How to Cite a TikTok Video in APA, MLA and Chicago

Each major style guide treats a TikTok video as a short online video: you name the creator, quote or describe the post, name TikTok as the source, and give the date and URL. The exact order and punctuation differ by style, so use the template that matches what your instructor or publication asks for.

None of the three major styles treat TikTok as a special case. Each one reuses the same rules it already had for citing a social media post or a short online video, then swaps in TikTok as the platform name. That is useful to know if your assignment names a style edition or a related platform your guide does not cover directly: the same pattern below will usually carry over.

Before you format anything, get the exact wording right. Start with how to get a transcript of a TikTok video, or paste the link into shinmuscat so you are quoting what was actually said rather than what you remember from watching it once.

APA style

APA's own style guide treats a TikTok video the same way it treats other short-form video posts: give the creator's name, their handle in brackets, the date, up to the first 20 words of the caption as a stand-in title, then "TikTok" as the source and the URL.

Template:

Author, A. A. [@username]. (Year, Month Day). Caption text up to the first 20 words [Video]. TikTok. URL

Worked example:

Ho, G. [@geraldho]. (2024, March 3). Five things I wish I knew before starting a one-person side project [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@geraldho/video/1234567890123456789

In-text: (Ho, 2024)

A citation of a TikTok Live is a special case in APA, since a livestream is not archived by TikTok and cannot be retrieved later by a reader checking your citation. APA recommends treating that kind of source as a personal communication, cited in text only, rather than listing it in the reference list.

MLA style

The MLA Style Center's page on citing TikTok gives the creator's name and handle, the caption in quotation marks, the platform name in italics, the year, and the URL.

Template:

Creator Name [@handle]. "Caption or title." TikTok, Year, URL.

Worked example, taken directly from the MLA Style Center's own page:

Lilly [@uvisaa]. "[I]f u like dark academia there's a good chance you've seen my tumblr #darkacademia." TikTok, 2020, www.tiktok.com/@uvisaa/video/6815708894900391173.

In-text: (Lilly)

Chicago style

Chicago does not publish a TikTok-specific example on its main citation guide, but its official notes-and-bibliography sample citations cover the same pattern for other social platforms, and Chicago applies it consistently across sites. The guidance: cite social media narratively in the main text where you can, and reserve a formal note for when you need one. In place of a title, quote up to the first 280 characters of the post.

Narrative version, in text:

Gerald Ho's TikTok post explained why the tool reads captions instead of transcribing audio (@geraldho, March 3, 2024).

Formal note, when one is required:

Gerald Ho (@geraldho), "Five things I wish I knew before starting a one-person side project," TikTok, March 3, 2024, https://www.tiktok.com/@geraldho/video/1234567890123456789.

Chicago rarely puts social media posts in a full bibliography entry. Use the note form above unless your instructor specifically asks for a bibliography listing.

Quoting the spoken words accurately

A citation names the source. Quoting it accurately is a separate problem, and TikTok's own captions are not always word for word what the creator said, since auto captions can misread accents, background noise, or fast speech. If you are quoting what someone said in a video rather than describing the video itself, work from a full transcript with timestamps rather than trying to recall the line or copy a caption you glimpsed once. Download a TikTok transcript as TXT for the plain-text takeaway, or use TikTok captions to SRT when the timestamp file itself matters. shinmuscat generates exactly that: paste the video's link and it reads TikTok's captions and lines them up with timestamps, so you can pull an exact quote and cite the timestamp alongside the video URL if your style guide calls for one. Read the line back against the video before you publish it, since even a timestamped transcript inherits any error in the original captions.

Check your own style guide first

The examples above follow each style's general social media pattern applied to TikTok. Some universities and publications maintain their own citation guides with small variations, particularly for Chicago, where the choice between a narrative mention and a formal note is often left to the writer's judgment. Before you submit anything, check your institution's own citation guide or ask your instructor which format they expect, then use the template above that matches.