The llms.txt File: What It Is, How to Create One, and Why Your Website Needs It

If your website has a robots.txt file that tells search engine crawlers what to index, it makes sense to have a file that tells AI crawlers who you are and what you do. That's what llms.txt is. What Is llms.txt? llms.txt is a plain text file placed in the root directory of your website (e.g., yoursite.com/llms.txt) that provides structured information about your organization to AI systems and their crawlers. While robots.txt tells crawlers where to go, llms.txt tells them what to know. It contains your entity definition, services, leadership, credentials, and frequently asked questions — formatted in a way that Large Language Models can easily parse and reference. Why Does It Matter? AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot build their responses by aggregating information from multiple sources. When they encounter a well-structured llms.txt file, they have a reliable, first-party source of information about your organization. Without llms.txt, AI systems piece t