llms.txt
llms.txt is a text file a website can put at its root or in a folder, like example.com/llms.txt, to give AI tools a short summary of the site and links to the pages that matter. Jeremy Howard proposed it in September 2024. It's written in Markdown, a simple way to format text, and its own site calls it a proposal.
Source: llmstxt.org, The /llms.txt file (Jeremy Howard), checked October 29, 2026
What llms.txt means for your business
Google's guidance on its AI features says, "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features." So we'd never sell llms.txt as a way into Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode.
It can still help AI tools and coding agents that are pointed at your docs, and the file costs little to keep. The proposal's site says documentation platforms now make the file on their own, and that OpenAI, Anthropic and Gemini publish one for their developer docs. If buyers use AI tools to read your help pages, specs or docs, we'd add one. We keep one on this site.
The proposal also suggests a clean Markdown copy of each page at the same address with .md on the end. Some platforms, Mintlify among them, also publish llms-full.txt, one file that holds the full text of every page. We'd treat both as add-ons for sites with a lot of reference content.
Before any of this, we'd check whether AI crawlers can reach and read your real pages at all. If they can't, that's where getting your site ready for AI search starts, and llms.txt can wait.
Source: Google Search Central, AI features and your website, checked October 29, 2026
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google showed an AI Overview that cited llmstxt.org first, then SEO tool and site builder blogs, Reddit and YouTube, but not Google's own guidance on AI text files. ChatGPT called it a 2024 proposal by Jeremy Howard and cited SEO tool and agency explainers.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
Related terms in crawlers and technical access
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