What is Citely?
Citely is an AI-driven citation verification and literature provenance tool whose core mission is “Find Sources in Seconds. Cite Only What's Real.” (Find authentic sources in seconds; cite only what’s real.)
It serves students, scholars, journal editors, and research teams, providing end-to-end support—from tracing single-sentence claims and batch-verifying entire reference lists to specialized identification of AI-generated citations—and has been practically validated by researchers at institutions such as Stanford University, MIT, Oxford University, the Max Planck Institute, and journals like Nature Communications.
Key features
AI Literature Provenance Feature: Paste a claim or passage, and instantly receive the original academic source—verified by CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv, and Google Scholar—along with complete metadata.
AI Citation Verification Feature: Expertly identifies fake citations generated by models like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, including typical hallucination patterns such as “chimeric citations,” forged DOIs, and temporal mismatches.
Use cases and audience
Students, doctoral candidates, university faculty, researchers, journal editors, research librarians, and large research teams.
- Verify the authenticity of AI-generated citations, identifying hallucinated references produced by models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others (e.g., fabricated DOIs, “chimera citations” that combine authors and titles, temporal mismatches, etc.)
- Perform batch authenticity checks on reference lists in academic papers or student assignments, automatically flagging entries that are fake, mismatched, or unverifiable
- Input a research claim or paragraph to instantly retrieve original scholarly sources verified through authoritative databases like CrossRef, PubMed, arXiv, Google Scholar, and more
Texts containing citations to be verified, research claims, entire paragraphs, or lists of references.
Citation verification reports indicating whether citations are genuine or false, original academic sources validated by authoritative databases, and directly citable entries formatted according to APA, MLA, or Chicago styles.
Frequently asked questions
How does Citely detect fake AI-generated citations?
Citely detects hallucination patterns unique to models like ChatGPT, including “chimera citations,” fabricated DOIs, and temporal drift.
What citation formats does Citely support?
It supports exporting in multiple citation formats, such as APA, MLA, and Chicago.
How to use
- 01
Visit the Citely.ai website and create an account
- 02
Paste the citation text, research claim, or entire passage you wish to verify
- 03
Select the corresponding function: ‘Citation Checker,’ ‘Citation Finder,’ or ‘AI Source Finder’
- 04
View the AI-generated verification report or directly cite verified references (supports APA and MLA formats)
Pricing and availability
Pricing is based on character count: the “Find Source” feature allows up to 300 characters per query, while the “Verify References” feature permits 2,000–4,000 characters per session (depending on the subscription plan). Options include a one-time trial ($9 for 2,000 characters), monthly billing ($19/month with 150 credits), annual billing ($14/month equivalent, 1,500 credits/year), or a three-year upfront purchase ($347 per instance, 5,000 credits). Credits cannot be shared across features; “Find Source” and “Verify References” are billed separately. Character counts refer to the length of the input text, not the number of words.
- Pricing source
- https://citely.ai/
- Pricing last updated
- 2026-10-29
Prices and limits may change. Check the official website for current terms.
Official website & sources
Updated on 2026-10-29
