What Is llms.txt? How to Create One and Whether Your Website Needs It
llms.txt is a plain markdown file at the root of your site that gives AI tools a clean summary of your business and links to your most important pages. Here is the format, a template you can copy, and an honest take on what it does and does not do.
llms.txt is a markdown file placed at the root of a website (yoursite.com/llms.txt) that gives large language models a concise, human-written summary of what the site is about and links to its most useful pages. It was proposed in 2024 as a simple convention for AI tools that read websites, similar in spirit to robots.txt and sitemap.xml but written for language models rather than crawlers.
It takes under an hour to create, costs nothing to host and gives AI assistants an accurate, current description of your business in your own words.
Key takeaways
- llms.txt is a plain markdown file at
/llms.txtwith a title, a short summary and sections of links. - It is a proposed convention, not an official standard; support varies between AI tools.
- It complements, and does not replace, robots.txt, sitemap.xml and structured data.
- The real value is a single, accurate source of facts about your business that AI tools and agents can read quickly.
What does an llms.txt file contain?
The proposal describes a simple structure:
- An H1 title with the name of the site or business.
- A blockquote summary of what the business does, in a few sentences.
- Optional paragraphs or lists with key facts.
- H2 sections containing lists of links, each with a short description.
- An optional section, conventionally called "Optional", for secondary links that can be skipped when context is limited.
llms.txt example you can copy
# Acme Plumbing
> Acme Plumbing is a licensed plumbing company serving Brisbane's northern suburbs since 2012. We handle emergency repairs, hot water systems, blocked drains and bathroom renovations for homes and small businesses.
## Facts
- Service area: Brisbane northside, Moreton Bay
- Hours: 24/7 emergency line, office Mon–Fri 7am–5pm
- Pricing: call-out fee plus quoted labour; written quotes before work starts
## Services
- [Emergency plumbing](https://acme.example/emergency): 24/7 call-outs, typical arrival within 90 minutes
- [Hot water systems](https://acme.example/hot-water): repair and replacement, gas, electric, heat pump
## Optional
- [About us](https://acme.example/about)
- [Reviews](https://acme.example/reviews)You can see a live example on our own site at ropedigital.co/llms.txt, which lists our services, products, pricing and review ratings.
llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml
| File | Who it is for | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Crawlers | Allows or blocks crawling of parts of the site |
| sitemap.xml | Search engines | Lists every URL you want indexed, with dates |
| llms.txt | Language models and AI agents | Summarizes the site and points to the most useful pages in readable markdown |
| Structured data | Search engines and AI systems | Describes entities (organization, products, articles) in machine-readable JSON-LD |
Note that llms.txt does not control access. If you want to allow or block AI crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot, that still happens in robots.txt.
How to create an llms.txt file in five steps
- Write the summary first. Two to four sentences: who you are, what you do, for whom, and where.
- List the facts AI tools get wrong. Pricing model, service area, founding year, contact details, guarantees. Be specific.
- Group your key pages. Services, products, case studies, guides. One line per link with a short description.
- Save it as `llms.txt` at the root of your domain and make sure it returns as plain text.
- Keep it current. Update it whenever prices, services or contact details change. A stale file is worse than none.
Some teams also publish llms-full.txt, a longer file with the full text of key pages, for tools that want more context in one fetch.
Does llms.txt help SEO or AI visibility?
Be realistic. Google has said it does not use llms.txt for ranking, and major AI providers have not committed to reading it consistently. Its value today is practical rather than algorithmic:
- AI agents and coding assistants that browse the web can fetch one compact file instead of parsing many pages.
- It forces you to write a clear, accurate summary of your business, which you can reuse on your site, profiles and directory listings, and that consistency does help AI visibility.
- It is cheap insurance as tools adopt the convention.
Treat it as one part of generative engine optimization, alongside structured data, answer-first content and third-party mentions, not as a ranking shortcut.
Frequently asked questions
Is llms.txt an official standard?
No. It is a community proposal from 2024. Some AI tools and documentation platforms support it, but it is not an official web standard and support is uneven.
Where should llms.txt be placed?
At the root of your domain, so it loads at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, in the same place as robots.txt.
Does Google use llms.txt?
Google has said it does not use llms.txt for search ranking. Google relies on its own crawling, structured data and ranking systems.
Can llms.txt block AI crawlers?
No. llms.txt is informational. To allow or block AI crawlers, use robots.txt rules for specific user agents such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot or PerplexityBot.
How long should an llms.txt file be?
Short enough to read in a minute: a summary, key facts and a curated list of links. If you want to provide full page content, add a separate llms-full.txt.
Want your site ready for AI search?
Rope Digital sets up llms.txt, structured data and answer-first content as part of our SEO and content retainer. Book a free call and we will review how AI assistants currently describe your business.
Want this done for you?
Engineering, marketing, and staffing under one senior, accountable team. Book a discovery call and we’ll map the fastest path forward.
