Does llms.txt Actually Work?

Does llms.txt Actually Work?

Everyone says adding llms.txt will get your website cited in AI answers. We analyzed 17,000+ AI-cited webpages, and the results tell a very different story.

What is llms.txt?

It was proposed by Jeremy Howard in 2024 as a way to provide Large Language Models (LLMs) with background information and links to other markdown files. The idea is inspired by robot.txt (which tells crawlers which URLs to access) and sitemap.xml (which guides crawlers to index pages), but focused on serving Language Models.

What is the purpose of an llms.txt file?

Besides providing guides and background information, it also points to other markdown files. Those markdown files are also part of the proposal.

The proposal is to provide a markdown version of the different webpages, focusing on the important information without ads, styling, JavaScript, and other parts that aren't relevant to language models.

These markdown files are accessed by adding ".md" to the end of the URL (or HTML file name). For example, to access the markdown file for the page "/home.html", the suffix ".md" is added making "/home.html.md".

How to write the llms.txt file?

The content of llms.txt is written in markdown format. It has only one required field: the H1 header containing the site (or project) name.

It is followed by an optional description in a blockquote and details in any non-header components (e.g., paragraphs). Next, the links to the other markdowns are included after H2 headers.

An example of llms.txt

# BuzzSense.ai
> Track how often AI assistants mention your brand. Compare competitors, monitor AI share of voice, and see the sources shaping AI recommendations.


## Does Schema Matter to Show in AI Search Results?

- [Does Schema Matter to Show in AI Search Results?](https://www.buzzsense.ai/blog/schema-markup-ai-search/):  An experiment was run on ChatGPT and Gemini to answer whether schema actually matters for AI search.

Here we have a minimal llms.txt for BuzzSense.ai with the title BuzzSense.ai and the optional description:

Track how often AI assistants mention your brand. Compare competitors, monitor AI share of voice, and see the sources shaping AI recommendations.

Then we added a reference section to a blog post on whether schema matters for showing in AI search results.

Does llms.txt improve AI visibility?

The core claim behind llms.txt is that it helps websites get cited in AI-generated answers. We tested this claim at scale using a dataset of 17,000 URLs.

We first checked whether an /llms.txt file was available. If so, we checked whether the title and description were present.

How many AI-cited websites have llms.txt?

The results show that 31% of the cited webpages include an /llms.txt file, but only 15% have a title and 13% include a description. We found that 9% of them actually serve HTML, and some use their own syntax.

Examples of such cases:

• Generated by
• ERROR:
• كوبوÙ
• User-agent: *
• 
• /* LLM.TXT FOR
• IMPORTANT: If the query, brief, market,

This suggests that llms.txt is neither widely adopted nor a strong signal for AI search visibility. SemRush tested it and reached the same conclusion: llms.txt doesn't seem to increase the likelihood of webpages being cited in AI search results.

Do LLM providers employ llms.txt?

I manually went through the providers' websites, requesting llms.txt (done in April 2026), and here are the findings:

In most cases, llms.txt files are published under documentation subdomains. Nonetheless, llms.txt does not appear to be utilized yet, as reported by SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Peec. SemRush tracked the visits on their llms.txt and found zero visits. AEO Engine tested 500 websites and found no correlation.

Takeaways

Our findings at buzzsense.ai align with other companies' findings in the SEO, GEO, and AEO domains: currently, llms.txt has no significant impact, if any, on websites' appearance in AI search results across major language models and AI assistants.

No evidence supports the claim that llms.txt improves visibility in AI search results.

At the end of the day, the goal isn't just implementing tactics, it is improving your brand's visibility in AI-generated answers. BuzzSense helps you track how often your brand appears, identify the sources influencing those responses, and compare your visibility against competitors across ChatGPT and Gemini.

Track your AI visibility: https://www.buzzsense.ai