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What is llms.txt, and does your business need one?

llms.txt explained plainly: what the file is, what it can and cannot do for a small business, and how to write one for your website in ten minutes.

Published 3 min readBy Visibility

Short answer

llms.txt is a short plain-text file at the root of a website that summarises what the site is and links to its most important pages, written for AI systems to read. It is a proposal rather than an official standard, so no assistant is obliged to use it, but it is quick to write and costs nothing.

On this page
  1. What is an llms.txt file?
  2. What goes in an llms.txt file?
  3. Do AI assistants actually read llms.txt?
  4. How do I add llms.txt to my website?
  5. Common questions

What is an llms.txt file?

It is a text file you publish at yourdomain.gi/llms.txt, alongside robots.txt. Where robots.txt tells crawlers what they may read, llms.txt tells an AI system what your site is about and where the useful pages are, in plain language rather than rules.

The format was proposed in 2024 and is described at llmstxt.org. It uses Markdown, the simple formatting used in many plain-text documents.

What goes in an llms.txt file?

In order:

  1. 1A title line with your business name, starting with #.
  2. 2A one- or two-sentence summary starting with >: what you do, and where.
  3. 3A few lines of plain detail: who you serve, your main services, opening hours.
  4. 4Sections starting with ##, each a list of links to your key pages with a few words on each.

For a Gibraltar restaurant it might look like this:

# Copperfin Kitchen

> Seafood restaurant in Ocean Village, Gibraltar, open for lunch and dinner every day.

Family-run since 2012. Local fish, a set lunch menu, and a terrace on the marina.

## Key pages

- [Menu](https://www.copperfinkitchen.gi/menu): Lunch, dinner and set menus with prices
- [Book a table](https://www.copperfinkitchen.gi/book): Online booking, groups up to 20
- [Find us](https://www.copperfinkitchen.gi/contact): Address, opening hours, parking

Copperfin Kitchen is an invented business, used in all our examples.

Do AI assistants actually read llms.txt?

Nobody can promise that they do. The file is a proposal, and whether an assistant or its crawler reads it is up to the company that runs it. Treat anyone who says llms.txt will get you recommended with caution.

It is still worth doing, for three reasons: it takes ten minutes, it cannot harm anything, and writing it forces you to describe your business in three plain sentences. If that is hard, your homepage probably has the same problem, and fixing that does matter. See make your website easy for AI to understand.

How do I add llms.txt to my website?

  1. 1Draft it with our free llms.txt generator, which builds a first version from your own homepage.
  2. 2Edit the summary until it says exactly what you do and where.
  3. 3Save it as a plain text file named llms.txt and upload it to the root of your site, so it opens at yourdomain.gi/llms.txt. Most website builders let you add a file or a custom page at that address.
  4. 4Open the address in your browser to check it loads as plain text.

Common questions

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt sets rules about what crawlers may read. llms.txt describes your site and points to its important pages. They sit side by side and do different jobs.

What is llms-full.txt?

A companion file some sites publish with the full text of their key pages in one document, so a system can read everything at once. For a small business site, llms.txt alone is plenty.

Does Google use llms.txt?

Google has not said it uses llms.txt for Search. Google Search relies on its own crawling, your pages and structured data.

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