What is llms.txt & How to Create It for WordPress

In today’s AI-driven digital world, websites are no longer only optimized for human visitors and search engines—they’re also increasingly accessed by artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others. These large language models (LLMs) rely on data from across the web to train and generate helpful responses. But what happens when you want to control how your website content is used by these AI systems?

Enter llms.txt—a newly proposed file standard designed to help website owners control how AI crawlers interact with their content. Inspired by the long-standing robots.txt file used to direct search engine bots, llms.txt brings a new layer of transparency and governance specifically for LLMs.

For WordPress site owners, understanding and implementing llms.txt can be a valuable step. Whether you’re a blogger, content creator, or SEO strategist, this simple text file gives you a voice in how AI tools engage with your web content.

In this guide, we’ll explore what llms.txt is, why it matters, and most importantly, how you can easily create and integrate it into your WordPress site—with or without technical experience. Let’s dive into the future of AI content accessibility and take control of how your digital assets are handled by the next generation of AI.

What is llms.txt?

The internet has long relied on standards like robots.txt and sitemaps.xml to communicate with search engines. These simple files instruct bots what they are allowed to crawl, index, or avoid. But as AI evolves, so do the types of bots that visit your site—especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. To address this new wave of AI traffic, a new file format called llms.txt has been proposed.

📌 The Origin of llms.txt

llms.txt was proposed by Jeremy Howard, an Australian technologist and co-founder of fast.ai. Recognizing the need for AI-specific web crawling standards, Howard introduced llms.txt as a way for content owners to declare how they want their data to be accessed—or restricted—by AI crawlers.

While still a community-driven proposal, it is gaining traction as more AI tools begin honoring its directives in the same way traditional search engines respect robots.txt.

🛠️ How Does It Work?

The concept is straightforward. A website owner creates a plain text file named llms.txt and places it at the root of their domain (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com/llms.txt). Inside this file, you can add instructions for AI crawlers using standard directives such as:

vbnetCopyEditUser-Agent: gptbot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /public-blog/

• User-Agent specifies the AI bot you’re addressing (like gptbot for ChatGPT).
• Disallow tells the bot which folders or pages it should not access.
• Allow permits specific content to be crawled.

🆚 llms.txt vs robots.txt

Though both formats are structurally similar, their intended audiences differ significantly. robots.txt is for search engines, while llms.txt is tailored for AI crawlers and LLMs that process your content for training or delivery in chatbots.

🤖 Supported LLM Bots

As of now, several major AI systems have begun recognizing and respecting llms.txt:

• gptbot – OpenAI (ChatGPT)
• anthropic-ai – Claude by Anthropic
• perplexitybot – Perplexity AI
• coherebot – Cohere

Expect this list to grow as the industry evolves.

Why Does llms.txt Matter?

As artificial intelligence continues to shape how users interact with information online, the importance of managing how your content is used has never been more critical. While robots.txt has long served as a tool for webmasters to control search engine crawling, it does little to prevent AI systems from scraping or referencing your website data. That’s where llms.txt steps in—giving you agency in the age of AI.

Let’s break down why llms.txt matters and how it benefits website owners, digital marketers, and content creators alike.

🔒 1. Control Over Your Content

AI bots are increasingly crawling websites to train language models or generate responses for users. Without a clear directive, your content could be:

• Quoted in AI answers without attribution,
• Used in training datasets,
• Crawled repeatedly, straining your server resources.

With llms.txt, you can clearly specify which content you want included or excluded from these processes. This provides a level of control similar to opting out of data tracking.

⚖️ 2. Supports Ethical AI Use

Many developers and companies behind LLMs are now committed to responsible AI practices. Just as they respect robots.txt, they’re also starting to honor llms.txt to avoid scraping or referencing data from websites that request not to be accessed.

Using llms.txt allows you to participate in and influence the ethical use of AI technologies by clearly communicating your content policies.

⚙️ 3. Reduces Server Load from AI Crawlers

AI bots that scrape large amounts of data can increase the load on your server, especially if you run a high-traffic or content-rich WordPress site. By specifying Disallow paths in llms.txt, you can help prevent unnecessary crawling of pages like:

• Admin areas
• Checkout or payment pages
• Member-only content
• Multimedia-heavy directories

This helps preserve bandwidth and server performance, especially during traffic spikes.

🔍 4. Improved LLM Content Indexing

Ironically, allowing access to the right areas through llms.txt can improve how your content appears in LLMs like ChatGPT or Perplexity. If you want AI bots to reference your content or summarize it accurately, guiding them to your best, most relevant pages can enhance visibility.

This is particularly helpful for:

• Blog posts
• Product guides
• FAQs
• Case studies

🧠 5. Stay Ahead of the SEO Curve

Search engines and AI are converging fast. Already, tools like Google SGE (Search Generative Experience) and Bing Copilot blur the lines between AI answers and traditional search results. Having llms.txt in place shows you’re adapting to the next generation of content discovery and SEO.

It also demonstrates to users and clients that your site complies with evolving tech standards, increasing trust and credibility.

In short, llms.txt isn’t just about blocking bots—it’s about choosing how AI interacts with your site, protecting your content, and positioning your WordPress site strategically in the future of the web.

IV. How Does llms.txt Work?

At its core, llms.txt is a simple plain text file—just like robots.txt—that you place at the root of your website. Its role is to tell AI crawlers (LLM bots) what they are allowed to access and what they should avoid. The file is publicly accessible (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com/llms.txt) and can be read automatically by any bot that follows the proposed LLM access guidelines.

Let’s break down how it functions in practice.

🏗️ Structure of llms.txt

The file uses a very simple format. Each directive begins with a User-Agent, followed by Allow or Disallow instructions.

Here’s an example:

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: gptbot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /blog/

User-Agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /

Key Components:

💡 Tip: Use * as a wildcard to target all bots. For example:

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: *
Disallow: /premium-content/

🤖 Common LLM Bot Names

These names are case-sensitive and must be written exactly as recognized by the respective platforms.

💬 Practical Scenarios

Let’s look at a few use cases:

✅ Allow all AI bots to access your public blog

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: *
Allow: /blog/
Disallow: /

❌ Block GPTBot from crawling your entire site

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: gptbot
Disallow: /

✅ Allow Perplexity to index your case studies, but block everything else

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: perplexitybot
Allow: /case-studies/
Disallow: /

✅ Allow all bots full access

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: *
Disallow:

This tells every bot it can freely access your entire site.

⚠️ Important Notes

• No enforcement: Just like robots.txt, llms.txt is a guideline, not a hard rule. It’s up to AI companies to honor it.
• Public file: Anyone can view your llms.txt file by visiting the URL. It’s not private.
• No legal standing (yet): While it reflects your preferences, there’s no current law enforcing these instructions.

How to Create and Add llms.txt in WordPress

Creating and adding a llms.txt file to your WordPress website is simple and requires no coding expertise. There are two main ways to do it:

1. Using a plugin (easy and beginner-friendly)
2. Manually uploading the file via FTP or File Manager

Let’s explore both step-by-step.

🔌 Method 1: Using a WordPress Plugin (Recommended for Beginners)

✅ Step-by-Step Guide:

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard
2. Go to Plugins > Add New
3. In the search bar, type: “LLM” or “WP File Manager”
4. Install and activate the plugin
5. From the left-hand menu, You can see LLM.txt Option
6. Click on it and check LLM.txt enable for all the pages, post and category pages.

✅ That’s it! Bots will now read these instructions when visiting your site.

🛠️ Method 2: Manual Upload via FTP or cPanel File Manager

If you’re comfortable using FTP or your hosting provider’s cPanel, follow this approach:

📂 Step-by-Step Guide (cPanel File Manager):

1. Log in to your hosting provider’s cPanel
2. Navigate to File Manager
3. Open the public_html folder (your website’s root directory)
4. Click + File to create a new file named llms.txt
5. Right-click the file and choose Edit
6. Paste your LLM access rules into the file
7. Click Save Changes

✅ Example File Content:

makefileCopyEditUser-Agent: *
Disallow: /members/
Allow: /guides/

🎯 You can confirm it’s working by visiting:

arduinoCopyEdithttps://yourdomain.com/llms.txt

🔄 Updating or Editing Your llms.txt

You can edit llms.txt any time using:

• Your WordPress file manager plugin
• cPanel File Manager
• FTP client (like FileZilla)

Just update the content, save, and it takes effect immediately—no need to clear cache or re-index.

🧪 Test If It’s Working

To check if your llms.txt is accessible:

• Visit https://yourwebsite.com/llms.txt in your browser
• Ensure the file loads with your correct rules
• Optionally, ask tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity if they crawl or respect llms.txt

With llms.txt now live on your WordPress site, you’re in control of how AI bots engage with your content.