AI Trends
Found your website in ChatGPT: take care of the "LLMs.txt”
Remy Gieling
February 1, 2026
4
min read
Make your website discoverable for AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude with a simple file: llms.txt — for better visibility into AI responses.
The way people find information online is changing rapidly. Where traditional search engines such as Google ruled the playing field for years, AI-driven systems such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity are increasingly taking the lead. These Large Language Models (LLMs) generate responses based on web content, but have trouble understanding complex websites full of ads, navigation menus, and other noise.
To address this challenge, Jeremy Howard, co-founder of Answer.AI, introduced the llms.txt file concept in September 2024. This simple text file, placed at the root of your website, provides AI systems with a structured overview of your most important content. In this article, you'll learn what llms.txt is, why it's relevant for entrepreneurs and marketers, and how to implement it to increase your visibility in AI-driven search results.
What is llms.txt?
The llms.txt file is a Markdown document that you place at the root of your website, for example at yourdomain.com/llms.txt. In this file, you provide an overview of your most valuable content, such as product pages, guides, policy documents, and blog articles. By providing this information in a structured way, AI systems can more efficiently and accurately understand your website and cite relevant content.
It is important to note that llms.txt is not a replacement for existing files such as robots.txt or sitemap.xml, but an addition to them. Where robots.txt provides instructions on which parts of your site should not be crawled and sitemap.xml provides an overview of all pages, llms.txt acts as a kind of table of contents specifically for AI systems.
Why is llms.txt relevant to entrepreneurs and marketers?
- Increased visibility in AI responses: AI systems are increasingly using web content to generate responses. By structuring your most important content in an llms.txt file, you increase the chances that your information will be included in AI responses.
- Better control over your brand story: With llms.txt, you decide which content AI systems consider representative of your brand, giving you more control over how your company is presented in AI-generated content.
- More efficient content processing: AI systems have limited capacity to process information. By providing a clear overview of your most important content, you help AI systems find relevant information faster and more accurately.
How do you deploy llms.txt?
- Identify your core content: Determine which pages are critical to your brand and what information you want AI systems to use.
- Add structure: Use Markdown to structure your content. Start with a title and a short summary of your website. Then use headings (for example, ## Products, ## Guides) to categorize your content and include a short description and URL for each item.
- Place the file on your website: Upload the llms.txt file to the root of your website so that it can be accessed at https://jouwdomein.com/llms.txt.
- Maintenance and updates: Keep your llms.txt file up to date by regularly checking that the links are still working and that the content is still relevant.
What are the limitations of llms.txt?
While llms.txt offers many benefits, there are also some limitations:
- No official standard yet: llms.txt is currently a proposal and not yet an officially recognized web standard. However, it is suggested that both OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft use them when browsing websites.
- Maintenance required: The file needs to be updated regularly to stay relevant, which requires additional maintenance.
- No guarantee of use by AI systems: Language models are “non-deterministic,” which means that you are not guaranteed that yourself or anyone else will get the same answer to the same question. So maybe you are visible to someone, but you don't see that in yourself every time.
Who is already using llms.txt?
Several companies and organizations have already implemented llms.txt, including:
- Anthropic: Known for the AI assistant Claude, llms.txt has integrated to make their content more accessible to AI systems.
- Mintlify: A developer documentation platform that uses llms.txt to provide their content in a structured way.
- Daxko: A technology company that uses llms.txt as part of their SEO strategy for AI search engines.
Here you can find a list with companies, their llms.txt's and you can click through for inspiration in terms of structure.
Conclusion
At a time when AI-driven systems are playing an increasingly important role in how information is found and presented, llms.txt offers a simple but effective way to make your content more accessible to these systems. By offering your most important information in a structured way, you increase the chances that your content will be included in AI responses, which can lead to greater visibility and authority for your brand.
It is therefore wise for entrepreneurs and marketers to invest in setting up and maintaining an llms.txt file now. It's a relatively simple step that can help your brand stay more visible and relevant in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven information delivery.
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