What is llms.txt?
Key Takeaways
- It is a proposed convention, published at llmstxt.org, and not a standard that search engines or AI vendors have agreed to follow.
- The file sits at the site root, for example yourdomain.com/llms.txt, and is written in Markdown.
- Some AI tools may read it; no major vendor has committed to using it, and Google has said its search does not use it.
- It is cheap to add and easy to remove, so treat it as a test and not as a ranking or citation tactic.
Understanding llms.txt
A website built for people is often hard for software to summarize: menus, scripts and layout surround the useful text. The llms.txt proposal offers a clean alternative, a single file that says who the site is for and lists the pages that matter.
The file is usually written in Markdown with a title, a short description and a list of links with one-line notes. Some sites also publish a longer companion file that holds full page text.
Because adoption is voluntary and evidence of benefit is thin, the sensible approach is to publish an accurate file, keep it matched to the visible site and measure whether anything changes.
Related Terms
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does llms.txt improve rankings?
There is no evidence that it does. Google has said its search does not use the file.
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. Robots.txt tells crawlers what they may fetch. llms.txt offers a readable summary of the site and does not control access.
Should a small business add one?
It costs little and can be removed at any time. Keep it accurate and treat it as an experiment.