AP Style Title Case Converter
Format headlines the Associated Press way. Words of four letters or more get a capital; short articles, conjunctions and prepositions stay lowercase.
Characters: 0Words: 0Lines: 0
Keep proper nouns (built-in list on)
After Capitalized, Title and Sentence case, names such as London, NASA or iPhone and the word I get their capitals back instead of being lowercased.
Up to 200 words, saved in this browser only. Everyday words such as “may” and “march” are not in the built-in list, so add them here if you want them kept.
Case types with examples
Starting text: The Lord of the Rings
AP Title Case
AP style: capitalize words of four letters or more; short articles, conjunctions and prepositions stay lowercase.
The Lord of the Rings
APA Title Case
APA style: capitalize words of four letters or more, and keep short conjunctions, articles and prepositions lowercase.
The Lord of the Rings
Chicago / MLA Title Case
Chicago and MLA: every article, preposition and coordinating conjunction stays lowercase, whatever its length.
The Lord of the Rings
Title Case
Headline style: small words like "of" and "the" stay lowercase unless first or last.
The Lord of the Rings
Sentence case
Only the first letter of each sentence is a capital.
The lord of the rings
AP style headline capitalization
The Associated Press Stylebook sets the rules that most American newsrooms follow for headlines. AP capitalizes the principal words, which in practice means every word of four letters or more. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) and prepositions of three letters or fewer stay lowercase. The first and last word are always capitalized.
What this converter does
The first and last words, the first word after a colon, question mark or dash, and each part of a hyphenated word get a capital. A word is lowercase only if it is one of the short words above, so "With", "From" and "Between" are capitalized because they are four letters or more. The text is first converted to lowercase, then proper nouns are restored from the panel under the buttons, so you can keep names such as NASA or iPhone and add your own.
- The Lord of the Rings: A Tale From the West
- How to Write a Paper With Care
- What Is It? A Look at Going up and Down
Things to check by hand
No program can read the meaning of your headline. Check names, brand spellings and words that are both a preposition and an adverb. AP, for example, capitalizes "up" in some phrasal verbs even though it is short. Also note that AP uses sentence-style capitalization for some headings in practice, and its Stylebook is updated each year, so confirm anything important against your current edition. For other guides use the APA or Chicago/MLA versions.
How to use the AP Title Case tool
- Paste or type your headlines into the box, one per line.
- Click AP Title Case.
- Check names and unusual words, then click the copy icon to use the result.
Frequently asked questions
What are the AP title case rules?
AP capitalizes the principal words, including any word of four letters or more. Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) and prepositions of three letters or fewer stay lowercase unless they start or end the title.
Is a preposition like "from" capitalized?
Yes. In AP style a preposition of four letters or more, such as from, with or into, is capitalized.
Does it keep names like NASA or London?
Yes. The proper nouns panel under the buttons restores names and abbreviations, and you can add your own. Open it and check the list before you convert.