# How to prevent ChatGPT from citing the source

**URL:** <https://community.openai.com/t/how-to-prevent-chatgpt-from-citing-the-source/548187>\
**Category:** Feature requests\
**Created:** [December 7, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/how-to-prevent-chatgpt-from-citing-the-source/548187 "2023-12-07T15:22:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tonyaube](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/tonyaube/32/269283_2.png) [@tonyaube](https://community.openai.com/u/tonyaube)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/how-to-prevent-chatgpt-from-citing-the-source/548187/1 "2023-12-07T15:22:38Z")

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We’re working on an app where ChatGPT refers a transcript and answers. The default GPT seems to always want to provide the source in this manner [1]. How do I prevent that. All my attempts trying to prompt it to not mention the source seems to fail.

 ![Screenshot 2023-12-08 at 12.22.15 AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/2/7/f/27f88253040d149797adb2c3d8d92070010e9094.png)

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**Author:** ![Macha](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/macha/32/171757_2.png) [@Macha](https://community.openai.com/u/Macha)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/how-to-prevent-chatgpt-from-citing-the-source/548187/2 "2023-12-07T15:27:48Z")

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This cannot be worked around. The citations exist as a means to protect against hallucinations and so the user can verify the accuracy of the response (if relevant). It’s also baked in the model pretty deep iirc because of the special technique to source the citation. So unfortunately, I wouldn’t expect to get around this (nor would I necessarily recommend so either).

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**Author:** ![Trevor\_G](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/trevor_g/32/732854_2.png) [@Trevor\_G](https://community.openai.com/u/Trevor_G)\
**Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/how-to-prevent-chatgpt-from-citing-the-source/548187/4 "2026-03-25T14:09:44Z")

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> [@Trevor\_G](#):
>
> “Analyze the attached PDF, but do not provide citations for every sentence, do not use inline citations, footnotes, or refer to the document name in the output.”

Some people might find that helpful