What is llms.txt, and does your website need one?
· 4 min read · MAALI team
More people now ask ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI answers for recommendations before they ever open a search result. That has made a lot of website owners ask the same question: is there something I can add to my site so AI assistants understand it better? One answer you'll keep hearing is llms.txt.
Here's what it is, what it honestly does and doesn't do, and how to write a good one.
What llms.txt is
llms.txt is a proposed standard (described at llmstxt.org) for a plain Markdown file at the root of your website, at yourbusiness.com/llms.txt. It gives AI tools a short, clean summary of your site:
- the name of your business,
- a one or two sentence description of what you do and who it's for,
- a few short sections of links to your most useful pages, each with a one-line note.
Think of it as a cover letter for your website, written for software that reads text rather than looks at layouts. Your real pages are full of navigation, banners, scripts and repeated footers. llms.txt cuts straight to "here's what we do, and here are the pages that explain it".
Some sites also publish a longer llms-full.txt with the full text of their key pages in one file. That's optional.
What it looks like
A simple llms.txt for a small software business could look like this:
# Tallybird
> Invoicing software for freelancers: send a professional invoice in two minutes and get paid without chasing.
Tallybird is made for freelancers and small studios. Plans start at $12 a month, with a 14-day free trial.
## Product
- [Features](https://tallybird.app/features): invoices, automatic reminders and card payments
- [Pricing](https://tallybird.app/pricing): three plans and what each includes
## Help
- [Getting started](https://tallybird.app/help/getting-started): your first invoice, step by step
- [FAQ](https://tallybird.app/faq): payments, taxes and data
(Tallybird is a made-up example.)
What llms.txt can and can't do
Be wary of anyone promising that llms.txt will get you recommended by ChatGPT. Honestly:
- It isn't an official ranking signal. No major AI company has said it uses llms.txt to decide who to recommend, and Google has said its AI features don't need special files.
- It is cheap and harmless. It takes ten minutes, it doesn't affect your normal SEO, and some AI tools and coding assistants do read it when they visit a site.
- It forces useful clarity. Writing a two-sentence description of what you do and who it's for is worth doing anyway. If you struggle, your homepage probably struggles too.
What really decides whether AI assistants mention you is the same thing that decides whether people trust you: clear pages that say what you do, honest detail (prices, who it's for, how it works), structured data, and other sites mentioning you. llms.txt is a small extra on top, not a replacement.
How to write a good one
- Start with one sentence that a stranger would understand. "Invoicing software for freelancers" beats "The future of getting paid".
- Say who it's for and what it costs, if your site says so publicly. AI answers are often about fit and price.
- Link 5 to 15 pages, not 100. Pick the pages that explain your offer: features or services, pricing, about, key guides, FAQ. Skip login pages, tag pages and legal boilerplate (link to them in an "Optional" section if you like).
- Write a one-line note for every link. "Pricing: three plans and what each includes" tells a reader why to open it.
- Keep it true and keep it current. If you change prices or launch a product, update the file.
Our free llms.txt generator reads your homepage and its main links and gives you a first draft to edit. It doesn't store anything.
Where to put it
The file must be at the root of your domain: https://yourbusiness.com/llms.txt, the same place as robots.txt.
- WordPress: upload it with your host's file manager or SFTP into the folder that holds
wp-config.php, or use an SEO plugin that supports llms.txt. - Webflow, Squarespace, Wix: these don't all let you upload files to the root. Check your platform's current help pages; if it isn't possible, a public page at
/llmsis a reasonable fallback, though it's not the standard location. - Shopify: Shopify doesn't allow arbitrary files at the root, so the usual approach is an app or a redirect. Check Shopify's help for the current option.
- Custom sites: put it in your public or static folder.
Then open yourbusiness.com/llms.txt in a browser to check it loads as plain text.
Should you also block or allow AI crawlers?
That's a separate decision, made in robots.txt, not llms.txt. If you block AI search crawlers, assistants can't read your site to recommend it, no matter what your llms.txt says. Our guide to robots.txt and AI crawlers explains which bots do what.
The short version
llms.txt is a ten-minute job that makes your site a little easier for AI tools to understand. Do it, keep it honest, and then spend the real effort where it counts: clear pages, good content and a site people mention. If you want help with that part, MAALI's MAALI Brain, included in your free credits, reads your whole site and tells you what's missing, and AI Visibility shows whether ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude actually recommend you (it checks for an llms.txt too).
Keep reading
A step-by-step way to see what AI assistants say when your customers ask for what you sell, which competitors they name instead, and how to track it over time.
AI assistants recommend businesses they find on directories, review sites and roundups. How to find the ones that matter, get listed honestly and stay accurate.
The seven most common reasons ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name a competitor instead of you, how to spot each one, and the fix.
What generative engine optimization (GEO) means for a small business, how AI assistants decide what to recommend, and the practical steps that help.