What is LLMs.txt?

Full format guide & specification for the new AI search standard

LLMs.txt is a new web standard that helps AI models understand your website. It's a markdown file hosted at your domain root (e.g., example.com/llms.txt) that provides a structured overview of your business and key pages.

Why llms.txt Matters

As AI search engines replace traditional search, websites need a new way to communicate with machines. llms.txt fills that gap. It tells AI models:

What your business or site is about
Which pages are most important
How your content is organised
What tone and style you use

File Structure

An llms.txt file follows a simple markdown structure with three main sections:

# Site Name

## Overview
A concise 2-3 sentence description of what the site offers and who it serves.

## Sections

### Section Name
- [Page Title](URL) — Brief description of the page content
- [Another Page](URL) — Description of what visitors find here

### Another Section
- [Page Title](URL) — Description

## Notes
Optional additional context, contact details, or instructions for AI models.

Required Elements

H1 — Site Name

The first line should be a single # heading with your site or business name.

## Overview

A 2-3 sentence summary of your site's purpose, target audience, and core offering. Keep it factual and specific.

## Sections

Group related pages under H3 headings. Each page gets a markdown link with a 1-sentence description.

Best Practices

Keep it under 500 lines. AI models have context limits. Focus on your most important pages.
Be specific. "Pricing page" is weak. "SaaS pricing with three tiers and annual discount" is strong.
Update quarterly. Refresh your llms.txt when you add major pages, restructure, or pivot.
Host at the root. The file must live at yoursite.com/llms.txt, not a subdirectory.
Link from robots.txt. Add a reference so crawlers can find it: LLMs-txt: https://yoursite.com/llms.txt

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

File	Purpose	Audience
robots.txt	Tells crawlers which pages to index	Search engine bots
sitemap.xml	Lists all pages with priorities and dates	Search engine bots
llms.txt	Describes what pages contain and why they matter	AI language models

You need all three. They serve different audiences and different purposes.

Where to Host Your File

Place llms.txt at the root of your domain:

https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt

Most AI crawlers (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini) check for this file automatically when they first visit your domain.

Ready to generate yours?

Use our free generator to create a properly structured llms.txt file in seconds.

Generate Your LLMs.txt