Title
This essential signal indicates the title assigned to the work being reused, such as a Wikipedia article or a Wikimedia Commons file. Titles are key pieces of information to facilitate the identification of original resources in external contexts.
It's commonly accepted and practical to use the source's title as text for the link to the original page or media being shared. When used as link text, titles help users both recognize the work and navigate directly to the source.
Displaying full titles is generally recommended, but not required. Truncating or omitting them is acceptable in favor of other essential signals, such as Source, Link or Credit, when space is limited or information density is high. In fact, given that media files’ titles can be unwieldy and not fully descriptive, we recommend omitting this information when attributing images. This suggestion applies only as long as access to the original file is provided in context.
Data sources
This section identifies where and how the data behind this signal can be obtained. It points to the relevant Wikimedia APIs or methods that reusers can rely on to implement the signal.
Wikimedia Attribution API Beta
The Wikimedia Attribution API returns the page title for Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons content.
Reference documentation can be found in any wiki's REST API sandbox, such as the REST API sandbox on English Wikipedia →
Share feedback on this beta API →
Wikimedia Enterprise API
Title information is included in the name field of articles retrieved using the On-demand Wikimedia Enterprise API.
See the Wikimedia Enterprise API documentation →
MediaWiki Action API
Title information about a page can be retrieved with the MediaWiki Action API using action=query&prop=info. (see reference). The response will include the page’s title. To retrieve page titles in the manner in which they are actually displayed on the source page, you may use the property inprop=displaytitle.
See the MediaWiki Action API documentation →
MediaWiki REST API
Title information can be retrieved using MediaWiki REST API’s page object. Use the information included in the title field to display reading-friendly titles to end users.
See the MediaWiki REST API documentation →
URL parsing
URLs contain the title of the resource (e.g., article or file) being shared. To extract the title, parse out the project URL root, and normalize the title (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker → Josephine_Baker → Josephine Baker).
Implementation guidance
Minimum requirements
Make the title accessible to end users either in context or by linking to the source.
When facing medium or spacing constraints (e.g., voice-only or limited space on a user interface), you may prioritize stating the source, author and license, and truncate the title. You can surface the title in a secondary location (e.g., a details view or tooltip) or even omit it if necessary.
Don't paraphrase. Always use the title as rendered on the source page. If space is limited, abbreviate titles and ensure their full text remains available via hover or the linked page.
If your output blends content from several pages, list all sources and keep individual titles accessible.
Best practices
Show the original title next to the reused content.
Omit media files’ titles, since they tend to be unwieldy and/or don’t contribute a lot of meaning.
You may use titles to link to the source (e.g., an article page on Wikipedia, a file description page on Wikimedia Commons, or an entity page on Wikidata).
Keep title disambiguators (e.g., “Jaguar (animal)”) to support proper understanding and orient users.
In conversational UIs, long titles can overwhelm speech or chat replies. Make a concise topic label audibly or visibly available, and include titles in the sections dedicated to sources.
Reuse scenarios
Search
Required
Displaying the article or file title helps users recognize the topic and distinguish between similar results.
AI assistants
Required
Providing titles clarifies which topic an answer draws from, improving transparency in conversational outputs.