Title Case Converter guide
Type a headline, blog title, or paper title and get it capitalized by the rules of four major style guides side by side. Copy the one your editor, teacher, or brand uses.
Title case is not "capitalize every word"
Most case converters do the naive thing: capitalize the first letter of every word. That produces "The Lord Of The Rings", which every editor would mark up. Real title case keeps small words lowercase in the middle of a title: articles like a, an, and the; short conjunctions like and, but, and or; and some prepositions. Which prepositions depends on the style guide, and that is where people get stuck.
This converter applies the four style guides US writers actually use, AP, APA, Chicago, and MLA, and shows all four side by side. Pick the one your publication, professor, or brand follows and copy it. It runs in your browser, so unpublished headlines and manuscript titles stay private.
The rules every style agrees on
Capitalize the first word and the last word, no matter what they are. "What Are You Waiting For" ends with For in every style.
Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, including short ones. Is, Be, It, and His are always capitalized. This is the mistake that naive lowercase lists make most often: "is" is a verb, not a small word.
Capitalize the first word after a colon in a title. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" restarts with The after the colon.
Lowercase a, an, and the in the middle of a title.
Where the styles differ
AP style (news, PR, most blogs): capitalize every word of four letters or more. Lowercase articles, and conjunctions and prepositions of three letters or fewer (and, but, for, of, on, to, via). So "From" and "With" are capitalized because they have four letters.
APA 7th edition (psychology, social sciences, many academic papers): also capitalizes every word of four or more letters, and lowercases short conjunctions, articles, and short prepositions. For headlines it lands very close to AP.
Chicago Manual of Style (books, publishing, history): lowercases all prepositions regardless of length, so from, with, under, and between stay lowercase. It also lowercases and, but, for, or, and nor, plus to and as.
MLA (literature and humanities papers): like Chicago, lowercases every preposition, and also lowercases the conjunctions so and yet.
Worked examples
"gone with the wind" becomes Gone With the Wind in AP and APA, because with has four letters, and Gone with the Wind in Chicago and MLA, because with is a preposition. The published book title uses the Chicago form.
"how to switch from windows to macOS in under an hour" becomes How to Switch From Windows to macOS in Under an Hour in AP, and How to Switch from Windows to macOS in under an Hour in Chicago. Notice macOS keeps its unusual capitalization; any word with a capital letter after the first letter is left exactly as typed, so iPhone, eBay, and JavaScript survive.
"state-of-the-art tools for self-driving cars" becomes State-of-the-Art Tools for Self-Driving Cars. Hyphenated compounds are capitalized part by part, and small words inside them (of, the) stay lowercase.
Pitfalls a converter cannot fully solve
Words that change role. Up, out, off, and on are prepositions in "Up the Hill" but part of a phrasal verb in "Log In" or "Back Up Your Files", where every style capitalizes them. A rule-based tool cannot parse grammar, so it treats them as prepositions. Scan for phrasal verbs and capitalize them by hand.
All-caps input. If you paste a headline in ALL CAPS, the tool lowercases it first, otherwise every word would be kept as an acronym. That means real acronyms like NASA come out as Nasa. Fix them after, or paste the title in normal case.
Brand names and proper nouns. The tool capitalizes names, but it cannot know that a company styles itself in lowercase. Check brand names against their official spelling.
Sentence case is a different thing. Many modern sites, including Google's and Apple's style guides, use sentence case for headings: only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized. If that is what you need, use the case converter's sentence case option instead.
Does title case matter for SEO?
Not for rankings. Google treats uppercase and lowercase the same. It matters for click-through: a consistent, professional headline looks more trustworthy in search results and on social cards. Pick one style for the whole site and stick to it. AP is the common default for blogs and marketing; Chicago is standard for books.
How we calculate: sources
Frequently asked questions
What words are not capitalized in title case?
Articles (a, an, the), short coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor), and prepositions, unless they are the first or last word. AP and APA only lowercase prepositions of three letters or fewer; Chicago and MLA lowercase all prepositions.
What is the difference between AP and Chicago title case?
AP capitalizes every word of four or more letters, so With and From are capitalized. Chicago lowercases all prepositions regardless of length.
Do you capitalize the word after a colon in a title?
Yes. All four styles capitalize the first word after a colon in a title or heading.
How are hyphenated words capitalized?
Each part is capitalized unless it is a minor word, so self-driving becomes Self-Driving and state-of-the-art becomes State-of-the-Art.
Will it change acronyms and brand names?
Words with a capital letter after the first letter, like iPhone or NASA, are kept as typed. Text pasted in all caps is lowercased first, so re-check acronyms.
How is this different from the case converter?
The case converter capitalizes every word. This tool follows style-guide rules for minor words, which is what editors and teachers expect.
Is my text stored anywhere?
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded to a server or stored by us.
Is "with" capitalized in a title?
In AP and APA style, yes, because it has four letters. In Chicago and MLA style, no, because all prepositions are lowercase unless they are the first or last word.
Should "is" be capitalized in a title?
Yes, in every major style. Is is a verb, and verbs are always capitalized, even when they are short.