TED Talk Citation Generator

Your citations

Enter the talk's title to see your citations.

How to Use the TED Talk Citation Generator

1. 1. Say where you watched. Choose TED.com or YouTube. The two are cited differently, and APA changes the author.
2. 2. Enter the speaker and the title. Type the title in sentence case, as it appears on the talk's page. For a YouTube copy, add the title exactly as the channel shows it for APA, and the channel's name.
3. 3. Add the dates, place and running time. TED.com gives the month and year a talk was filmed. YouTube gives the day it was posted. Chicago also wants the place and the running time.
4. 4. Add a time stamp if you quote. The in-text citations will carry it.
5. 5. Paste the URL and copy the style you need. Each entry copies with its italics intact.

TED.com or YouTube: Who Is the Author?

A TED talk is posted in two places, and APA treats them differently. The deciding rule is retrieval: the reader should be able to find the exact thing you cite.

On TED.com APA's example makes the speaker the author and TED Conferences the publisher, dates the talk by year and month, and puts [Video] after the italic title. On YouTube it names the account that posted the video as the author and dates it to the day; the speaker goes in your sentence, not the author slot. MLA 9 has no TED example in the Handbook, so the generator applies its core elements to a web video: the speaker as author, the talk in quotation marks, the site as an italic container and the date and URL — a YouTube copy adds who uploaded it. Chicago 18 (§14.167) has an official TED sample in its Quick Guide: the words TED Talk, the place and month, then the running time, with the word Video added in the bibliography.

TED Talk Citation Examples

Vaitea Cowan's TED2022 talk on green hydrogen, watched on TED.com. It is the talk Chicago's own Quick Guide uses, so the Chicago lines match the manual's sample.

Brené Brown's TED2012 talk "Listening to shame," watched on TED's YouTube channel. APA names the channel; MLA and Chicago still name the speaker.

Quoting a Talk: Time Stamps

A talk has no pages, so a quotation or a close paraphrase is located by time. Enter the time where the passage starts, and every in-text citation carries it. Chicago's Quick Guide writes the locator with the word at in the shortened note; APA and MLA put the time in the parentheses where a page number would go.

TEDx, TED-Ed and Other Cases

• A TEDx talk. Cite it the same way, and type the event's name, such as TEDxPoughkeepsie, in the TEDx box. Chicago then uses the event name in place of TED Talk — a library convention, not a published Chicago example. On YouTube the uploading channel is usually TEDx Talks.
• A TED-Ed lesson. It is a video lesson, not a talk. Cite it from YouTube with TED-Ed as the channel; there is no speaker to name unless the page credits an educator.
• No date shown. APA uses n.d. in place of the date. MLA and Chicago leave the date out; add the day you watched it as an access date if your instructor wants one.
• More than one speaker. Enter one per line; the author rules for two, three and more names apply as they do for any source.

Common Mistakes

• Making TED the author of a talk on TED.com. On the site, the speaker is the author and TED Conferences is the publisher.
• Making the speaker the APA author of a YouTube copy. APA names the channel that uploaded the video.
• Italicizing the talk's title in MLA or Chicago. Both put it in quotation marks. Only APA italicizes it.
• Using the event date as the posting date. TED.com's date and the date YouTube shows are often different. Use the one on the page you cite.
• Leaving out the time stamp. A talk has no page numbers, so a quotation without one cannot be found again.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I cite a TED Talk in APA 7?

For a talk on TED.com, give the speaker, the year and month, the title in italics with [Video], TED Conferences and the URL: Cowan, V. (2022, April). How green hydrogen could end the fossil fuel era [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/vaitea_cowan_how_green_hydrogen_could_end_the_fossil_fuel_era. In text: (Cowan, 2022).

Who is the author of a TED Talk on YouTube?

In APA 7, the channel that uploaded it: TED, TEDx Talks or TED-Ed. APA does this to help readers retrieve the video, and the date includes the day. Name the speaker in your sentence and cite the channel: (TED, 2012). MLA 9 and Chicago 18 still name the speaker as the author.

How do I cite a TED Talk in MLA 9?

Name the speaker, put the title in quotation marks, and give TED as the container in italics with the date and URL: Cowan, Vaitea. “How Green Hydrogen Could End the Fossil Fuel Era.” TED, Apr. 2022, www.ted.com/talks/vaitea_cowan_how_green_hydrogen_could_end_the_fossil_fuel_era. In text: (Cowan), or (Cowan 6:09) with a time stamp. For a copy on YouTube, make the container YouTube and add uploaded by TED.

How do I cite a TED Talk in Chicago style?

The CMOS 18 Quick Guide gives a note of this shape: Vaitea Cowan, “How Green Hydrogen Could End the Fossil Fuel Era,” TED Talk, Vancouver, BC, April 2022, 9 min., 15 sec., followed by the URL. The bibliography entry reverses the name and adds the word Video before the running time. The shortened note is Cowan, “Green Hydrogen.”

How do I cite a TEDx talk?

The same way as a TED Talk, with the event named: TEDxPoughkeepsie, for example. In APA the format does not change; on YouTube the channel is usually TEDx Talks. In Chicago, library guides replace the words TED Talk with the event's name.

How do I add a time stamp to an in-text citation?

Put the time where the quotation starts after the year in APA — (Cowan, 2022, 6:09) — and after the surname in MLA — (Cowan 6:09). Chicago writes the shortened note with the word at: Cowan, “Green Hydrogen,” at 6:09–17. Use the format of the player, hours first for a long talk.