llms.txt

llms.txt is a proposed file you place on your site to tell AI models how to read it, and there is no evidence any of them do.

The idea borrows from robots.txt, which search crawlers genuinely follow.

Google has stated it doesn't use llms.txt, and John Mueller has said it makes little sense for a site that isn't documentation for developers.

HubSpot ran the clearest public test: they published one with tracking markers in it and watched their server logs to see whether anything ever fetched it.

Nothing did, and a wider count found 97% of llms.txt files receive zero requests.

I trialled one in June 2026 and removed it the same day for the same reason.

It's included here because it gets sold as an AI search service, and knowing the answer saves you paying for it.

What this means for you

If someone quotes you for adding llms.txt to your site, that's a useful signal about the rest of the quote. Nothing about being visible to AI is a file you upload.

This one sits under AI search.

Related terms

AI Mode

AI Mode is Google's fully conversational search, where the whole results page is an AI answer you can ask follow-up questions of.

Answer engine citation

An answer engine citation is ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot quoting your site as a source in an answer.

Schema markup (structured data)

Schema markup is hidden code on a page that states plainly what the page is about, in a format search engines read directly.

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