What is llms.txt, and does your website need one?

llms.txt is a plain markdown file you place at yourdomain.com/llms.txt that tells AI tools what your site is and where its most useful pages are. It was proposed in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI as a simple way for language models to read a site without wading through menus, scripts and ads. It is a proposal, not an official web standard.

What goes in an llms.txt file

The format is ordinary markdown in a fixed order:

1. H1 title with the name of the site or project. This is the only required part.
2. Blockquote with a one or two sentence summary.
3. Optional paragraphs with extra context, without headings.
4. H2 sections containing lists of links in the form name: short note.
5. An optional H2 called Optional for links an AI can skip when it is short on space.

Example: a small business site

• # Trendifico
• > Free online calculators and plain-English guides for online business, ecommerce, SaaS, crypto, creators and AI.
• ## Tools
• - Break-even ROAS calculator: lowest ROAS before ads lose money
• - Word counter: words, characters, reading time
• ## Guides
• - How to calculate CTR
• ## Optional
• - Advertise

Each line above is one line of the real file. You can see the live version at trendifico.com/llms.txt.

Does llms.txt help SEO or AI visibility?

Be realistic. Google's guidance on generative AI features says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and lists llms.txt among things you can ignore. Other AI companies have not committed to reading it either.

Where it does help: developer tools, AI coding assistants and agents that are pointed at your site or docs can use it as a clean index. For documentation sites, product catalogs and API references, that is useful. For a typical blog, the effect on traffic is likely to be small.

How to add llms.txt to your site

1. Write the file using the structure above; keep it short and link only your best pages.
2. Upload it to the root of your site so it loads at /llms.txt.
3. Make sure robots.txt does not block it.
4. Update it when you add important pages.
5. Optionally offer markdown versions of key pages, which the proposal also describes.

Remember the basics matter more: allow AI search crawlers (see AI crawlers and robots.txt), write answer-first pages, and check your results with our free AI visibility test. The AI token counter shows how much of a page fits in a model's context.

FAQ

Is llms.txt an official standard?

No. It is a community proposal published at llmstxt.org. Support varies by tool.

Does Google use llms.txt?

Google says its AI features in Search do not require it, and that you can ignore llms.txt for Google Search.

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may access. llms.txt describes and links your content; it does not block anything.

Where should llms.txt go?

At the root of the site, for example yourdomain.com/llms.txt. The proposal also allows files in subpaths such as /docs/llms.txt.