When is Et Al Used in APA? | Clear Rules For 3+ Authors

“Et al.” shows up in lots of papers, yet it still trips people up. One minute you’re trying to keep citations tidy, the next you’re second-guessing commas, periods, and which names belong where.

This guide keeps it clean. You’ll get the exact APA 7 rules for in-text citations and reference lists, plus quick patterns you can copy into your own writing without guessing.

When Is Et Al Used In APA? Quick Rules By Author Count

If you want one rule to hold onto, it’s this: APA uses “et al.” to shorten in-text citations once a source has three or more authors. For one or two authors, you keep listing names each time.

Situation	What To Write In Text	Notes That Save Rewrites
1 author	(Garcia, 2023) or Garcia (2023)	Use the surname each time you cite the work.
2 authors	(Garcia & Patel, 2023) or Garcia and Patel (2023)	Use “&” inside parentheses; use “and” in the sentence.
3+ authors, parenthetical	(Garcia et al., 2023)	Use “et al.” from the first citation onward.
3+ authors, narrative	Garcia et al. (2023)	Keep “et al.” after the first author’s surname.
Group author, first citation with abbreviation	(National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2022)	Spell out the full group name once, then shorten later.
Group author, later citations	(NIH, 2022)	Stay consistent with the same short form.
No author (work title as author)	(Guide To Sleep, 2021)	Use the title; italicize if it’s a standalone work.
Same author, same year, different works	(Garcia, 2023a) and (Garcia, 2023b)	Letters match the order in your reference list.

What “Et Al.” Means In APA Citations

“Et al.” is short for a Latin phrase that means “and others.” In APA writing, it’s a citation tool, not a style flourish. Its job is to keep your text readable when a source has a long list of authors.

In citations, treat “et al.” as plain text: no italics. Keep the period after “al.” since it’s an abbreviation, and keep a space between “et” and “al.”.

How APA In-Text Citations Handle Three Or More Authors

APA 7 simplified the multi-author rule. You don’t list three, four, or five names in the text anymore. You switch to first-author surname + “et al.” right away.

You can confirm the rule on the official APA Style author–date citation system page.

Parenthetical Citation Pattern

Use this when the full citation sits inside parentheses at the end of a sentence.

• Format: (Surname et al., Year)
• Sample: (Taylor et al., 2020)
• With a page number for a quote: (Taylor et al., 2020, p. 44)

Keep the comma between “et al.” and the year. Put the period for your sentence after the closing parenthesis.

Narrative Citation Pattern

Use this when the authors are part of your sentence.

• Format: Surname et al. (Year)
• Sample: Taylor et al. (2020) reported higher response rates after follow-up calls.

When a narrative citation ends a clause, your punctuation goes after the year’s closing parenthesis, not after “al.”.

When To Spell Out More Names Instead Of “Et Al.”

Most of the time, “et al.” is enough. The one time you may need extra names is when two different sources would look identical once shortened.

Say you’re citing two works published in the same year that both begin with “Garcia” and have overlapping coauthors. If both would read “Garcia et al., 2023,” the reader can’t tell which is which. APA’s fix is simple: add more author surnames until the citations separate.

This is rare in class papers, yet it pops up in literature reviews where you cite many studies from the same lab or team.

One more edge case: two different first authors can share a surname. Add their initials in the citation to separate them, like (A. Lee, 2022) and (J. Lee, 2022) in the text.

Et Al With Group Authors, Agencies, And Reports

Group authors are organizations: agencies, nonprofits, research centers, schools, and companies. They don’t use “et al.” the same way a list of people does. Instead, you cite the group name as the author.

If the group name is long and you’ll cite it again, set up an abbreviation in the first citation, then reuse the short form later. The table above shows the pattern.

One tip that saves time: match the group name in your in-text citation to the group name in your reference entry. If your reference list starts with “World Health Organization,” don’t switch to “WHO” in the reference entry, even if you abbreviate in text.

Where “Et Al.” Goes With Quotes, Paraphrases, And Page Numbers

“Et al.” doesn’t change your quoting rules. It just shortens the author part. Page or paragraph numbers still work the same way.

• Short quote: (Nguyen et al., 2021, p. 18)
• Paraphrase without a page: (Nguyen et al., 2021)
• Paragraph number for web text: (Nguyen et al., 2021, para. 6)

If you cite multiple sources in one set of parentheses, separate them with semicolons and list them in alphabetical order by first author surname. Keep each source in its own mini-unit: author, year.

Et Al When You Cite Several Sources At Once

Sometimes one sentence points to more than one study. APA lets you bundle citations in one set of parentheses, which keeps your prose from turning into a string of names.

Here’s the rhythm: each source stays intact as author + year, then you separate sources with semicolons. Order the sources alphabetically by the first author surname, not by the year.

If you cite two works by the same first author in the same parentheses, keep the author name once, then list the years separated by commas. If the years match, use letters to split them: 2023a, 2023b. Those letters must match the order in your reference list.

When you mix one-author, two-author, and three-plus-author works together, keep each piece in its own correct form. That means no switching “&” to “and” inside parentheses, and no dropping “et al.” to save space. A tidy citation still needs to be correct.

Reference List Rules: “Et Al.” Rarely Belongs There

Here’s a common mix-up: “et al.” is an in-text shortcut, not a reference list shortcut. In APA 7, your reference entry normally lists a lot of author names, even when there are many.

APA’s current rule is straightforward: list up to 20 authors in the reference list. If a work has 21 or more authors, list the first 19, add an ellipsis, then add the final author’s name.

The APA Style blog post How many names to include in an APA Style reference lays out the same rule and shows how the ellipsis is placed.

What This Looks Like In Practice

Use these patterns as a formatting check while you build your reference list:

• Up to 20 authors: list every author in the order shown in the source.
• 21+ authors: list authors 1–19, then an ellipsis, then the last author.
• Organization as author: start the entry with the full organization name.

If you’re thinking “So where does et al go in the reference list?” the answer is: it usually doesn’t. The one place you might type “et al.” is when you mention the term in your writing as a term, not as a citation.

Reference List Author Format Quick Check

This table is a fast scan tool when your reference page starts to feel messy.

Reference Situation	What To Type	Common Slip
1–20 authors	List all authors, last name first, initials after	Dropping middle initials that appear in the source
21+ authors	Authors 1–19 … Final Author	Using “&” before the last author after the ellipsis
Organization as author	Organization Name. (Year). Title…	Abbreviating the organization in the reference entry
No author	Title. (Year). Source…	Leaving the author position blank
Same author, same year	Yeara, Yearb, Yearc in both text and list	Mismatch between in-text letters and reference order
Edited book chapter	Chapter author listed, then “In” editor(s)…	Citing the editor as the chapter author
Journal article with a DOI	End the entry with the DOI in URL form	Putting a period after the DOI link

Common “Et Al.” Mistakes That Lose Marks

These errors show up in drafts all the time. Fixing them takes seconds once you know what to watch for.

• Using et al for two authors. Two authors always stay two authors in APA in-text citations.
• Missing the period in al. It must be “al.” with a period.
• Adding a comma in narrative citations. Write “Taylor et al. (2020),” only if your sentence grammar needs a comma there; the citation itself doesn’t force it.
• Italicizing et al in citations. Keep it in regular font.
• Mixing “&” and “and”. Use “&” only inside parentheses; use “and” in running text.
• Using et al in the reference list. Your reference entry should list names per the 20-author rule.

A Quick Workflow To Get Citations Right Every Time

If your paper has lots of sources, consistency matters more than fancy formatting tricks. Here’s a simple way to stay accurate from the first draft to the final file.

1. Write your paragraph first. Don’t stop mid-thought to polish citations.
2. When you cite a source, count the authors on the work you’re using.
3. Use the matching pattern: one author, two authors, or first author + et al.
4. Add page or paragraph numbers only when you quote or when your instructor asks for them.
5. Build the reference entry from the source itself, not from memory.
6. Run a final sweep: every in-text citation should match a reference entry, and every reference entry should be cited in the text.

Final Checklist Before You Turn In Your APA Paper

Use this quick list as your last pass:

• For three or more authors, your in-text citations use first author + “et al.” from the first mention.
• Your commas match the pattern: (Surname et al., 2023) and Surname et al. (2023).
• You used “&” only inside parentheses, and “and” only in sentences.
• Your reference list includes all authors up to 20, and uses the 21+ ellipsis rule when needed.
• Every source you cited in text appears in the reference list, with matching years and spelling.

If you came here asking “when is et al used in apa?” you now have the rules and the patterns. When the author count hits three, shorten the in-text citation. When you build the reference list, keep the full set of names under APA’s 20-author rule.

One more time, since this is the spot where people slip: “when is et al used in apa?” comes down to author count in the text, not the length of your reference entry.