Guide
What is llms.txt, and do you need one?
llms.txt is a short Markdown file at /llms.txt that gives language models a map of your site. It’s cheap to add, but it isn’t what gets you cited. Here’s what it is, the evidence so far, and a version worth ten minutes.
Updated October 10, 2026 · Citelane
llms.txt is optional. No major AI search product has said it uses the file to rank or cite sites, and Google representatives have said Google Search doesn’t. Add a short, accurate one if you like; spend real effort on crawl access and pages that answer buyers’ questions.
What the file looks like
The proposal at llmstxt.org asks for Markdown at /llms.txt: an H1 with the site name, a one-line summary in a blockquote, then H2 sections listing key pages as - [title](url): note. An optional llms-full.txt holds the full text.
# Acme> Acme is invoicing software for freelance designers. Free plan; Pro $12/month.## Product- [Pricing](https://acme.com/pricing): plans, limits and what’s free
What it does and doesn’t do
| Claim | What we know (Oct 2026) |
|---|---|
| It makes ChatGPT or Perplexity cite you | No vendor has said so. AI search crawlers read your normal pages. |
| Google uses it | Google representatives have said Google Search doesn’t. |
| Coding tools and agents read it | Some developer tools fetch it when you point them at docs. That’s its real use today. |
| It can hurt | Only if it contradicts your pages, for example an old price. |
We serve an llms.txt on citelane.app too, because it costs nothing. We don’t count it as a visibility tactic.
A version worth ten minutes
- One H1 and a summary sentence that says what you sell, to whom, and the price model, in the same words as your homepage.
- Five to fifteen links: pricing, how it works, comparisons, docs, with a note on what each page answers.
- Absolute URLs, served as plain text, updated when prices change.
Build and validate it with the free llms.txt checker and generator, then put the saved time into the checks below.
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Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may fetch; llms.txt is an optional reading guide. Blocking or allowing AI bots is still done in robots.txt.
Should I add llms-full.txt?
Only if you publish documentation that tools might want in one file. For a marketing site, the short llms.txt is enough.
Will an llms.txt get me into AI Overviews?
Google says its AI features rely on normal Search indexing and ranking, so there is no separate file to add.