Every paper, all semester long, formatted.

You write the paper. PERRLA formats it: discussion posts, annotated bibliographies, research papers, and the capstone, in the APA, MLA, and Turabian formats.

Try PERRLA free for 7 days See how PERRLA works

No credit card. Works in PERRLA Online, Microsoft Word, and Google Docs.

ANTH 215: Science and PseudoscienceSample syllabus · pick one

Copy paper to clipboardDiscussion Post. Citations and references, no title page. Paste it into the discussion board.

A sample course. The pages are formatted the way PERRLA does it in APA 7, from a real article.

1.5+ million students and faculty helped since 1998 Human built. Human tested. A rule engine, not a guess 4.6 on Trustpilot Support every day until 10 PM Central

Week one: set it up once, then write wherever you already write.

One account and one library. A source you save in Word tonight is in your browser tomorrow and in Google Docs next week.

PERRLA Online

The full editor in your browser, with a paged view that matches the printout. The most complete PERRLA, and the one to start with.

APA 7MLA 9Turabian 9Works in any browser

PERRLA for Word

An add-in for Word on desktop and the web. Start a paper from the PERRLA tab and the whole document is built formatted.

APA 7MLA 9Turabian 9Checked before you submit

PERRLA for Google Docs

You write in Google Docs as usual, with references, citations, and headings set from the PERRLA sidebar.

APA 7MLA 9Turabian 9Share and comment as usual

While you research, the Chrome extension puts an Add to PERRLA button on 85+ research databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, and the CDC.

While you write: four things PERRLA does for you.

Each one is a job you would otherwise do by hand, with the manual open in another tab.

Look up
Paste a DOI, get the source

10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

Sykes, B. C., Mullis, R. A., Hagenmuller, C., Melton, T. W., & Sartori, M. (2014). Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1789), Article 20140161. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

Or an ISBN, or a link. Built from the real record.

Cite
Cite as you write

…such as a black bear or a cow (Sykes et al., 2014).

Type an opening parenthesis and pick the source. The citation lands in the right order and the references page updates itself.

Annotate
Highlights become note cards

…we nonetheless suspect that many Bigfoot sightings are, in fact, of black bears… p. 1626

Read the PDF inside PERRLA. What you highlight is saved as a note with its page number, ready to cite.

Check
Suggested Fixes before you submit

Citation after the periodMove period

Quote needs a page numberGo to

Reference never citedRemove

PERRLA reads the whole paper against the format's rules when you click I'm Finished.

The same four work in PERRLA Online, Word, and Google Docs; the PDF reader is in PERRLA Online.

Every week: the discussion post, cited and pasted in.

Weekly discussion posts need citations and a reference list like any paper. They just don't need a title page.

Start a Discussion Post in PERRLA, look up the source by its DOI or link, and cite as you write. The references build themselves underneath. When it's done, Copy paper to clipboard and paste it straight into your course discussion board, citations and references included.

How discussion posts work in PERRLA · every paper type

A finished Week 2 discussion post in PERRLA Online citing Sykes et al. (2014), with its APA reference, beside the I'm Finished panel showing Download as Word Document, Download as PDF, Copy paper to clipboard, and no issues found.
A real Week 2 discussion post in PERRLA Online, citing Sykes et al. (2014). I'm Finished found no issues; Copy paper to clipboard sends it to the board.

Midterm: the research paper, with every rule handled.

Citation generators give you one line to paste. PERRLA formats the whole paper, from the title page to the last hanging indent, and keeps it right as you edit.

  1. Page numbersTop right, every page, from the title page on.
  2. Margins, spacing, and fontsOne-inch margins, double spacing, an approved font. Set once, kept everywhere.
  3. Headings, five levelsLevel 1 centered and bold, Level 2 flush left and bold, and on down. Pick the level; PERRLA sets the style and checks the capitalization.
  4. Citations in the sentenceType an opening parenthesis and pick the source. Author, year, and page land in the right order.
  5. Block quotesForty words or more and Suggested Fixes offers to move the quote into its own indented block, with the citation after the final period.

The references page builds from the sources you cited, alphabetized with hanging indents. In a Turabian paper the same work includes real same-page footnotes and the bibliography; in MLA, the Works Cited page. APA 7, MLA 9, Turabian 9.

L · 2009
Lozier, J. D., et al.

Predicting the distribution of Sasquatch in western North America

Journal of Biogeography, 36(9), 1623–1627

doi 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2009.02152.x

S · 2014
Sykes, B. C., et al.

Genetic analysis of hair samples attributed to yeti, bigfoot and other anomalous primates

Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1789), Article 20140161

doi 10.1098/rspb.2014.0161

F · n.d.
Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI)

Bigfoot

FBI Vault

vault.fbi.gov/bigfoot

Three real sources. PERRLA alphabetizes them and writes the references page in APA 7.

Finals: the capstone, and every source behind it.

By the end of the term, or the end of a doctorate, the library matters as much as the paper. Every source is a card PERRLA keeps, sorts, and cites for you.

  • Bring your Zotero library across in one step, references, attached files, notes, and collections.
  • Read and annotate your PDFs right in PERRLA, with notes pinned to the exact passage.
  • Organize by chapter with Collections, then cite from your library in Word, Google Docs, or PERRLA Online.

PERRLA for researchers and doctoral writers

The students with the least time to learn a formatting manual.

People who were out of school for years, or in their last semester of NP school.

  • Kristin S. Student

    I hadn't been in school since 1995 so APA format was completely foreign to me. Using PERRLA takes all the stress out of the formatting, especially the reference section, which is amazing.

  • Emma B. Student

    PERRLA was a game-changer when I was finishing nurse practitioner's school. I was never dinged for assignments that were missing citations or were incorrect.

  • Sara Student

    As a student who'd been out of school for several years, it made it a lot easier to get back into remembering APA format. I did not lose points for APA errors because I was using PERRLA and I feel like it made a big difference.

More student stories

All semester, help when you're stuck.

PERRLA 101 is a free live walkthrough with our support team, four times a week, with nothing to sign up for. And support answers email every day.

MonSupport 10 AM to 10 PM Central
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WedSupport 10 AM to 10 PM CentralPERRLA 101, live7 PM Central
ThuSupport 10 AM to 10 PM CentralPERRLA 101, live7 PM Central
FriSupport 10 AM to 10 PM CentralOffice HoursPro and Unlimited
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SatSupport 1 PM to 10 PM CentralPERRLA 101, live4 PM Central
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PERRLA 101 is free, for everyone. Office Hours are live Q&A for PERRLA Pro and Unlimited, part of Priority Support.

Join the next session, or start with APA 101, eighteen short lessons on the format itself.

The AI we believe in is Academic Integrity.

PERRLA never writes a word of your paper, and it never invents a source. When you look up a source in PERRLA, the reference comes from the real record, like PubMed or the DOI, and PERRLA never makes one up.

If anyone ever asks how you wrote your paper, your Writing Timeline shows your writing sessions, the time you put in, and how the paper grew. Never your words, never dates.

See how the Writing Timeline works

For your program: one roster, every student formatted.

$9.95 per student per year. Faculty and staff accounts free, for life. Associate-degree nursing programs (ADN and ASN) get PERRLA free, permanently.

  • Less faculty time on formatting. Fewer small cumulative errors to mark, and less class time teaching the manual.
  • Better papers. At Western Washington University, students earned 9.5 out of 10 on APA with PERRLA against 7.5 without it.
  • Show the work behind each paper. The Writing Timeline turns the saves PERRLA already makes into a summary of writing sessions and growth that faculty open from the title page, at no extra cost.
See how PERRLA works with schools Read the case studies

  • Whitnie Willis, MSN, RN Assistant Clinical Professor, Auburn University College of Nursing

    No tool replaces learning APA. Students still need to understand why they cite sources and how scholarly writing works. But removing unnecessary formatting friction has allowed us to focus on the purpose of evidence-based writing rather than the mechanics alone.

  • Elizabeth R. Doctoral Student & Faculty

    As a teacher, I'd far rather have my students spend their time on writing quality than measuring margins and tabs and remembering what parts of a reference are italicized or capitalized.

  • Jared B. Faculty

    To all of my students who have gone on to Graduate School, I have always recommended PERRLA to them.

Pick a plan by how long you're in school.

Every plan includes all of PERRLA, every format, every platform. The longer you subscribe, the more you save.

PERRLA2 GB
$79.95
for 1 year, or $12.95 a month, or $129.95 for 2 years
Includes
Everything PERRLA does
Storage
2 GB for the files on your references
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$99.90
for 1 year, or $15.90 a month, or $159.90 for 2 years
Includes
Everything, plus Priority Support and Office Hours
Storage
10 GB, for scanned chapters and image-heavy PDFs
Buy now
PERRLA UnlimitedNo limit
$124.90
for 1 year, or $19.95 a month, or $199.90 for 2 years
Includes
Everything, plus Priority Support and Office Hours
Storage
Unlimited, for dissertations and interview recordings
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Not ready to buy? Try PERRLA free for 7 days, no credit card. 30-day refund on any purchase, any reason. Military and veterans save 50%. Full pricing and plan details

Questions students ask before they start

Is PERRLA an AI writing tool?
No. PERRLA never writes a word of your paper and never invents a source. It formats the paper you write, in APA, MLA, or Turabian, and when you look up a source it builds the reference from the real record. The one narrow place AI is used: when you upload a PDF, AI reads its first pages to help fill in the reference. Your paper is never sent to it.
Does PERRLA work with Google Docs and Microsoft Word?
Yes. PERRLA is one account that works in PERRLA Online in your browser, as an add-in for Microsoft Word on desktop and the web, and as an add-on for Google Docs. Your reference library is shared across all of them.
How much does PERRLA cost?
PERRLA is $79.95 a year, $12.95 a month, or $129.95 for two years. PERRLA Pro ($99.90 a year) and PERRLA Unlimited ($124.90 a year) add more file storage and Priority Support. Every plan includes every feature. There's a free 7-day trial with no credit card, and a 30-day refund on any purchase.
Does PERRLA do Turabian footnotes?
Yes. In a Turabian 9 paper PERRLA inserts real same-page footnotes, numbers and renumbers them automatically, and builds the bibliography. In Google Docs, Turabian citations become real Docs footnotes.
Can my school get PERRLA for every student?
Yes. Site licenses are $9.95 per student per year, faculty and staff accounts are free, and associate-degree nursing programs (ADN and ASN) get PERRLA free. The Writing Timeline is included at no extra cost. See how PERRLA works with schools.

Whatever is due next, the formatting is already handled.

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