llms.txt
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed standard for a Markdown file placed at the root of a website (/llms.txt) that gives large language models a short summary of the site and links to its most useful pages, often in Markdown versions. It was proposed by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI in September 2024. It is a proposal, not an adopted web standard.
The idea is that AI tools, especially coding assistants and agents reading documentation, can read a clean, compact overview instead of parsing full HTML pages. A related convention, llms-full.txt, puts the whole documentation in one file.
Google has said plainly that Google Search does not use llms.txt. Its guidance on generative AI features says you don’t need new machine-readable files, AI text files or Markdown versions of pages to appear in Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that such files neither help nor harm visibility there. Google’s John Mueller has compared llms.txt to the old meta keywords tag. The major AI assistants have not announced that they use it to choose sources for answers.
Why llms.txt matters for SEO
For SEO and AI visibility, llms.txt is not a ranking or citation lever, and time spent on it is time not spent on content and links that do matter. Be wary of anyone selling it as a GEO shortcut.
It can still be useful in a narrow case: developer documentation that coding agents and IDE assistants read. If your audience uses those tools, or AI SEO agents, a well-kept llms.txt is cheap to maintain and does no harm.
llms.txt example
# Example Co
> Example Co makes open-source invoicing software for freelancers.
## Docs
- [Quick start](https://example.com/docs/quick-start.md): install and send your first invoice
- [API reference](https://example.com/docs/api.md): every endpoint with examples
## Optional
- [Changelog](https://example.com/changelog.md)llms.txt FAQ
Does Google use llms.txt?
No. Google says Google Search ignores llms.txt, so it doesn’t help or hurt your visibility in Search or its AI features.
Should I add an llms.txt file?
Only if you have documentation that AI coding tools read and you can keep it up to date. For a typical business site it won’t improve rankings or AI citations.
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may fetch. llms.txt is a voluntary summary of content for AI tools and controls nothing.
Related SEO terms
Robots.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which URLs they may and may not request.
AI crawlers (GPTBot, ClaudeBot)
AI crawlers are bots that AI companies use to collect web content for model training or for AI search answers, such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of improving how often AI-generated answers mention your brand and cite your pages.
The meta keywords tag is an old HTML tag for listing a page’s keywords. Google ignores it for ranking and has done since at least 2009.
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs you want search engines to crawl and index, with optional last-modified dates.