What is llms.txt, and does my website need one?
BoostAEO's short answer: llms.txt is a plain-text file at the root of a website that lists its most useful pages, with a short summary, for AI tools to read. It was proposed in 2024. It is cheap to add and does no harm, but there is no public confirmation that the major AI engines use it to choose answers, so treat it as optional.
What goes in an llms.txt file?
A title, a one-paragraph summary of the business, and short sections listing important pages as links with a one-line description each. It is written in Markdown and lives at yourdomain.com/llms.txt. An optional llms-full.txt holds the full text of key pages in one file.
Does it help me appear in AI answers?
Honestly, no one outside the AI companies knows. Google has said its search does not use the file. Some AI tools and coding assistants read it when they visit a site. It is worth a few minutes, but the things that clearly matter are crawler access, clear pages, structured data and being cited on trusted sites.
How do I create one?
- List your 5–15 most important pages: home, services, pricing, about, contact, key guides.
- Write one line about each.
- Add a short summary of the business at the top.
- Upload it as
llms.txtto your website's root folder.
BoostAEO's whole-site audit drafts an llms.txt from your own pages, and you can see ours at /llms.txt.
Quick questions
01Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may visit. llms.txt is a reading guide to your best content. Blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt matters far more.
02Will it get my site into ChatGPT?
Not on its own. Treat it as a small extra on top of the fundamentals.
03Does BoostAEO score llms.txt?
The audit reports it but doesn't count it in the score, because its effect isn't proven.
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