What Is llms.txt and Does a Startup Need One?

The short answer

llms.txt is a short Markdown file at the root of a website that tells AI tools what the company does and which pages matter most. It takes an hour to write, so it is worth having. It is not a ranking trick. Clear pages, good SEO and accurate facts still do most of the work.

llms.txt at a glance

• What it is: A plain Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt
• Who proposed it: Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI, in 2024
• What it holds: A summary of the company and links to its key pages
• Status: A proposal, not a standard that AI companies have committed to

What goes in the file

• A title and one-line summary. Who you are and what you do.
• Key facts. Services, customers, location and how to get in touch.
• Links to the important pages. Product, work, guides and contact, each with a short note.
• Nothing you cannot stand behind. The file should match what the site says.

What the evidence says

• Google says files like llms.txt are not needed to appear in its AI search features.
• An Ahrefs study published in June 2026 looked at 137,210 domains. It found that 97% of llms.txt files received no requests in May 2026.
• No major AI company has publicly committed to reading the file.

So why have one?

It is cheap, and it forces a useful exercise: stating what the company does in plain words, with the pages that prove it. If AI tools start reading the file, it is already there. Ours is at studiohuncho.com/llms.txt, and the same facts sit on a normal page at /facts.

Related reading: Does Schema Markup Help AI Assistants Find Your Company?, How Do You Check If AI Assistants Mention Your Startup?

FAQ

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may access. llms.txt is a summary written for AI tools.

Will llms.txt improve Google rankings?

No. Google has said it is not used for search.

How long should the file be?

Short. A summary, the key facts and a list of links with one line each.

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