Short answer
- llms.txt is a plain-text summary of a site intended for AI systems.
- Google says it is not needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- A 2026 Ahrefs log study found 97% of llms.txt files received no requests in a month.
- Coding agents and some assistants do read it when pointed at a site; Anthropic recommends it for agent-readable content.
- Add one; do not treat it as a GEO strategy.
What it is
A Markdown file at /llms.txt that summarises who you are and links to your most important pages, so an AI system can understand the site without crawling everything.
What the big platforms say
- Google: its May 2026 guidance on AI features says llms.txt is not needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode.
- OpenAI: its crawler documentation points site owners to robots.txt, not llms.txt.
- Anthropic: recommends llms.txt in its guidance on writing for agents.
What the data says
Ahrefs analysed server logs across 137,000 domains and found 97% of llms.txt files got zero requests in May 2026. SE Ranking found that adding llms.txt as a variable did not improve its model of AI citations.
Our approach
We publish one on every site we build — ours is at /llms.txt, with a full-text version at /llms-full.txt — because it costs minutes and helps agents. The work that moves AI answers is elsewhere: facts, pages, evidence and sources.