Is "To" Capitalized in a Title?

Title capitalization guide

It depends — "to" is lowercase as a preposition in AP and Chicago Style, and the infinitive "to" follows the same rule.

preposition or infinitive marker

Capitalized in 2 styles

Lowercase in 8 styles

Title Case

Lowercase as a preposition or infinitive marker unless first or last word

AP Style

Lowercase — AP lowercases all prepositions including the infinitive to

NYT Style

YES

Capitalized — NYT Style capitalizes prepositions

Chicago Style

Lowercase — two letters and listed explicitly as a lowercase word

MLA Style

Lowercase as preposition or infinitive marker

APA Style

Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns

AMA Style

Lowercase — AMA follows AP-style preposition rules

BB Style

YES

Every word capitalized — no exceptions

Wikipedia Style

Sentence case — only first word and proper nouns

Sentence Case

Only the first word of a title is capitalized

The full answer

"To" is one of the trickier words in title capitalization because it serves two grammatical roles: as a preposition and as the infinitive marker before a verb. Its capitalization depends on which role it is playing and which style guide applies.

Some editors debate whether "to" before an infinitive verb should be capitalized because the whole infinitive phrase functions as a content word. However, Chicago Style, the dominant guide for book publishing, explicitly keeps the infinitive "to" lowercase.

NYT Style capitalizes "to" along with most other prepositions. This means a title like "How to Win Friends" would appear as "How To Win Friends" in NYT Style.

The opening position always overrides the preposition rule. "To Kill a Mockingbird" correctly capitalizes "To" because it is the first word of the title.

When "to" is used as a preposition — indicating direction, recipient, or relationship — it is lowercase in AP Style, Chicago Style, MLA Style, and AMA Style. Chicago Style explicitly lists the infinitive marker "to" as a lowercase word as well.