Llms.txt is an optional Markdown file at the root of your site that summarizes what the site is and links to its most useful pages. Nothing you can measure today depends on it. It's cheap to add, so add a short one and move on.
What it is#
llms.txt was proposed in 2024 as a way to give language models a clean, short map of a site, without the navigation, scripts and ads of the HTML pages. The format is plain Markdown:
# Surfacepath
> A free checker that shows whether AI assistants can read and cite a website, plus guides on fixing what it finds.
## Guides
- [AI crawlers list](https://surfacepath.com/guides/ai-crawlers-list): every robots.txt name and what it does
- [Allow GPTBot](https://surfacepath.com/guides/allow-gptbot-robots-txt): the exact rules for OpenAI's crawlers
## Tool
- [AI readiness check](https://surfacepath.com/): enter a URL, get a score and fixes
What Google has said#
Google has been consistent on the Search side. Gary Illyes said at a Search Central event that Google doesn't support llms.txt and isn't planning to, and that normal SEO is what gets content into AI Overviews. John Mueller compared it to the old keywords meta tag. Google's own guide to its generative AI search features lists llms.txt among the things you don't need.
The one exception is Chrome's Lighthouse, which in 2026 added an experimental "agentic browsing" audit that checks whether the file exists. That audit is about browser agents understanding a site's structure, not about rankings or citations.
Should you add one?#
Yes, if it takes you ten minutes, because it costs nothing and some agents and tools do read it. No, if it competes with real work. A page that answers its question clearly, loads without JavaScript and lets the search crawlers in will do far more for your visibility.
In Next.js you can generate it from your content with a route handler at app/llms.txt/route.ts, so it never goes stale. This site does exactly that: see /llms.txt.
Questions
Does llms.txt help me rank in Google or AI Overviews?
No. Google's Search team has said Google doesn't use it, and Google's own guide to AI search features lists it among things you don't need.
Do ChatGPT or Claude read llms.txt?
Neither OpenAI nor Anthropic has said their crawlers use it to choose sources. Treat it as optional.
Where does the file go?
At the root of the site, so it loads at yoursite.com/llms.txt, served as plain text or Markdown.