Title capitalization guide
Is "About" Capitalized in a Title?

Yes in Chicago Style and MLA Style — five letters exceeds the lowercase threshold. No in AP Style.

preposition or adverb
Capitalized in 5 styles
Lowercase in 5 styles
Title Case
YES
Capitalized as a preposition of five letters or more
AP Style
no
Lowercase — AP lowercases all prepositions regardless of length
NYT Style
YES
Capitalized — NYT Style capitalizes prepositions
Chicago Style
YES
Capitalized — five letters, above the four-letter threshold
MLA Style
YES
Capitalized as a longer preposition
APA Style
no
Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns
AMA Style
no
Lowercase — AMA follows AP-style preposition rules
BB Style
YES
Every word capitalized — no exceptions
Wikipedia Style
no
Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns
Sentence Case
no
Only the first word of a title is capitalized

The full answer

"About" is a five-letter preposition, which puts it above Chicago Style's four-letter lowercase threshold. It is capitalized in Chicago Style, MLA Style, NYT Style, and Billboard Style, but lowercase in AP Style and AMA Style.

AP Style takes the simpler approach of lowercasing all prepositions regardless of length. Under AP Style, "about" is always lowercase whether it appears in a newspaper headline, digital article, or press release.

AMA Style follows AP-style logic and lowercases "about." This means medical publications lowercase it even though book publishers following Chicago Style capitalize it — the same word treated differently by different professional standards.

"About" as the first word of a title is always capitalized in every style guide. It is a common opening word in non-fiction titles and instructional content.

"About" is one of the clearest examples of where Chicago Style and AP Style diverge on prepositions. Chicago Style lowercases prepositions of four letters or fewer but capitalizes longer prepositions. "About" has five letters and is therefore capitalized in Chicago Style.