llms.txt is a plain-text file hosted at your website's root (e.g., yoursite.com/llms.txt) that provides a machine-readable summary of your website's content, purpose, and key pages. It helps AI crawlers like GPTBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended understand your site structure and index your content more accurately for citation in AI answers.

How is llms.txt different from robots.txt?

robots.txt tells crawlers which pages to avoid — it's about restriction. llms.txt is the opposite: it actively describes your site's content, features, and structure to AI crawlers — it's about invitation. While robots.txt says 'don't go here,' llms.txt says 'here's what we're about and where to find it.'

Do AI engines actually read llms.txt?

Yes. AI crawlers like GPTBot (OpenAI), PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended check for llms.txt as part of their indexing process. Sites with a well-structured llms.txt see improved citation accuracy and coverage because AI engines can better understand the site's domain expertise and content hierarchy.

Where should I put llms.txt?

Place llms.txt in your website's public root directory, so it's accessible at yoursite.com/llms.txt. In Next.js, this means the /public folder. In WordPress, upload it to your root directory via FTP or a file manager plugin.

The Complete Guide to llms.txt for AI Crawlers

TL;DR: llms.txt is a machine-readable file at your domain root that tells AI crawlers who you are, what your site covers, and where to find your best content. Think of it as robots.txt for invitation — instead of blocking crawlers, you're welcoming them. Sites with llms.txt see measurably better AI citation accuracy and coverage.

What Is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a plain-text file you host at your website's root (e.g., yoursite.com/llms.txt) that provides a structured, machine-readable summary of your website's content, features, and purpose.

While robots.txt tells crawlers where not to go, llms.txt does the opposite — it actively describes your site to AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Mistral so they can cite you accurately.

The concept emerged in late 2025 as AI engines began processing billions of web pages for their knowledge bases. Without a structured guide, AI crawlers often mischaracterize sites, miss key pages, or fail to associate the right expertise with your brand.

Why Your Website Needs llms.txt in 2026

AI search is no longer a future trend — it's here. Perplexity processes millions of queries daily. ChatGPT's browsing mode actively crawls the web. Google's AI Overviews synthesize content from multiple sources to answer queries directly.

The problem: these AI engines need to understand what your site is about to cite you correctly. Without llms.txt, they're guessing. With it, you're telling them exactly what expertise you offer.

Without llms.txt	With llms.txt
AI guesses your site's topic from random pages	AI knows your exact domain expertise
Key features may never be indexed	Core pages are explicitly listed and prioritized
Blog content consumed as HTML (noisy)	Markdown twins provide clean, parseable content
Competitors with llms.txt get cited instead	Level playing field with full content visibility

The Anatomy of a Great llms.txt File

A well-structured llms.txt has 6 sections. Here's the blueprint:

1. Site Identity

Start with your product name, URL, and last-updated timestamp. This tells AI engines how current your file is.

# YourProduct — Product Tagline
# https://yoursite.com
# Last Updated: 2026-02-20T00:00:00Z

2. About Section

A 2-3 sentence description of what your product does, who it's for, and what makes it unique. Write this as if explaining to an AI assistant that needs to decide whether to cite you for a user query.

3. Core Pages

List your most important pages with full URLs and one-line descriptions. These are the pages you want AI engines to index and cite:

## Core Products
- https://yoursite.com - One-line description
- https://yoursite.com/features - What it does
- https://yoursite.com/pricing - Plans and pricing

4. Key Features

A numbered list of your product's capabilities. AI engines use this to match your product to user queries about specific features:

## Key Features
1. Feature One — Brief explanation
2. Feature Two — Brief explanation

5. Golden Keywords

The keywords you want AI engines to associate with your brand. These directly influence how AI engines decide whether to cite you for a given query:

## Golden Keywords
- your primary keyword
- your secondary keyword
- long-tail keyword phrase

6. Blog Articles with Markdown Twins

This is the secret weapon. For each blog post, link both the HTML page and a clean markdown version. AI engines parse markdown far more efficiently than HTML:

## Blog Articles
- https://yoursite.com/blog/post-slug - Description
  - Markdown: https://yoursite.com/content/post-slug.md

What Are Markdown Twins?

A markdown twin is a plain-text markdown copy of your blog post, stored in /content/ (or /public/content/ in Next.js). It contains the same content as your blog post but stripped of all HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and layout noise.

Why this matters: AI RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems chunk text into segments for embedding. Clean markdown with proper headings produces much better chunks than an HTML page full of navigation, footers, and React component markup.

Our recommendation: maintain a markdown file for every blog post. Link it in your llms.txt, include it in your sitemap, and let AI crawlers consume the clean version.

Step-by-Step: Creating Your llms.txt

Step 1: Create the File

In your website's public root directory, create a new file calledllms.txt. In Next.js, this is the /public folder. In WordPress, upload it to your root via FTP or a file manager plugin.

Step 2: Write the Content

Follow the 6-section structure above. Be concise — AI engines don't need marketing fluff. Write factual, structured descriptions. Every line should earn its place.

Step 3: Add to robots.txt

Make sure your robots.txt doesn't block access to llms.txt. Better yet, explicitly allow all AI crawlers:

User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /

User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /

User-agent: Claude-Web
Allow: /

Step 4: Reference in Sitemap

Include your markdown twins in your sitemap.xml so AI crawlers discover them through standard crawl mechanisms.

Step 5: Deploy and Monitor

Push to production and verify accessibility at yoursite.com/llms.txt. Then use a tool like LoudPixel to monitor whether your AI citation rate improves over the following weeks.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Marketing language: AI engines want facts, not “revolutionary game-changing solutions.” Be direct and specific.
Stale content: Update the Last Updated timestamp whenever you add new pages or blog posts. AI engines trust fresh content.
Missing markdown twins: Linking blog posts without markdown versions forces AI crawlers to parse HTML. Provide clean markdown for better indexing.
Blocking AI crawlers: Check that your robots.txt doesn't block GPTBot, PerplexityBot, or Claude-Web. Many default configs still block them.
Ignoring the file after creation: Treat llms.txt as a living document. Every time you publish a blog post or add a feature, update it.

How to Verify Your llms.txt Is Working

After deploying llms.txt, track your AI citation rate over 2-4 weeks. Use LoudPixel's free AI citation scan to measure before and after:

Baseline scan: Run a scan before deploying llms.txt. Note which engines cite you and your overall AI visibility score.
Deploy llms.txt with the 6-section structure.
Follow-up scan: Re-scan 2-4 weeks later (AI engines need time to re-index). Compare citation coverage and accuracy.

Most sites see improved citation accuracy within 2-3 weeks. Citation coverage (appearing in more engines) typically improves within 4-6 weeks.

The Bottom Line

In 2026, llms.txt is table stakes for AI visibility. It's a 30-minute investment that tells AI crawlers exactly who you are, what you offer, and where your best content lives. Combined with markdown twins and proper robots.txt configuration, it's the foundation of any GEO strategy.

Don't have an llms.txt yet? Start with a free AI citation scan to see where you stand, then create your llms.txt using the template above. Your future AI-generated visibility depends on it.