The retrieved date question alone has caused more panic than the actual bibliography. Let us fix that.
The basic APA 7th edition website format
APA 7th edition (published in 2020) updated how websites are cited compared to the 6th edition. The current format is:
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the webpage. Site Name. URL
Here is a real example using a BBC news article:
Watts, J. (2023, September 12). Climate report: World on brink of catastrophic warming. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66807277
What each part means
Author
Last name, First initial. For two authors use Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. For three or more, list all up to 20, then use an ellipsis for the rest.
Date
(Year, Month Day) — or just (Year) if no specific date is given. If there is absolutely no date on the page, use (n.d.) which stands for no date.
Title
The title of the specific webpage you are citing, in italics, with only the first word and proper nouns capitalized. No quotation marks.
Site Name
The name of the website, not in italics. This is the organization or publication running the site, not the URL.
URL
The full URL, no period at the end. Do not add "Retrieved from" before it — that was removed in APA 7th edition.
What about the retrieved date?
This is where most students stress unnecessarily. In APA 7th edition, you only need a retrieval date if the content is likely to change. That covers three situations:
- Wikipedia articles (content changes constantly)
- Social media posts (can be deleted or edited)
- Webpages with no publication date that may be updated
For a standard news article or blog post with a clear publication date, you do not need a retrieval date. The format when you do need one is: Retrieved April 16, 2026, from URL
No author? No problem
When there is no identifiable person who wrote the page, use the organization or website name as the author. Move it to the front, and then do not repeat it as the site name at the end.
WITH AUTHOR
Smith, J. (2023, March 4).
Flu symptoms and when to see a doctor. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/
NO AUTHOR — ORG AS AUTHOR
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, March 4).
Flu symptoms and when to see a doctor. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/
No date on the page
Use (n.d.) in place of the year. Then add a retrieval date at the end, since a page with no date might change.
Robertson, K. (n.d.). How to train for a marathon in 16 weeks. Runner's Guide. Retrieved April 16, 2026, from https://example.com/marathon-training
Government and institutional websites
These follow the same format, but often the author and the site name are the same organization. When they are, use the org name as the author and leave out the site name at the end to avoid repeating it.
World Health Organization. (2023, May 11). WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/2023-05-11
APA 6th vs 7th: what actually changed for websites
6TH EDITION
Retrieved from URL
7TH EDITION
Just the URL, no "Retrieved from"
6TH EDITION
Location: Publisher format for books
7TH EDITION
Publisher name only, no location
6TH EDITION
Up to 6 authors, then et al.
7TH EDITION
Up to 20 authors before using ellipsis
6TH EDITION
No DOI as hyperlink
7TH EDITION
DOIs are formatted as https://doi.org/ links
The in-text citation for websites
In-text citations use Author, Year format. For a website with no page numbers, you only need those two things.
Parenthetical: Sea levels have risen 8 inches since 1880 (Watts, 2023).
Narrative: Watts (2023) reported that sea levels have risen 8 inches since 1880.
If you are quoting directly and want to point to a specific part of the page, you can add a paragraph number: (Watts, 2023, para. 3) or a section heading: (Watts, 2023, Methods section).
Quick reference: common website scenarios
NEWS ARTICLE WITH AUTHOR AND DATE
Watts, J. (2023, September 12). *Climate report: World on brink*. BBC News. https://bbc.co.uk/...
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
Citation. (2024, February 3). In *Wikipedia*. Retrieved April 16, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/...
GOVERNMENT WEBSITE, ORG AS AUTHOR
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2023, July 4). *James Webb Space Telescope*. https://www.nasa.gov/webb
BLOG POST WITH NO DATE
Hernandez, M. (n.d.). *10 mistakes new investors make*. The Finance Desk. Retrieved April 16, 2026, from https://example.com