Free Capitalize My Title Tool

What the Tool Does

Type your title into the box and choose a style with the buttons above it. The result appears straight away, ready to copy. You can paste several titles, one per line, and each is converted on its own.

When a word could be read two ways, for example "up" in "give up" (an adverb) versus "up the hill" (a preposition), a short note under the result tells you what the tool assumed, so you can overrule it if your title is different.

The tool changes only capital letters. It never rewrites your words, fixes your spelling or reorders anything.

The Basic Idea of Title Case

In every title case style, some words are capitalized and some are not.

• Capitalized: the first word, the last word, the first word after a colon, and the main words in between, which are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and pronouns.
• Lowercase: the small connecting words, namely articles (a, an, the), conjunctions such as "and" and "but," and prepositions such as "of," "in" and "on."

What differs between styles is where the line falls for the small words, especially prepositions, and for words such as "to," "as" and "from."

How APA, MLA, Chicago and AP Differ

The rules come from the style guides' own publications: the APA Style guide to title case, the MLA Style Center on capitalizing titles and the Chicago Manual of Style Q&A on capitalization. The AP Stylebook is a paid reference, so we apply its title rule as it is commonly published, and you should check your edition. AP's own news headlines use sentence-style capitalization, and its title case rule is for titles of works and similar uses. For most titles, APA and AP give the same result.

Chicago changed in its 18th edition. Earlier editions lowercased every preposition regardless of length, and the 18th edition capitalizes prepositions of more than four letters. Both versions are offered here, because many instructors and publishers still use the 17th.

The same title, five ways

A second example shows the difference with a longer preposition. "Why the Best Writers Read Between the Lines" is the APA, Chicago 18 and AP result, because "between" is long enough to be capitalized in all three. MLA writes "Why the Best Writers Read between the Lines," because it lowercases every preposition. Chicago 17 does the same.

What the Tool Recognizes, and What It Cannot

Because the tool follows fixed rules, it is predictable, and these are its limits:

• Acronyms and brands. Acronyms you type in capitals (NASA, FBI) and brand spellings with mixed case (iPhone, eBay, McDonald) are kept as you typed them. A short list of very common terms, such as AI, SEO, FAQ, CEO, iPhone and YouTube, is recognized even if you type them in lowercase. Anything else typed in lowercase, such as a company name, is capitalized like an ordinary word, so check names.
• Prepositions or adverbs. The tool cannot tell "give up" from "up the hill". It follows the style's list and adds a note when that choice matters.
• Hyphenated words. Each part is capitalized, except small words such as "to" and "of" inside the word, as in Up-to-Date.
• Other languages. The rules are for English titles. Titles in other languages are normally written in sentence case, so use the sentence case option and check names.
• Names and places in sentence case. If you paste text that is already in title case or all capitals, names cannot be told from ordinary words, so the tool lowercases them and tells you to restore any you need.

Tips for Better Results

• One title per line. You can paste a whole list.
• Check names and brands. Fix any that were lowercased.
• Subtitles. The first word after a colon or a dash is capitalized in every style.
• Check the last word. It is always capitalized, even a small one such as "for" or "to," which is a classic place for mistakes.
• Read the notes. They point at the words most likely to need your judgment.

Where People Use It

Essay and paper titles, headings, reference list entries, blog post titles, book and chapter titles, presentation slides, YouTube titles and email subject lines. For ideas rather than capitalization, try our title generator or blog title generator. To convert a whole list at once, use the title case converter. For other letter cases such as lowercase, uppercase and alternating case, use the case converter.

Your Text Stays in Your Browser

The capitalizing happens on your device, in the page you are looking at. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved or sent to an AI.

What This Tool Cannot Guarantee

Title capitalization has judgment calls even for experts, and the style guides themselves change between editions. The tool follows the published rules, but it cannot see your sentence, so it can be wrong about words that work as both a preposition and an adverb, about names it does not know, and about titles that use unusual conventions. Many journals and instructors also add their own rules. For anything you are submitting, such as a paper, a manuscript or a reference list, check the result against the guide you have been told to follow.

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