More and more people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini instead of Google. Those systems read websites differently from a search engine. llms.txt is a proposal to help them.
What is it?
A plain text file in a fixed place: yoursite.com/llms.txt. It says, in short and clear language, who you are, what you do and which pages matter most, with links. It's written in Markdown, so both people and language models read it easily.
The idea came from Jeremy Howard (Answer.AI) in 2024. It resembles robots.txt, with a different purpose: robots.txt says what a crawler may not do, llms.txt points out what's worth reading.
What isn't it?
- Not a guarantee, and for Google nothing at all. It's a proposed standard, not an official one. Google is now explicit about it: its own AI search guide says you don't need special AI files or markup, and that Google Search doesn't use llms.txt. That covers AI Overviews and AI Mode too, since they run on the same index. Other systems sometimes fetch the file, but no major provider has confirmed it carries weight.
- Not a substitute for a good site. An AI can only describe you well if your pages are clear themselves: clear headings, real answers to real questions, and consistent business details.
Do you need it?
Short answer: it costs little and does no harm, but it's the last piece, not the first. And if someone sells you an llms.txt as a way into Google: it doesn't work, and Google says so itself.
What comes first:
- A fast site with a logical structure and one clear H1 per page.
- Structured data (schema markup) for your business, your services and your FAQs.
- The same name, address and contact details everywhere.
After that, an llms.txt is a quarter of an hour's work. This site has one too: see it here.
Want to know where your site stands? Read more about AI visibility.