As more online users are using AI tools such as ChatGPT or Perplexity to search for information, more marketing teams are investing time and resources to appear in AI results. One potential way to increase a piece of content’s chance of appearing in AI results is using llms.txt for a website.
What Is llms.txt?
Introduced by Australian technologist Jeremy Howard, llms.txt is a proposed standard that functions similarly to robots.txt, but instead of guiding search engines, it provides instructions to large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
Llms.txt offers a structured way to present content in an LLM-friendly format that’s clean, readable, and easy to parse to AI bots such as PerplexityBot or OAI-SearchBot (OpenAI bot). Llms.txt aims to provide guidance on how a website’s content is accessed and used.
Why Do We Need It?
While websites are built for human visitors with complex layouts, navigation, ads, and scripts, LLMs work best when fed concise, plain text that provides context and clarity. The current crawling methods are resource-heavy and often miss the mark when it comes to understanding the core content of a site.
llms.txt proposes a new approach: give LLMs exactly what they need in a simple, standardized file. This reduces the technical burden on AI platforms and improves the accuracy and relevance of the AI-generated responses that rely on your content.
How Does It Work?
llms.txt is a plain text or Markdown file you add to the root of your website. You can include:
- Direct URLs to important pages
- Summaries of your content
- Full raw text of your web pages
- Or even Markdown versions of your entire site
Think of it as a flattened, text-only version of your website, curated specifically for AI. Some examples of real-world implementations include Anthropic, Zapier, and Perplexity, who already host llms.txt or llms-full.txt files on their domains.
Examples:
- Anthropic: https://docs.anthropic.com/llms-full.txt
- Hugging Face: https://huggingface-projects-docs-llms-txt.hf.space/accelerate/llms.txt
- Perplexity: https://docs.perplexity.ai/llms-full.txt
- LLMsTxt Manager: https://llmstxtmanager.com/llms.txt
- Zapier: https://docs.zapier.com/llms-full.txt
The Benefits of llms.txt
For marketers, developers, and content creators, the benefits of implementing llms.txt could be substantial:
- Content Control: Define how and what AI models ingest from your site
- AI Visibility: Potentially improve your presence in AI-powered search results
- Site Analysis: Use the file for internal keyword, taxonomy, and entity analysis
- Reputation Management: Offer LLMs the most accurate, up-to-date content
- Competitive Edge: Early adopters may enjoy advantages as AI indexing grows
Plus, tools like Markdowner, FireCrawl, and WordPress plugins are already making it easier for website owners to generate their own llms.txt files, with some free options available for smaller sites.
What Are the Limitations?
Despite its promise, llms.txt isn’t without criticism. Not all AI platforms will recognize or respect the file. As with robots.txt, compliance is voluntary. There’s no guarantee your instructions will be followed by AI crawling bots.
Some industry experts argue it overlaps with existing standards like robots.txt and XML sitemaps. Others raise security concerns about exposing too much content in a single, easy-to-scrape file. And there’s the potential for misuse—such as stuffing the file with spammy keywords or content.
Additionally, skeptics like Brett Tabke (CEO of Pubcon and WebmasterWorld) argue that the line between LLMs and search engines is already too blurred. He believes tools like robots.txt and XML sitemaps are sufficient and sees llms.txt as unnecessary.
Why Businesses Should Still Pay Attention
Even with its detractors, llms.txt presents a compelling step forward in shaping the future of AI and content governance. As AI becomes more central to search, decision-making, and discovery, website owners need tools to guide and optimize AI interaction.
Think of llms.txt as part of a growing list of web standards, alongside schema.org, robots.txt, and IndexNow, that provide some degree of technical “science” in an otherwise murky landscape of digital optimization.
In GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), where best practices are still emerging, llms.txt offers a tangible, actionable tool to influence how LLMs access and interpret your site’s content.
The search world is shifting rapidly, with AI leading the charge. Whether llms.txt becomes a widely adopted standard or not, it’s already serving as a catalyst for discussions about data ownership, transparency, and content control in the AI world.
If your content is likely to be used, or already being used, by LLMs, now’s the time to take a proactive approach. Creating an llms.txt file is a low-risk way to start. It could help protect your content, guide AI to what matters most, and potentially give you a leg up in a world where the best answer wins.
