llms.txt: Do You Need One for ChatGPT?

Updated November 10, 2026.

Over the past year, the same advice has been everywhere: “Add an llms.txt file to your website to be visible in ChatGPT.” Some WordPress plugins generate one in a click. But what does this file actually do, and does it help a small business show up in AI assistants’ answers?

The short answer: it’s a good way to present your website to AI agents, but it isn’t a visibility lever in ChatGPT. It comes after the three steps that matter to show up in ChatGPT. Here’s why.

What is the llms.txt file?

llms.txt is a proposal published in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard, co-founder of Answer.AI, and updated in 2026. The idea is simple: web pages are built for people, with menus, ads and code around the content. An AI assistant trying to understand a website wastes time sorting through all that.

llms.txt gives it a shortcut: a small text file at the root of the website (yoursite.com/llms.txt) that summarizes the essentials and points to the most useful pages. Think of it as your About page and sitemap combined, in a version built for machines.

It isn’t an official standard like robots.txt. It’s a convention proposed to the community, which thousands of websites have adopted.

What a good llms.txt looks like

The file is written in Markdown, a simple text format. The proposal describes a specific order:

1. a title (a line starting with #) with the name of the website or business: it’s the only required element;
2. a short summary, formatted as a quote (a line starting with >);
3. more details if needed, in paragraphs or lists;
4. sections (lines starting with ##) listing links, each with a short description;
5. an “Optional” section, by convention, for secondary links an agent can skip.

Here’s the beginning of devjpt.com’s llms.txt, shortened:

# DEVJPT — Jean-Philippe Thériault, Web Developer and AI Specialist

> DEVJPT (www.devjpt.com) is the bilingual (French / English)
> portfolio and blog of Jean-Philippe Thériault […]

## ChatJPT

- [ChatJPT (English)](https://www.devjpt.com/en/chatjpt-en/): Product page.
- [ChatJPT on GitHub](https://github.com/devjpt/ChatJPT): Source code.

For a small business, a good llms.txt fits on one page: who you are, where you serve customers, what you offer, and links to your service pages, FAQ and contact page. The facts must be accurate and current, like everywhere else.

Who actually uses it?

This is where facts and promises need to be separated.

• Google Search doesn’t use it. In its official guide to generative AI in Search, Google states plainly that you don’t need an llms.txt file to appear in Google Search, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, because Google Search ignores it. Google adds that you can keep one for other services that use it.
• OpenAI doesn’t mention it. Its crawler documentation only covers robots.txt and its IP addresses. Nothing indicates that ChatGPT search reads llms.txt to decide whom to cite.
• AI agents can use it. The proposal mainly targets agents that consult a website while answering a question, such as a coding assistant reading documentation. OpenAI, Anthropic and Google even publish an llms.txt for their own developer docs, and Chrome’s Lighthouse audit checks for one in its agentic browsing tests.

In other words: publishing an llms.txt won’t move you up in ChatGPT or Google. It can help an agent visiting your website understand it faster. Useful, but secondary.

llms.txt vs robots.txt: two different jobs

The two files are often confused, yet they do completely different things:

So an llms.txt can never make up for a robots.txt that blocks crawlers. If you check only one thing, make it your robots.txt and ChatGPT’s crawler access.

Should you create one?

My advice: yes, if it’s quick, but not before the rest. The logical order for a small business:

1. let OAI-SearchBot and Bingbot read your website;
2. add your website to Bing and, if possible, claim your profile in ChatGPT;
3. publish pages that clearly answer your customers’ questions;
4. only then, add an llms.txt that sums it all up.

On WordPress, Yoast SEO and AIOSEO can generate an llms.txt automatically. Wix creates one for every website. Still, read the generated file: an automatic summary can be vague, and it’s your official introduction to AI agents. On devjpt.com, the file is written by hand to control every sentence.

Once your file is online, the llms.txt checker confirms it follows the format: a title, a summary, sections and link lists.

Frequently asked questions

Does llms.txt help you show up in ChatGPT?

Nothing indicates it does. OpenAI’s crawler documentation only mentions robots.txt and its IP addresses. For ChatGPT search, what matters is letting OAI-SearchBot in and having useful pages.

Does Google use llms.txt?

No. Google states in its official guide that Google Search ignores llms.txt files and that they have no effect on visibility or ranking, including in AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Does llms.txt replace robots.txt?

No. Robots.txt tells crawlers what they may explore. Llms.txt presents your website. An llms.txt never unblocks a crawler that robots.txt disallows.

Where should the llms.txt file go?

At the root of your website, at yoursite.com/llms.txt. The proposal also allows one in a subfolder, such as /docs/llms.txt, to describe only that part of the site.

What is llms-full.txt?

Some websites also publish an llms-full.txt containing the full text of their pages. The proposal doesn’t require it; it recommends keeping llms.txt short and linking to Markdown versions of pages instead. For a small business, a well-written llms.txt is enough.