What Is llms.txt? Opening Your Website to AI Tools
llms.txt gives AI tools a plain-text map of your site. Here is what it does, what it does not do and how to write one, with a live example.
llms.txt is a plain-text file in the root of your website that introduces your site to AI tools in a short, structured way. It holds a summary of what the site is about and an annotated list of your most important pages. This guide explains what the file does, what it does not do, how to write one and how we run it on our own site.
Where it came from
The format was proposed in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard, co-founder of Answer.AI. The reasoning was simple: a typical web page is full of menus, cookie banners, ads and scripts, and a language model wastes time and context digging out the actual content. llms.txt says, in clean Markdown, "this is the site and these are the pages that matter". It is now used by documentation sites at companies like Anthropic and Cloudflare as well as by small business websites.
What it does and does not do
To set expectations honestly:
| It does | It does not |
|---|---|
| Give AI tools a clear summary of your site | Directly improve your Google rankings |
| Help coding assistants and AI agents find the right page | Allow or block bots (that is robots.txt's job) |
| Describe your services in your own words | Make up for thin or missing content |
| Cost little and run once set up | Carry any official requirement |
Google has said it does not use llms.txt for ranking. We still recommend it because it takes a few hours to set up and puts accurate information first whenever an AI tool reads your site.
The format
The file is written in Markdown, in this order:
- An H1 title with the site or business name. This is the only required part.
- A blockquote (>) summarising the site in a sentence or two.
- Optional paragraphs with extra context, such as service area or languages.
- H2 sections, each a list of links in the form
- [Page name](URL): short description. - An Optional section for secondary links a tool can skip.
A simple example for a dental clinic in Antalya:
# Example Dental Clinic
> Implant, orthodontic and cosmetic dental treatment in Muratpasa, Antalya. Care in Turkish, English and German.
## Treatments
- [Implants](https://example.com/en/implants): Treatment steps, timeline and follow-ups
- [Orthodontics](https://example.com/en/orthodontics): Clear aligners and braces
## Patient information
- [International patients](https://example.com/en/international): Transfers, accommodation and scheduling
- [Contact](https://example.com/en/contact): Address, phone, opening hours
## Optional
- [Blog](https://example.com/en/blog): Dental health articlesWhat about llms-full.txt?
If llms.txt is a table of contents, llms-full.txt is the book: the full text of your key pages in one plain-text file. An AI tool reads one file instead of opening ten pages. Service pages, FAQs and articles belong in it; legal boilerplate, cookie banners and menus do not.
Writing yours, step by step
- List your 10 to 30 most important pages: services, product ranges, pricing or packages, contact.
- Write one concrete sentence for each. Avoid filler like "more information".
- Build the file in the format above and publish it at
yourdomain.com/llms.txt. - On a multilingual site, give each language its own H2 section.
- Add llms-full.txt if you can.
- Make sure robots.txt does not block AI crawlers. Publishing llms.txt while blocking bots is like putting up a sign and locking the door.
- Update it when you add pages, or better, generate it automatically.
How we do it at Grapyweb
Our own file is public at grapyweb.com/llms.txt. It has sections for services, packages, work, blog and contact, then the English pages and an Optional section. Nobody edits it by hand: it is generated from the database on every request, so this article appeared in the list the moment it went live. Alongside it we publish llms-full.txt with the full Turkish and English text of our services and posts, a robots.txt that explicitly allows 12 AI crawlers, and JSON-LD on every page.
We set this up as standard on our business website projects. For the bigger picture, read how to show up in ChatGPT and AI search.
Common mistakes
- Putting the file in a subfolder instead of the root.
- Listing every page, including tag and archive pages.
- Adding links with no descriptions.
- Writing it once and forgetting it, so dead services stay listed for years.
- Serving it as HTML or with the wrong encoding. It should be UTF-8 plain text.
- Treating llms.txt as a replacement for robots.txt. They do different jobs.
Who benefits most
Any business site with a clear list of services can benefit, but the effect is stronger in some sectors. In Antalya that means hotels, health tourism clinics, estate agents and tour operators serving foreign customers. Their clients use AI assistants in English, German or Russian, and a well-described llms.txt helps the assistant send each person to the right page in their own language.
If you want llms.txt and llms-full.txt on your site, or a quick check of the file you already have, drop us a line.
Frequently asked questions
Is llms.txt an official standard?
No. It is a community format proposed by Jeremy Howard in autumn 2024. No search engine or AI company requires it.
Will llms.txt improve my Google rankings?
No. Google has said it does not use the file for ranking. The benefit is that AI tools and agents can understand your site faster and more accurately.
How is llms.txt different from robots.txt?
robots.txt tells bots what they may or may not crawl. llms.txt neither allows nor blocks anything; it simply offers a summary of your site and its key pages.
Do I also need llms-full.txt?
It is optional but useful. llms.txt is a list of links, while llms-full.txt puts the full text of your key content in one file, so a tool does not have to open each page.
How do I add llms.txt to a WordPress site?
You can write the file by hand and upload it to the site root, or use a plugin that generates it. If you write it by hand, remember to update it when you add pages.
How often should I update it?
Whenever you add a service, a product range or an important article. Ideally it is generated from your database so it never goes stale.
