llms.txt: what it is, how to create it — and does it work?

llms.txt is a plain Markdown file at yourwebsite.com/llms.txt that summarises your site for large language models: who you are, and links to your most important pages with one-line descriptions. It was proposed in 2024 as a “sitemap for AI”.

The format

# Sharma Classes

> SSC and banking exam coaching in Aliganj, Lucknow since 2012. Offline and online batches.

## Key pages
- [Courses and fees](https://sharmaclasses.in/courses): SSC CGL, CHSL, Bank PO batches with fees
- [Results](https://sharmaclasses.in/results): selections by year
- [Contact](https://sharmaclasses.in/contact): address, timings, phone

Rules: one H1 with your name, a short blockquote summary, then sections of links in - [Title](url): description form. Keep it short and factual.

How to add it

• Any site with file access: upload llms.txt to the root folder (same place as robots.txt).
• WordPress: upload via your host's file manager to public_html, or use an SEO plugin that supports llms.txt.
• Shopify: Shopify doesn't allow arbitrary root files; use an app that serves llms.txt, or a URL redirect from /llms.txt to a hosted file.
• Next.js / static sites: put it in the public/ folder.

Don't want to write it by hand? Use our free llms.txt generator — it reads your site and drafts the file.

Does llms.txt actually work? The honest answer

So far, the evidence says not much:

• An analysis of ~137,000 domains found 97% of llms.txt files received zero requests from AI bots (PPC Land).
• In a 12-week crawl log study, GPTBot fetched robots.txt 3,990 times and llms.txt 7 times (Rework).
• No major AI company has confirmed its assistant uses llms.txt for answers.

It costs five minutes and does no harm, so it's reasonable to add — and coding assistants and some AI tools do read it. But if your goal is to get recommended by ChatGPT, spend your time on what moves the needle: letting AI search crawlers in, readable pages, and mentions on the sites AI cites.