What Is llms.txt? Format, Examples and a Free Generator

llms.txt is a plain-text Markdown file at your site's root (yoursite.com/llms.txt) that gives AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini a curated map of your most important pages. Think of it as a sitemap written for language models instead of crawlers. Evidence that it improves AI citations is still thin: no major AI provider has confirmed it parses the file, so treat it as a cheap addition, not a fix. To build one in a minute, the free llms.txt generator drafts it from your sitemap.

llms.txt format, with an example

The format was proposed at llmstxt.org in 2024. The file is plain Markdown with a simple shape:

1. An H1 with the site or product name. Required.
2. A short blockquote summarizing what the site is.
3. Optional paragraphs with anything a model should know up front.
4. H2 sections of links, each a Markdown list of [Page title](url): one-line description.

A minimal example:

# Northwind Coffee

> Northwind roasts single-origin coffee in Portland and ships across the US.

## Products
- [Subscriptions](https://northwind.example/subscribe): Weekly or monthly beans, cancel anytime.
- [Wholesale](https://northwind.example/wholesale): Pricing and terms for cafés.

## Guides
- [Brewing guide](https://northwind.example/brew): Ratios and grind sizes for pour-over, French press and espresso.

The idea is that an AI tool fetching your site gets a short, clean summary instead of wading through navigation, scripts and cookie banners to work out which pages matter.

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

The important difference: robots.txt is honored by well-behaved bots, and llms.txt is only a suggestion. If your robots.txt blocks OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, no llms.txt file will get you cited. Check that first.

Does llms.txt help AI search? The short answer

Not proven yet. A late-2025 SE Ranking study of roughly 300,000 domains found no measurable citation lift from publishing one. A June 2026 Ahrefs study of about 137,000 sites found that 97% of the roughly 38,000 valid llms.txt files got no requests at all in May, from AI bots or anyone else. Google's May 2026 guide to optimizing for its AI search features names llms.txt as a file you can ignore, because Google Search doesn't use it. OpenAI, Anthropic and Perplexity have not said their answer engines use it as a citation signal. The longer version, on what it does and doesn't do, is in do llms.txt files help AI search?.

Where it can help today is with AI coding tools and agents that fetch documentation on demand. Several developer-docs platforms publish llms.txt for exactly that reason.

So the honest verdict: publish one, because it takes minutes and costs nothing, then spend your real effort on the things with evidence behind them. In order:

1. Let the AI search bots in. Allow OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot and Google's crawlers in robots.txt, and make sure your CDN isn't challenging them.
2. Write answer-first pages. Put a direct, two or three sentence answer at the top of each page that targets a question. Engines lift those.
3. Add structured data. Organization and Article JSON-LD spell out who you are and what each page covers in a form machines can read. Google says structured data isn't required for its AI search features, so treat it as cheap clarity, not a must-have.
4. Get mentioned elsewhere. For "best X" questions, AI engines often cite third-party reviews, comparisons and forum threads.

We cover each of these in 8 fixes that move brand visibility in AI search.

How to add llms.txt to your site

• WordPress: Yoast and Rank Math can both generate one for free. The free AuditAE WordPress plugin generates a live llms.txt that updates as you publish, alongside robots.txt checks and AI crawler logs.
• Next.js, Astro and other code sites: add a static file to public/llms.txt, or a route that builds it from your content so it never goes stale.
• Webflow, Wix, Shopify, Squarespace: support varies by platform and plan. We compared them in the best website builders for AI search.

Keep it short. List the pages that answer the questions buyers ask, not every URL on the site. That's what sitemap.xml is for. The free llms.txt generator drafts one from your sitemap using your own page titles and descriptions, and can validate a file you already publish.

A real llms.txt example

AuditAE publishes its own at auditae.app/llms.txt: product pages, pricing, per-engine guides and the blog, each with a one-line description. On a WordPress site paired with the plugin, its AI agent can curate the same file for you as part of its citation-gap fixes.

Not sure whether llms.txt is even the problem? The free AI search audit scores any site 0–100 on robots.txt bot rules, llms.txt, schema, server-rendered text and freshness, and gives the fix for every failing check.

Need a file, or want to check the one you have? The free llms.txt generator and validator drafts an llms.txt from your sitemap using your own page titles and descriptions, or checks your live file line by line against the llmstxt.org format. No login.