Real sources. Real page numbers.

Enter your thesis topic and get verified academic sources with printed page numbers, ready-to-paste footnotes and a formatted bibliography. No hallucinated citations.

Find sources for my thesis

Free plan: 3 full sources per project, no card required.

Your supervisor checks the citations. AI chatbots make them up.

Generic AI tools invent sources that don't exist and page numbers that don't match. cytado works the other way round: we download the actual PDFs, read the printed page numbers from the pages themselves, and only then build your footnote.

Free

Already have a bibliography? Check it's real — free

Paste or upload your list of sources. We verify each entry against academic databases (Crossref, OpenAlex, Google Books and more) and flag anything we can't find — before your supervisor does. We never call a source “fake”, only “couldn't confirm”.

Check my bibliography →
For teachers & institutions

Checking students' work? Verify every bibliography — at scale

The same engine that builds real citations also checks them. Since AI chatbots flood submitted work with invented sources, cytado lets you confirm a whole bibliography in seconds — which entries exist, whether the page numbers are real, whether the quote is actually in the source. We flag what can't be confirmed; we never call a source “fake”.

For institutions →

Not just a link — a complete footnote

We build every citation from real metadata: authors, title, journal, volume and issue, and the printed page. Exactly what your supervisor expects — ready to copy.

  • Real source

    We download the PDF and link the original. No invented entries.

  • Real page number

    Read from the document itself — even unusual ones like “p. E138”. Never guessed.

  • Recognized type

    Journal, book, report or thesis — each formatted its own way.

  • Complete footnote

    With the publisher, or the journal’s volume and issue — ready to paste.

How it works

  1. 1.

    Enter your topic

    Optionally paste your outline — we match sources to every chapter.

    Social media’s effect on youth
  2. 2.

    We gather sources

    Academic databases and the open web, across languages. Every source is quality-scored.

    …and adolescent self-esteem★ 8.2
    Digital media & youth…★ 7.5
  3. 3.

    Copy footnotes with page numbers

    Fragments that back your claims, with the printed page number and a ready citation in your style.

    M. Iwanowska, Związki…, 2023, p. 47.

    Copy footnote
  4. 4.

    Export the bibliography

    Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS — sorted and formatted.

    WordPDFLaTeXBibTeXRIS

Know it's true but can't cite it?

Paste a paragraph of your thesis and cytado finds source fragments that back your claims — with page numbers and a ready footnote. A generous fair-use allowance covers the whole thesis.

From source list to submitted thesis

Tick the sources you want, and your bibliography formats and sorts itself — in APA 7, MLA, Chicago and more. Export to Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX or RIS and paste it straight into your document.

More about the bibliography generator →

cytado vs. the usual workarounds

cytadoAI chatbotGoogle Scholar
Sources actually existsometimes
Printed page numbers for citations
Ready-to-paste footnotesrisky
Finds sources for a specific paragraph
Sources in your language, not just Englishpartlypartly
Bibliography export (Word, LaTeX…)partly

Simple pricing: pay per thesis, not per month

Free

0

  • 3 full sources per project
  • Summaries and quality scores
  • No card required

Unlocked project

/ one-time

  • All found sources
  • Fragments with printed page numbers
  • Paragraph source finder — generous fair-use limit
  • Export: Word, PDF, LaTeX, BibTeX, RIS
  • More sources on demand

One payment covers the project for as long as you write.

Put that price in context

$10–20 / month

subscription research tools — over a semester that's $60–120

$30–60 / hour

a single tutoring session

$13 once

cytado — for the whole thesis, months of writing

And the real cost of a rejected bibliography? Weeks of corrections and another meeting with your supervisor.

Frequently asked questions

Are the sources real?+

Yes. We download the actual PDF of every source, extract its text and read the printed page numbers from the document itself. Every source links to the original.

Where do the sources come from?+

Academic databases (open-access journals, repositories) and the open web — including local-language university repositories and journals. Each document is quality-scored before you see it.

Can I use the full text of the sources?+

You see metadata, summaries, short quotes with page numbers and a link to the original. For copyrighted sources we never republish full texts — you cite them and read the original at the source.

What citation styles are supported?+

APA 7, MLA and Chicago — for footnotes and the bibliography, plus BibTeX/RIS for reference managers. More regional styles are on the way.

Is this cheating?+

No. cytado is a research tool: it finds real literature and formats citations. The reading, thinking and writing are yours — like a very fast library.

Do I need a subscription?+

No. You pay once per project and it stays unlocked for as long as you write.

Are there any usage limits?+

cytado is priced per project, not per query — but to keep it sustainable and prevent abuse we apply generous fair-use limits: one unpaid project at a time, plus daily and monthly caps on source searches. They sit well above normal thesis writing and stay out of your way; if you ever need more, just ask via the contact form.

Start with three sources for free

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