ExplainerTechnical AEO

llms.txt Examples From Real Sites (Annotated)

by the AEO GEO Labs teamOct 12, 20266 min read

Short answerllms.txt example

A good llms.txt example is short, starts with an H1 and a one-line summary, and lists key pages under H2 headings with a note on each link. The real files below, from the llmstxt.org spec site, Stripe, Cloudflare, Vercel, Svelte, Supabase and Anthropic, show the range: from 10 lines to over 800. Each is annotated with what to copy and what to skip.

tl;dr

1The spec's own file is 10 lines. Most real files are much longer, and the long ones are docs sites.
2Notes after each link are the most useful part and the most often skipped.
3Big sites split into nested llms.txt files instead of one giant list.
4llms-full.txt is a convention, not part of the spec, and can run to tens of megabytes.

For the basics of the format, read our guide to what llms.txt is. All files were fetched on 3 October 2026; sites change them often.

The format every example follows

Every llms.txt example below follows the structure in the llmstxt.org proposal: an H1 with the site name (the only required part), a blockquote summary, optional free text with no headings, then H2 sections that each hold a list of - [name](url): notes links. Version 2 of the proposal, published in August 2026, adds that a file at a subpath such as /docs/llms.txt covers only the pages under that path, and that the most specific file applies.

Seven real llms.txt examples, compared

Site	Size (Oct 2026)	Structure	Worth copying
llmstxt.org (`llmstxt.org/llms.txt`)	10 lines	H1, summary, one Docs section	The minimum viable file
Svelte (`svelte.dev/llms.txt`)	23 lines	Links to full, medium and small doc sets	Size options for small context windows
Vercel (`vercel.com/llms.txt`)	65 lines	"When to use" and "How agents should use" sections	Plain instructions for agents
Cloudflare (`developers.cloudflare.com/llms.txt`)	144 lines	One link per product, each to its own llms.txt	Nesting for large sites
Supabase (`supabase.com/llms.txt`)	55 lines	Flat link list, points to llms-full.txt	Simplicity
Stripe (`docs.stripe.com/llms.txt`)	707 lines, 92 KB	Instructions first, then a long Docs list	The opening instructions
Anthropic (`docs.claude.com/llms.txt`)	823 lines, 82 KB	Language list, then a full page index	Telling agents what each language covers

Annotated: the minimum (llmstxt.org)

The spec site's own file is the cleanest llms.txt example there is:

# llms.txt

> A proposal that those interested in providing LLM-friendly content add a /llms.txt file to their site. ...

## Docs

- [llms.txt proposal](https://llmstxt.org/index.md): The proposal for llms.txt
- [Python library docs](https://llmstxt.org/intro.html.md): Docs for `llms-txt` python lib

What to copy: links point to .md versions of pages, which the proposal recommends so agents get clean text instead of HTML. Every link has a note.

What to skip: nothing. For a small site, this is enough.

Annotated: instructions before links (Stripe)

Stripe opens its file with direct instructions for coding agents before any links. The first paragraph tells agents to check the npm registry for the latest package version rather than "relying on memorized version numbers." A second paragraph explains which testing sandbox to use.

What to copy: the idea. If agents commonly get something about your product wrong, say so at the top in plain sentences. That free-text area exists for exactly this.

What to skip: the length. At 707 lines, Stripe's index is closer to a sitemap than a summary. That works for one of the most-used APIs on the web. For a 40-page marketing site, it is noise.

Annotated: nesting for big sites (Cloudflare and Svelte)

Cloudflare's root file does not list docs pages at all. Each product line, such as - [DNS](https://developers.cloudflare.com/dns/llms.txt): Deliver excellent performance and reliability to your domain, links to that product's own llms.txt. The blockquote says so explicitly.

Svelte does something similar with size: its root file links to a complete documentation file, an abridged one and a compressed one, so a tool with a small context window can pick the version that fits.

What to copy: if your file is growing past a few hundred lines, split it by product or section and link the parts from a short root file. The v2 spec's subpath rule makes this official.

Annotated: writing for agents (Vercel)

Vercel's file reads like a briefing. After the summary ("Vercel is a cloud platform for building, deploying, and scaling web applications and AI workloads"), it has a "When to use Vercel" list and a "How agents should use Vercel" list, including "Ask for approval before changing account resources."

What to copy: a short "when to use us" section. It is the closest thing in the format to a positioning statement, and it is the part a non-docs business can adapt most directly.

llms-full.txt: what the big files look like

llms-full.txt is a companion file holding the full text of a site's docs in one request. It is not defined in the llmstxt.org spec; it spread through documentation platforms. Sizes vary enormously. As of 3 October 2026, Svelte's is about 1.3 MB, Supabase's about 7.2 MB, and Anthropic's about 41 MB. Not every docs site has one: Stripe's llms-full.txt URL returned a "page not found" HTML page when we requested it.

Our view: a marketing site rarely needs llms-full.txt. A 41 MB file will not fit in any model's context window, so it only helps tools that search or chunk it.

An llms.txt template you can adapt

Here is an llms.txt template for a typical B2B or SaaS site. Replace every line.

# Company Name

> Company Name makes [product] for [audience]. [One line on what makes it different.]

Notes for agents:
- Prices are listed on /pricing and change; don't quote old figures.
- We serve [regions]. We do not offer [common wrong assumption].

## Product
- [Pricing](https://example.com/pricing): Plans, limits and what each includes
- [Features](https://example.com/features): What the product does, by use case
- [Integrations](https://example.com/integrations): Tools we connect to

## Help
- [Docs](https://example.com/docs): Setup and configuration guides
- [Security](https://example.com/security): Certifications and data handling

## Optional
- [Blog](https://example.com/blog): Guides and announcements
- [Careers](https://example.com/careers)

To skip the typing, the llms.txt generator explains how to build a draft from your sitemap with the free llms.txt tool, which you then cut down and annotate. Once it is live, make sure AI crawlers can actually reach the pages it lists, using our robots.txt guide for AI crawlers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the simplest valid llms.txt example?

The simplest valid llms.txt is a single line: an H1 with your site or project name, such as # Acme. That is the only required section in the llmstxt.org spec. A useful minimal file adds a one-sentence blockquote summary and one H2 section listing five to twenty key pages, each with a short note on what it covers.

Do real companies actually publish llms.txt files?

Yes. As of October 2026, Stripe, Cloudflare, Vercel, Svelte, Supabase and Anthropic all publish one, and the llmstxt.org proposal notes that OpenAI and Google's Gemini API docs do too. Adoption is strongest among developer-tool and documentation sites, where coding agents read them. Marketing-only sites publish them less often.

What is the difference between llms.txt and llms-full.txt?

llms.txt is a short index of links with notes. llms-full.txt is an optional, much larger file containing the full text of the pages, so a tool can load everything in one request. Only llms.txt is described in the llmstxt.org spec. Real llms-full.txt files range from about 1 MB to over 40 MB.

How long should my llms.txt file be?

Keep it short enough to read in one sitting: for most business sites, under 100 lines. The spec's own file is 10 lines. Large docs sites run to hundreds of lines, but the bigger ones, like Cloudflare, split into nested files per product. If yours is growing past a few hundred lines, nest it.

Should the links in llms.txt point to markdown pages?

Ideally, yes. The llmstxt.org proposal recommends offering a clean markdown version of each page at the same URL with .md added or swapped in, and linking to those. Agents then get text without navigation and scripts. If you can't produce markdown versions, linking to normal HTML pages is still valid.

If you want this done for your site, AEO GEO Labs writes llms.txt files, structured data and crawler rules as part of its GEO, AEO and SEO programs for B2B and SaaS teams. See our services.