How to Cite a Source with No Page Numbers

Quick Answer: cite a source with no page numbers

For a paraphrase, all three styles let you cite the author and date (APA, Chicago author-date) or the author alone (MLA) with no locator. For a direct quotation, APA 7 wants a substitute: a paragraph number, a section heading, or both, or a timestamp for audio and video. MLA 9 gives no locator unless the source numbers its own paragraphs or sections, and uses hours, minutes, and seconds for time-based media. Chicago 18 accepts a chapter or section number, a heading introduced with under, a paragraph number, or a time point. None of the three wants you to count pages in a PDF printout or copy a Kindle location.

Decide whether you need a locator at all

The locator question only arises for quotations and for close paraphrases of one passage in a long work. APA's paraphrasing page says a page or paragraph number is not required for a paraphrase, though you may add one to help a reader find the passage in a long or complex work. MLA and Chicago take the same view. So the first move is to ask which kind of use you are making; the paraphrasing versus quoting guide covers that distinction.

1. If you are summarising a whole article, chapter, or video, cite author and date (or author alone in MLA) and stop. No style asks for a locator here.
2. If you are quoting, check whether the source has any fixed numbering: printed page numbers in a PDF, numbered paragraphs in a legal or scholarly web text, chapter numbers in an ebook, a running time in a video.
3. Prefer a fixed unit the reader will see on their own copy. A chapter number is the same on every device; a Kindle location is not.
4. If the source has headings but no numbers, count paragraphs from the nearest heading and give both.
5. If it has neither headings nor numbering, and it is short, cite without a locator. A reader can search a two-screen web page in seconds.
6. Match the locator format to your style using the sections below.

A PDF with printed page numbers is not a no-page source

Many articles, reports, and scanned books arrive as PDFs that carry the original pagination. Cite those printed numbers, not the PDF viewer's counter. The counter starts at the cover and drifts by the length of the front matter; a reader with the print edition will land on the wrong page. The PDF citation guide covers pagination for that format. This guide is for sources that genuinely have no page: web pages, reflowable ebooks, audio, video, and slides without numbering.

APA 7: paragraph numbers, headings, and timestamps

APA 7 §8.28 and the quotations page set out the substitutes in order of preference. Use a paragraph number, counted manually if the source does not number them, written as para.; a heading or section name; a shortened heading in quotation marks followed by a paragraph count when the heading is long; a timestamp for audiovisual works; and canonically numbered parts such as chapter and verse for religious and classical works. Headings that are short are written in title case without quotation marks, followed by the word section.

Web page without numbered paragraphs

Count paragraphs from the top of the article, not from the top of the browser window, and do not count the title, byline, or image captions. When you count from a heading instead, say so by naming the heading. A reader who lands on para. 4 and finds a different fourth paragraph because the site added an introduction has been given the wrong locator; the heading-plus-paragraph form survives that kind of edit better. Format the reference itself with the website citation generator and add the locator in the in-text citation generator.

Ebook without fixed pages

A reflowable ebook repaginates every time the font size changes, so its page numbers are not citable unless the edition reproduces the print pagination. APA's list of substitutes does not include device locations, and APA Style guidance has said not to use Kindle location numbers because they vary between devices and apps. Cite the chapter and, for a quotation, the paragraph within it, or a section heading, exactly as for a web page. The ebook citation generator handles the reference entry.

Video and podcast: timestamps

For audiovisual works APA cites the time at which the quoted material begins, in the form the player shows: 4:32 for four minutes and thirty-two seconds, 1:04:32 when the work runs past an hour. Give the start point only; APA does not ask for a range. The same rule covers TED talks, lectures recorded on video, and podcast episodes. The reference entries below follow the YouTube and podcast guides.

Religious and classical works

Works with canonical numbering are cited by that numbering in every edition: chapter and verse, book and line, act, scene, and line. APA's own example is (King James Bible, 1769/2017, 1 Kings 3:9); a play is cited as (Author, year, Act 2, Scene 1, lines 14–20). The numbering replaces the page and does not change when the edition does, which is the whole point of using it.

MLA 9: no locator unless the source supplies one

MLA 9's rule is the simplest of the three and the one students most often get wrong by trying too hard. If a source has no page numbers or other numbered divisions, the parenthetical contains the author's name and nothing else; if the author is named in your sentence, there is no parenthetical at all. You do not count paragraphs yourself. Abbreviations such as par., sec., ch., and line are used only when the source itself numbers those units, and when you use one it is preceded by a comma, unlike a page number. The MLA Style Center and the MLA in-text guide both illustrate the comma rule.

Ebooks in MLA

MLA says not to cite device-specific numbers such as Kindle locations because they do not correspond to anything in another reader's copy. If the ebook has numbered chapters, cite the chapter with a comma: (Fairweather, ch. 3). If it reproduces the print page numbers, cite those as pages. Otherwise, cite the author alone. Record the ebook format in the works-cited entry, before the publisher, so the reader knows why no page is given.

Time-based media in MLA

For video and audio, MLA cites the time range of the material in hours, minutes, and seconds, 00:04:32-00:04:50, with no comma after the author's name, because the time range plays the role a page number plays. Give a range rather than a single point when you are quoting a passage. The works-cited entries follow the YouTube in MLA and podcast in MLA patterns.

Chicago 18: chapter, heading, paragraph, or time point

Chicago's guidance for electronic sources without fixed pages, in the section on page and location numbers for ebooks and in the online Notes and Bibliography citation guide, is to cite a chapter or section number, a heading introduced by under, or a paragraph number, and to note the format of the ebook at the end of the entry. Location numbers from a specific device or app are described as of limited use because they differ between readers' copies; a chapter or section number is preferred. The guide's own ebook example cites chap. 3 and ends the entry with Kindle.

Notes-Bibliography

In the video note the first time, 14:05, is the running length that Chicago records as part of the description, and at 4:32 is the locator for the passage. Writing at keeps the two from being read as a range. Chicago 18 no longer requires a place of publication for post-1900 books, which is why none appears in the Fairweather entries. Notes without any locator are acceptable in Chicago when the passage is easy to find; use one whenever the source is long enough that a search would be slow. The Chicago footnote generator produces the note and bibliography pair; add the locator before the URL.

Author-Date

Author-date puts the same locators after the year, separated by a comma, exactly where a page number would go. The Author-Date citation guide moves the year to follow the author in the reference list and otherwise keeps the entry the same.

Three styles side by side

A short checklist

Common mistakes

• Citing the PDF viewer's page counter instead of the printed page number.
• Writing n. pag. or n.p. in MLA 9. Those abbreviations were dropped in MLA 8; leave the locator out instead.
• Counting paragraphs in MLA. MLA uses par. only when the source numbers them.
• Omitting the comma before par., sec., or ch. in MLA, or adding one before a page number.
• Citing a Kindle location in any of the three styles.
• Giving a timestamp range in APA, or a single point in MLA; APA wants the start, MLA wants the range in hh:mm:ss.
• Writing (Nakamura, 2023, para. 4) in Chicago author-date; Chicago has no comma between author and year: (Nakamura 2023, para. 4).
• Inventing a page number from a printout of a web page. The number is meaningless to anyone else.
• Leaving off the ebook format in Chicago or MLA when there is no page number, so the reader cannot tell why.

Related guides and official manuals

• How to Cite a Website in APA Format
• How to Cite Websites in MLA Format
• How to Cite Websites and Blog Posts in Chicago Style
• How to Cite PDF Documents
• How to Cite a YouTube Video in APA
• How to Cite a Podcast in APA
• Paraphrasing vs. Quoting
• How to Cite a Source with No Date
• APA in-text citations
• MLA in-text citations
• Chicago in-text citations and notes
• APA Style: quotations, including material without page numbers
• APA Style: paraphrasing
• MLA Style Center
• Chicago Notes-Bibliography citation guide
• Chicago Author-Date citation guide