What Is llms.txt? A Plain-English Guide (With Example)
By Ben Yeoh, Founder, OMG Launch ·
You’ve probably seen llms.txt mentioned alongside GEO. Here’s what it actually is — without the hype.
The one-line definition
llms.txt is a Markdown file at the root of your website that tells AI systems, in a compact format, what your site is about and where the most important content lives.
How it differs from robots.txt and sitemap.xml
| File | Purpose | Audience |
|---|---|---|
robots.txt |
Which URLs crawlers may access | All crawlers |
sitemap.xml |
A complete list of indexable URLs | Search engines |
llms.txt |
A curated, human-readable summary with key links | LLMs and AI agents |
What goes in it
The proposed format is simple Markdown:
# Your Company
> One-paragraph summary of who you are and what you do.
## Services
- [Service A](https://example.com/services/a/): one-line description
- [Service B](https://example.com/services/b/): one-line description
## Key facts
- Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Contact: hello@example.comSome sites also publish llms-full.txt — a longer version with the full text of key pages.
Do you need one?
Support differs between AI platforms, and no major search engine has confirmed it as a ranking signal. But it takes under an hour, carries no SEO risk, and gives you one more place to state your business facts precisely.
We generate ours automatically from the same data as our pages so it never drifts out of date — see it here, and read how the rest of this site is built on our proof page.