Citation Machine (Chegg)

Citation Machine is a free-to-use citation and bibliography generator owned by Chegg since the 2016 acquisition of Imagine Easy Solutions, which also brought EasyBib and BibMe into the group. Students paste in a book ISBN, article DOI, website URL, or manual details, and Citation Machine returns a formatted citation for MLA, APA 7, Chicago, Harvard, and a long tail of specialty styles. The free tier covers MLA citations with ads; the Citation Machine Plus subscription (around USD 9.95 per month, or USD 19.95 bundled as Chegg Study Pack) unlocks APA and Chicago formatting, grammar checking, and a plagiarism scanner. Behind the scenes Citation Machine shares engineering and content with EasyBib and Chegg Writing, so Plus features function as one writing toolkit across Chegg's student brands.

The primary audience is US and international undergraduate and high-school students writing essays, theses, and lab reports; the secondary audience is researchers and content writers who cite formally. Traffic volume is enormous — Citation Machine regularly ranks near the top for queries like "MLA citation generator" — which makes it a predictable affiliate target for study-skills, homework-help, grammar-tool, and college-prep content. Creators typically position Citation Machine against free alternatives (ZoteroBib, MyBib, Scribbr's free generator) for the free tier, and against paid competitors like Grammarly, Scribbr, and QuillBot for the Plus tier. The honest reviewing angle: Plus sells a bundle rather than a single feature, so funnels that frame the grammar checker and plagiarism scan as the value, with the citation formatter as a bonus, tend to convert better.

Citation Machine does not run a standalone affiliate program — it is commercialized through the parent Chegg affiliate program on Impact. Creators apply at chegg.com/affiliates, fill in site, channel, and audience details, and Impact plus the Chegg affiliate team review the application. Approved publishers get tracking links, banners, and deeplinks covering Chegg Study, Chegg Writing (which wraps the citation and grammar tools), EasyBib Plus, and Chegg's textbook rentals. Creators writing Citation Machine content generally route links into the Chegg Writing or Chegg Study + EasyBib Plus landing page, since those carry Citation Machine Plus features.

Payouts are per subscription: around USD 4 per new Chegg Study + EasyBib Plus subscription, and around USD 5 per new Chegg Writing subscription, with textbook-rental referrals paying up to 10% on new customer orders. Cookie duration is 30 days click-to-signup. Commissions validate after Chegg's confirmation window, then pay on Impact's net-30 monthly cycle via direct deposit, PayPal, or check once the account passes the USD 50 minimum. Self-referrals and incentivized-traffic signups are excluded. Because Citation Machine, EasyBib, and Chegg Writing share one commercial backend, a single program membership covers all three properties.