What llms.txt is
llms.txt is a proposal for a small text file that tells AI tools which pages on your website matter most. Jeremy Howard published it at llmstxt.org on September 3, 2024. The idea is simple. A website is full of menus, scripts and ads that make it clumsy for a language model to read. A short Markdown file at a known address gives the model a clean summary and a reading list instead.
It sits next to files you may already know:
| File | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Tells crawlers which parts of your site they may fetch | Long-established; search and AI crawlers read it |
| sitemap.xml | Lists your URLs for search engines | Long-established |
| llms.txt | Offers a curated reading list for language models | A proposal; not an official standard |
| Schema markup | Labels facts inside a page (business, service, hours) | Part of the page, not a separate file |
If you are building the bigger picture, llms.txt is one small piece of AI search optimization, and a minor one.
The format, step by step
The llmstxt.org proposal describes the file as Markdown with these parts, in this order:
- An H1 heading with the name of the site or project. This is the only required part.
- A blockquote with a short summary of the site.
- Optional detail in paragraphs or lists, with no further headings.
- H2 sections of links. Each item is a bullet with a link and, after a colon, a short note about the page.
- An “Optional” section for secondary links that a tool can skip when it needs less text.
The file lives at the site root, for example yourdomain.com/llms.txt. The proposal also suggests offering clean Markdown versions of key pages, at the same address with .md added.
An example for a local business
This is an example file for a made-up business, “Example Plumbing & Heating,” to show the shape. The phone number and links are placeholders. Replace every line with your own true facts.
# Example Plumbing & Heating
> Licensed plumbing and heating contractor serving Springfield and nearby towns.
> Same-day repairs on weekdays. Call 555-010-0100 or book online.
Prices below are starting prices and are updated each quarter.
## Services
- [Water heater replacement](https://example-plumbing.com/water-heaters/): what is included, from price, time on site
- [Emergency leak repair](https://example-plumbing.com/leaks/): hours, areas served, how to call
- [Boiler service](https://example-plumbing.com/boilers/): yearly service plan and what it covers
## Business details
- [Service area](https://example-plumbing.com/areas/): towns served and travel limits
- [Pricing](https://example-plumbing.com/pricing/): starting prices and what is not included
- [Contact and hours](https://example-plumbing.com/contact/): phone, address, hours, booking link
## Optional
- [About us](https://example-plumbing.com/about/): licenses, team, years of experience
- [Customer questions](https://example-plumbing.com/faq/): payment, warranty, schedulingNotice what the file does: it names the business, says in two lines what it does and where, and points to the pages that hold the facts. The facts themselves stay on the pages. That is where Google, Bing and customers read them too.
How to add it
- Write it by hand. For a small business, ten to fifteen links is plenty. Use plain wording that matches your pages.
- Link only to pages that exist, and say only what the pages say. If the file and the site disagree, you have created a contradiction, not a signal.
- Save it as
llms.txtin plain text with Markdown formatting. - Upload it to your site root through your host’s file manager, FTP, or your website platform’s file settings. Some WordPress plugins and online generators can create the file for you.
- Open
yourdomain.com/llms.txtin a browser and click every link. - Put a reminder in your calendar to update it when services, prices or pages change.
Does llms.txt help?
Honestly, there is no measured evidence that it does. Here is what the sources say.
Google. Google’s guide to generative AI features lists AI text files among the things you do not need to create. It says it is completely fine to create and maintain llms.txt files for other services that use them, and that doing so “will neither harm nor help” your visibility or rankings in Google Search, as Google Search ignores them. In April 2025, Google’s John Mueller wrote on Reddit that to him llms.txt is comparable to the keywords meta tag, and that as far as he knew none of the AI services had said they use it.
Ahrefs. In a study published June 15, 2026, Ahrefs looked at 137,210 domains in its web analytics that had traffic in May 2026. About 28% of them published an llms.txt file, which Ahrefs says is an upper bound because its customers skew technical. Of those files, 97% received zero traffic that month: nothing fetched them at all. Ahrefs calls the file largely decoration for AI search visibility. It notes limits: it did not check whether each file followed the specification, and a fetch does not prove a file was read.
SE Ranking. In a study published in October 2026, SE Ranking checked nearly 300,000 domains. 10.13% had an llms.txt file. Using statistical tests and a machine-learning model, it found no measurable link between having the file and how often AI systems cited a domain. Removing the file as a variable made the model more accurate. Its conclusion: llms.txt does not impact how AI systems see or cite your content today. The authors note that the results depend on the model and dataset.
What this does not prove. These are observational studies from companies that sell SEO tools, not controlled experiments. They show no effect so far, not that the file can never matter. Ahrefs suggests its main value may be for coding agents and documentation sites. We found nothing in these sources in which a major AI search service says it relies on the file.
What to do before llms.txt
If you have limited time, this order gives you more:
- Make sure the bots can reach your pages. For ChatGPT search, OpenAI says to allow OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt. GPTBot, the training crawler, is a separate choice. Changes can take about 24 hours to take effect.
- Put the facts in text on the page. Services, area, price or “from” price, hours, how to book. See schema markup for local business for the structured version of the same facts.
- Keep your name, address and phone the same everywhere.
- Write pages that answer real questions in the first lines. Our guide on how to show up in ChatGPT starts there.
- Then add llms.txt if you want a tidy reading list, and move on.
Nobody controls what ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, AI Mode or Perplexity recommend, and nobody can guarantee placement. A file does not change that.
How Magnet Mint handles it
We are a Boston studio that builds websites for local service businesses and works with clients across the US. Our GEO and AEO audit includes a check of llms.txt alongside the page map, service template, schema and crawl access, and we add the file when a client wants it. We do not claim it improves results. Price: from $750. Not included: domain and hosting, new photography, third-party software subscriptions (billed at cost), and AI usage above a plan allowance. To see how customers and AI assistants view your site today, ask for a free demo.
Published . Updated .