bibliography formatting
• Grammar checking software

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Citation Machine Plus Subscription: Premium subscription service providing access to advanced features including up to 30 Expert Checks per billing period, unlimited citation generation, advanced grammar checking, and plagiarism scanning. Subscriptions auto-renew monthly on a rolling basis with free trial offers.
2. Freemium Model: Basic citation generation and some grammar/plagiarism checking features are available for free, with premium features locked behind the Citation Machine Plus paywall.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Citation Machine operates a web-based academic writing platform that automatically generates properly formatted citations across thousands of styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and specialized formats) and supports 50+ source types. It complements citation generation with AI-powered writing assistance (grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, paraphrasing) and a plagiarism scanner that checks writing against billions of sources. Premium features are gated behind the Citation Machine Plus monthly subscription, while core citation generation is free.

Product overview

Citation Machine is a comprehensive academic writing and citation platform owned by Chegg Inc., operating since 2000 and serving high school, college, and university students, teachers, and independent researchers. The platform has evolved from a citation-only tool into a complete writing and research hub. The core product is the Citation Generator supporting thousands of citation styles (MLA 9th ed., APA 7th ed., Chicago 17th ed., Harvard, and thousands more). The platform integrates a Writing Assistant with AI-powered grammar and spelling checks, a Plagiarism Checker scanning against billions of sources, a Title Page Maker, and comprehensive citation guides. Premium Citation Machine Plus subscription adds Expert Checks and advanced paper checking capabilities. Users can export bibliographies directly to Google Drive or Microsoft Word.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Citation Machine Plus: Premium subscription tier offering enhanced features including up to 30 Expert Checks per billing period, advanced grammar checking, and plagiarism detection with comprehensive reports.
• Citation Machine Writing Assistant

Products and services

• Citation Machine (Citation Generator) Primary citation generation platform that creates properly formatted citations in thousands of styles including MLA, APA, Chicago, and Harvard. Supports 50+ source types (websites, books, journals, films, interviews, etc.) and generates bibliographies and works cited pages with export to Google Drive and Microsoft Word.
• Writing Assistant AI-powered writing enhancement tool providing instant feedback on grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. Includes paraphrasing capabilities to rephrase writing. Targeted at students producing academic papers and assignments.
• Plagiarism Checker Comprehensive plagiarism detection tool that scans writing against billions of sources to identify potential plagiarism. Generates detailed similarity reports showing similarity percentages for any assignment.
• Grammar Checker Proofreading tool that identifies and helps fix grammatical errors in written work, checking for spelling, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, and word choice. Part of the Writing Assistant suite.
• Title Page Maker Tool for creating properly formatted academic title pages for research papers and assignments in MLA, APA, Chicago, and other styles.
• Annotated Bibliography Tool Feature for creating annotated citations with brief descriptions of content and evaluation of sources for academic research papers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Supports 7,000+ citation styles
• +2 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability2 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Purdue University Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 March 2019In March 2019, Chegg, Inc. announced a partnership with the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL), one of the most respected writing resources in academia. The partnership combines Citation Machine's citation and writing tools with Purdue OWL's expertise in writing resources, creating a comprehensive academic writing assistance offering. Purdue OWL is widely used by students and educators for writing guidance, making this partnership strategically important for credibility and reach within the academic community.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Zotero: Zotero is a free, open-source reference manager widely used by students and researchers for citation generation and bibliography management. It competes directly with Citation Machine on the core citation use case but is differentiated by being free, open-source, and heavily used in academic research workflows.
• Mendeley: Mendeley (owned by Elsevier) is a reference manager and academic social network that generates citations and bibliographies. It competes directly with Citation Machine on citation management and serves an overlapping student/researcher audience, with deeper integration into academic publishing workflows.
• Cite This For Me: Cite This For Me is a direct competitor in the citation-generation space with similar freemium model, supporting MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and thousands of other styles. Both target students with web-based, self-serve citation tools.
• RefWorks: RefWorks is a reference management platform used by academic institutions, offering citation generation and bibliography tools. It competes directly with Citation Machine on the citation workflow use case, with stronger institutional/library distribution.
• EasyBib: EasyBib is a direct citation-generation competitor offering MLA, APA, Chicago and other styles with a freemium model. Both target students with the same core job-to-be-done (auto-formatting citations) and have evolved from citation-only tools into broader writing assistance platforms.

Emerging players

• Scribbr: Scribbr provides citation generation tools alongside paid editing and proofreading services. It overlaps with Citation Machine on the citation-generation use case but monetizes primarily through human editing services rather than subscriptions.
• QuillBot: QuillBot is an AI writing tool specializing in paraphrasing, grammar checking, and summarization, with a citation generator added to its suite. It overlaps with Citation Machine's Writing Assistant and paraphraser, targeting the same student segment with freemium pricing.

Broad incumbents

• Turnitin: Turnitin is the dominant institutional plagiarism-detection platform used by universities globally. It competes directly with Citation Machine's Plagiarism Checker but sells primarily to institutions rather than individual students, and increasingly offers AI-content detection.
• Grammarly: Grammarly is a broad-incumbent writing assistance platform with grammar checking, paraphrasing, and increasingly citation-adjacent features. It overlaps with Citation Machine's Writing Assistant and represents the largest commercial competitor in adjacent writing-tooling territory.

Others

• Purdue OWL: Purdue University's Online Writing Lab is a free academic writing reference resource and Citation Machine's strategic partner. It overlaps in providing citation style guides and is thematically adjacent as a destination for students seeking citation help, though it does not directly compete as a tool.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/citemachin
• YouTubeyoutube.com/playlist?list=PLllCkartRRdMcUo0gc7uC5cdE2Ce0Vw4R
• Facebookfacebook.com/Citation-Machine-131684413573248
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cadre-consulting-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Citation Machine