The Associated Press Stylebook

Thank you for your interest in the AP Stylebook, the journalist's bible. This guide provides an overview and guide to the various resources and capabilities of APStylebook.com and AP Stylebook products.

Updated regularly since its initial publication in 1953, the AP Stylebook is a must-have reference for writers, editors, students and professionals. It provides fundamental guidelines for spelling, language, punctuation, usage and journalistic style. It is the definitive resource for journalists.

We offer a range of products to meet your needs and help keep you in style as you write and edit.


AP Stylebook e-commerce store


APStylebook.com's e-commerce experience provides a self-service shopping cart for customers to shop for AP Stylebook products.

Product pages include multiple images and tabs for features, specifications and FAQs. Customers can use online shopping assistants to help pick the product right for you. These include a series of questions to help find the best fit for your needs.

In addition to paying by credit card, check and money order, you can pay via e-check.

AP Stylebook products include:

  • Spiral-bound print AP Stylebook, 57th Edition: Updated every other year, the book is published in the spring.
  • AP Stylebook Online: Web-based, searchable, customizable style guidance.
  • AP style-checking tools: Proof your text as you write and edit in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Office or your favorite web browser.
  • AP Style Quizzes: Test your knowledge with about 90 five-question quizzes that provide automated scoring and feedback.
  • AP Stylebook e-book: The AP Stylebook e-book is available on Amazon's Kindle platform.


Click on "Shop" in the top navigation for quick, easy access to learn more about AP Stylebook products.

Click on the "Help Center" in the top navigation for answers to questions about the website, products and more from our knowledge base. 

If you have questions or require further assistance, please submit a support ticket or phone at 833-249-5020 for assistance.

If you have questions or concerns about digital products, the product pages include forms to request technical support.

Using your apstylebook.com customer dashboard

You will find several helpful features in your comprehensive customer dashboard.

Register as a Stylebook user to view and manage all your customer information – your order history, order status, password reset and expiration dates for digital products and more. You can also sign up for a free trial of AP Stylebook Online to try it out.

If you subscribe to AP Stylebook Online, AP Stylebook & Merriam-Webster Online or AP Stylebook Study Guides, you can use your username and password to access your customer dashboard. If that doesn't work, please go to the "Forgot your password?" link to receive an email to reset your password. Passwords must be at least eight characters in length.

If you don't have an account yet, registration is fast and easy. Simply go to the "Registration" page and follow the three steps to:

1) Enter your email address and a password.

2) Enter your name and company information (if applicable).

3) Tell us a little about yourself to speed up your checkout every time you shop with us:

  • Do you work for a news organization that is an AP member? Enter your MDM ID number to get your member discount on select AP Stylebook products. If you do not have your MDM number, we will manually verify that your organization is a member of the AP cooperative.
  • Are you a member of one of the trade organizations that offers member discounts on Stylebook products? Give us your member ID for ACES, PRSA, RTDNA, SPJ, AHCJ and AAJA to get your member discount on select AP Stylebook products.
  • Do you work for a college bookstore? Enter your Reseller Tax ID to get the wholesale price on the spiral-bound Stylebook, and enter your UPS or FedEx Collect shipping account number if you would like orders shipped using your account. You can continue using our shipping options, of course, if you don't enter a shipping account.

registration


You can update any of this customer information later, so if you get a job with an AP member or join a new professional group, you can get the discounted pricing. Just go to your "Manage my user settings" to change your profile.

Account and Product Dashboard features include:

  • Manage my user settings: Update your email address, password, contact information and memberships for your account.
  • My products: View and update information about your products and subscriptions, including your expiration dates, links to renew, activation codes and more. Manage the auto renewals on your subscriptions.
  • My order history: View your order history, track shipments and print out receipts.
  • My payment information: Manage the credit card and e-check accounts you have on file for orders and auto renewals.
  • My addresses: Manage and update the shipping and billing addresses you have on file for your account.
  • Manage my email preferences: Manage the emails you receive from AP Stylebook.

Plus these additional features for managers of site licenses and multi-user accounts:

AP Stylebook Online

AP Stylebook Online includes access all the entries listed in the print edition plus online-only features including Ask the Editor and Topical Guides. It is updated throughout the year as editors add and change entries.

Stylebook Online features:

AP Stylebook Online is customizable. Individual subscribers and site license users can create custom content in your own custom stylebook. You can add your own entries, which will appear in your relevant searches and in your custom stylebook content area.

Add notes to AP Stylebook content to provide your own examples of usage or to state that your local style differs from AP. If your subscription includes Merriam-Webster, you can add notes to dictionary entries, too. Your notes are searchable and are included with the entry itself.

AP Stylebook Online is searchable. Using the search box in the top navigation quickly provides results from all content areas. You can search a specific content area, such as your custom stylebook, by going to that section on your logged-in homepage and entering your query in the search box for that section. Search results use word stemming, meta words and misspellings to help find the results you are looking for, including related terms and similar spellings. The cursor is automatically set to the search box in the top header so searching is even faster.

By default, AP Stylebook Online's search uses word stemming, wildcards (to assist with misspellings) and indexing to help find the results you are looking for as quickly as possible. 

Stylebook Online's Topical Guides provide style guidance related to events in the news. You can search the Topical Guides directly via the search bar near the top of the page. Topical Guides include a mix of AP style rules and relevant background about news events, whether that's U.S. elections or hurricane season or the Super Bowl.

You can mark entries as a "Favorite" for easy access to entries that you use frequently. To create a favorite go to the entry page and click the star just to the right of the entry and it should appear blue indicating that it has been favorited. You can see all your favorite entries on your homepage once you have logged in to your account.

Ask the Editor provides answers, clarification and guidance on style issues that go beyond the AP Stylebook. Stylebook Online subscribers can submit questions. Before posting a question, you can search the archives of thousands of past questions and answers for your topic. With thousands of questions and answers on file, your topic has very likely been covered.

Ask the Editor includes tabs to:

  • View the most recent submissions to Ask the Editor.
  • FAQ: View a compilation of frequently asked questions compiled by AP Stylebook editors.
  • Search past questions.
  • Submit a question to Ask the Editor.
  • View my questions: See questions you've submitted previously and answers you have received. You can also request email notification when your question is answered.
  • Archive: View Ask the Editor submissions that no longer reflect current AP style. The questions in this section are all archived and provide historic information only.

AP Stylebook Online subscribers can add access to Merriam-Webster, AP's primary dictionary. Stylebook & Merriam-Webster Online subscribers search both resources simultaneously by default. You can search Merriam-Webster by itself on your logged-in homepage or in the Merriam-Webster section.

If your account does not currently include access to Merriam-Webster, you can add it to your subscription by going to the My Products section of the Account/Product Dashboard and click the upgrade button in the AP Stylebook Online product area.

Getting started with Stylebook Online

If you are a new individual subscriber, you will receive an activation email – click the link in that welcome email to create your username and password.

Named-user site license subscribers receive an activation email with a link to an account manager view where you can add and remove individual users. Each user you add will receive an activation email, as well, to set up his or her username and password.

If you do not receive your activation email, check your spam filter and if you don't find it there, please  submit a support ticket or phone at 833-249-5020 for assistance.

Concurrent-user site license subscribers will need to provide a broadcast or public-facing IP range where your users can access a custom URL such as https://www.apstylebook.com/my_organization. Your users will only need to go to that URL from your IP range to use the service, with no username and password needed. Please email your IP range(s) and your desired custom URL to [email protected] to get started.

If you have remote users who cannot access from your organization's IP range, you can create individual named-user accounts for them, and those individual named-user accounts will count against the total number of concurrent users who can have access to the custom URL. For example, if you have a 25 concurrent-user site license and create three individual user accounts for offsite users, the number of concurrent users you can have would be 22. The individual users will each receive an email with a link to activate their accounts.

AP Stylebook Study Guides

Created in partnership with three experienced AP style instructors, AP Stylebook Study Guides will step you through quizzes covering key Stylebook topics in both the mechanics of writing and the more complex issues of quality storytelling.


Mechanics covers areas such as grammar, capitalization, punctuation and numerals to help you learn the nuts and bolts. Content dives deeper into language and writing, with topics including inclusive storytelling, health and science, business, religion and more.


Automatic scoring shows you the relevant AP style rule so you’ll know why the answer is right. The goal isn't rote memorization but understanding how to find and apply the guidance you need.


AP Stylebook Study Guides are an excellent companion purchase with another Stylebook product. Use them as a way to deepen your knowledge of the Stylebook.


Do you have a question not addressed here? Check out our extensive help center FAQs.