What is llms.txt, and does your website need one?
llms.txt is a plain-text Markdown file at the root of a website that summarises the site and links its most useful pages for AI tools. It was proposed in September 2024 and is still an emerging convention: few AI crawlers are known to request it today, so it is quick and low-risk to add, but it does not replace crawlable pages, structured data and robots.txt rules that let AI crawlers in.
What llms.txt is
llms.txt is a text file that lives at the root of your domain, for example https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. It gives AI tools a short, clean summary of who you are and links to the pages that matter most, without the menus, scripts and layout of a normal web page.
The format was proposed in September 2024 at llmstxt.org. It is a community convention, not an official standard, and no major AI company has published a commitment to use it for ranking or citations.
What goes in it
The file is written in Markdown. The proposal asks for a few simple parts, in this order:
- A heading with your site or business name. This is the only required part.
- A one-paragraph summary in a blockquote. Plain facts: what you do, who you serve and where.
- Optional detail. A few short paragraphs or bullet points with anything an assistant should know.
- Sections of links. Each section has a heading and a list of links, each with an optional short note, in the form
- [Page name](https://yourdomain.com/page/): what the page covers.
Some sites also publish llms-full.txt with the full text of their key pages. That is a common extension rather than part of the original proposal.
Does it help?
Honestly, not much on its own yet. Most AI crawlers read your normal pages, and there is little public evidence that they request llms.txt. It is worth adding because it takes minutes and has no downside, but the work that makes the biggest difference is elsewhere:
- Pages that put the important facts in the HTML itself, not only behind JavaScript.
- Structured data (JSON-LD) that describes your business, services and FAQs.
- A robots.txt file that does not block the AI search and answer crawlers.
- Clear, answer-first page content with prices, locations and other specific facts.
How to add one
- Write it. Start with your name, a one-paragraph summary and links to your main pages: services, pricing, about, contact and your best guides. Keep it to real pages and real facts.
- Save it as plain text named
llms.txt. - Publish it at the root so it loads at
/llms.txton your domain. On most hosting and on WordPress you can upload it to the site's root folder. On frameworks such as Next.js, put it in the public folder. - If your platform cannot serve files at the root, which is the case on some website builders, a small Cloudflare Worker in front of your domain can serve the file for you.
- Check it by opening the address in a browser. It should show as plain text.
Shortcut
The free GEO audit on this site checks whether you have an llms.txt and, if you do not, writes a draft from the pages it finds on your site, with steps for your platform.