---
title: "What Is llms.txt? Does Your Site Need One? | Kihan Marketing"
description: "llms.txt is a proposed markdown file that points AI tools to a site's most useful pages. What goes in it, and whether it helps you appear in AI answers."
url: https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/llms-txt/
published: 2026-10-16
updated: 2026-10-16
author: "Kiran Dasgupta"
---

# llms.txt

The proposed file for AI tools, and what it does and does not do

llms.txt is a plain markdown file at a website's root, at /llms.txt, that gives AI tools a short summary of the site and a list of links to its most useful pages. Jeremy Howard proposed it on September 3, 2024, and it is still a proposal: Google says no special file is needed to appear in its AI features.

By [Kiran Dasgupta](https://kihanmarketing.com/kiran/), Founder and Lead Strategist

## What goes in an llms.txt file?

The proposal at [llmstxt.org](https://llmstxt.org/) sets out a simple order. An H1 with the site's name comes first, then an optional short summary in a blockquote, then any notes, then sections under H2 headings that list links to pages, each with a line saying what it is. It is written in markdown so a person and a language model can both read it.

## Does llms.txt help a business appear in AI answers?

Not on its own. Google's guide to [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) says you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. The file is a convenience for tools that choose to read it, and Google has not said it uses one.

That makes it cheap to add and easy to overrate. The pages it points to, and whether they answer questions clearly, matter far more than the file.

## Why might a local business publish one anyway?

It costs little and it forces a useful exercise: choosing the ten or twenty pages that best explain what the business does. For a med spa, that might be the treatment pages, the pricing approach, the provider bios and the booking page. That list is also the list of pages worth making excellent. We publish our own at kihanmarketing.com/llms.txt.

## Related terms

- **Answer engine optimization.** The [wider work](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/) of being quoted in AI answers.
- **Generative engine optimization.** The [research name](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/generative-engine-optimization/) for nearly the same work.
- **Schema markup.** [Code that describes a page's facts](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/schema-markup/), which search engines do read.

We set this up, with the pages it points to, as part of [answer engine optimization](https://kihanmarketing.com/services/answer-engine-optimization/).

## Keep reading

- [Answer Engine Optimization](https://kihanmarketing.com/services/answer-engine-optimization/): Getting your business named and quoted in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews, measured on a fixed set of questions.
- [Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimization/): Getting a business named and quoted in ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews.
- [Schema Markup](https://kihanmarketing.com/glossary/schema-markup/): Code that describes a page's facts to search engines, usually as JSON-LD.