What Is llms.txt? Example, Format and Is It Worth It
Short answer: llms.txt is a plain Markdown file at the root of your website (for example example.com/llms.txt) that tells AI tools what your site is and which pages matter most. It is optional, takes about 20 minutes to write, and works like a hand-written table of contents for language models.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed standard for giving large language models a clean summary of a website. Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI published the proposal in September 2024 at llmstxt.org. The idea is simple: web pages are full of menus, scripts, cookie banners and ads, and an AI tool reading your site has a limited amount of text it can take in at once. A short Markdown file that lists your key pages, with one line about each, is much easier for it to use.
The file lives at /llms.txt, the same place robots.txt lives. Anyone can open it in a browser. You can see ours at extcafe.com/llms.txt.
Is llms.txt actually used? Is it worth it?
Be careful with anyone who promises it will boost your rankings. Google's guide to AI features and your website says you do not need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Google's John Mueller has compared llms.txt to the old keywords meta tag: it is what a site owner claims the site is about, and a crawler can just read the site instead. We have also not seen OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity confirm that llms.txt affects which pages they cite.
So is it worth it? For most sites, yes, but only because it is cheap. Treat it as insurance, not a ranking trick.
Where it does help today:
- AI coding and research tools that look for it on purpose, especially on documentation sites.
- People who paste your llms.txt into a chatbot to get an accurate summary of your product.
- Your own team. Writing one forces you to state, in plain words, what each important page is for. That clarity tends to improve the pages themselves.
What goes inside an llms.txt file?
The format is regular Markdown in a fixed order. Only the first item is required.
- An H1 with your site or product name. This is the only required line.
- A blockquote with a one or two sentence summary. Say what you do, for whom, and what it costs if that matters.
- Optional paragraphs with details a model should know, such as supported platforms or what the product does not do.
- H2 sections with lists of links. Each item is a Markdown link followed by a colon and a short note.
- An optional section called "Optional" for links a model can skip when it is short on space.
llms.txt example you can copy
Here is a small, complete example for a made-up bakery website. Swap in your own pages.
# Rosewood Bakery
> Rosewood Bakery is a family bakery in Pune that sells sourdough,
> custom birthday cakes and eggless desserts. Orders open 48 hours ahead.
Rosewood delivers within 10 km of Baner. We do not ship outside Pune.
## Main pages
- [Menu and prices](https://rosewood.example/menu): Full menu with current prices in INR
- [Custom cakes](https://rosewood.example/cakes): How to order, sizes, lead times
- [Delivery area](https://rosewood.example/delivery): Map and delivery fees
## Help
- [FAQ](https://rosewood.example/faq): Allergens, eggless options, refunds
- [Contact](https://rosewood.example/contact): Phone, WhatsApp and opening hours
## Optional
- [Our story](https://rosewood.example/about): How the bakery started in 2015How to create llms.txt in 5 steps
- List your 5 to 20 most useful pages. Product, pricing, docs, FAQ, contact. Skip login pages, tag archives and anything blocked in robots.txt.
- Write one honest line for each. Describe what the reader gets, not what you want to rank for.
- Write the summary blockquote. Read it out loud. If a stranger would not understand your business from it, rewrite it.
- Save the file as
llms.txtin your site's root folder and openyoursite.com/llms.txtto confirm it loads as plain text. - Optionally, point to it from your pages with
<link rel="alternate" type="text/plain" href="/llms.txt">in the<head>.
On WordPress, upload the file to the folder that holds wp-config.php, or use a plugin that serves it. On Shopify you cannot place files at the root directly, so most stores use an app or a redirect from a page.
Common llms.txt mistakes
- Keyword lists. A block of 50 comma-separated search phrases reads as spam to a person and adds nothing for a model. Describe pages instead. (We removed one from our own file while writing this guide.)
- Stale facts. Old prices or discontinued features are worse than no file, because a chatbot may repeat them. Update llms.txt whenever your pricing or features change.
- Linking to pages AI crawlers cannot reach. If robots.txt blocks a URL, do not list it.
- Making it huge. The point is a short summary. If you want to give models full content, the spec suggests offering Markdown copies of pages separately.
llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml
| File | Who reads it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | All crawlers | Says which paths a bot may or may not crawl |
| sitemap.xml | Search engines | Lists every URL you want indexed, with dates |
| llms.txt | AI tools and language models | Summarizes the site and points to the pages that matter most |
You want all three. They do different jobs and none replaces another.
Check your llms.txt in one click
SEO AI Assistant is a free Chrome extension that checks whether your site has an llms.txt file, along with 38 other SEO, AEO and GEO checks, from Chrome's side panel. On Pro it can generate llms.txt and sitemap.xml for your whole domain, which you then review and upload yourself.
llms.txt questions
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt controls which pages crawlers may visit. llms.txt does not block or allow anything. It only describes your site and links to the pages you want AI tools to read first.
Where do I put llms.txt?
Put it in the root folder of your domain so it loads at yoursite.com/llms.txt, the same place as robots.txt. A file in a subfolder will not be found by tools that look for the standard location.
Does Google use llms.txt?
Google has not said it uses llms.txt for Search or AI Overviews, and its guidance says normal SEO practices are enough for its AI features. Add the file for other AI tools, not for Google rankings.
What is llms-full.txt?
llms-full.txt is a common companion file that contains the full text of your key pages in one Markdown document, so a tool can read everything without visiting each link. It is useful for documentation sites and usually unnecessary for small business sites.
How often should I update llms.txt?
Update it whenever you add an important page, change prices or launch or remove a feature. A quick review once a month is enough for most small sites.