What is the difference between Markdown for Agents and llms.txt?

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both. Markdown for Agents answers: Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself? llms.txt answers: Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?

When should I use Markdown for Agents instead of llms.txt?

Choose Markdown for Agents when your question is “Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?” and you accept its maturity: status "Vendor feature, available to Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and SSL for SaaS customers at no cost; not a standards-track document", implementation shipping (Cloudflare's own developer docs and blog answer Accept: text/markdown with text/markdown (our check, 2026-10-20); Cloudflare publishes no count of enabled zones). Choose llms.txt when your question is “Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?” and you accept its maturity: status ""This is v2 of the proposal" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document", implementation multi-implementation (Rankability (Tranco top-1000, June 2026: 8.7%) and SE Ranking (~300,000 domains analyzed: 10.13%) — independent third-party publisher-side counts, not our own probe).

Can Markdown for Agents and llms.txt be used together?

Yes. Markdown for Agents and llms.txt are listed as complementary on this map and are commonly deployed together on the same origin or agent.

Markdown for Agents vs llms.txt

The map lists them as complementary: sites and agents commonly implement both.

4 Read Markdown for Agents · 4 Read llms.txt

	Markdown for Agents	llms.txt
Lifecycle step	4 Read: Give me the content	4 Read: Give me the content
Answers	Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?	Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?
Governed by	Cloudflare; a feature of its network documented in Cloudflare's developer docs, not submitted to a standards body; it rides on ordinary HTTP content negotiation	Jeremy Howard / Answer.AI; maintained as an open proposal in the AnswerDotAI/llms-txt GitHub repository with a public Discord for implementation discussion
Status (issuer's words)	Vendor feature, available to Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and SSL for SaaS customers at no cost; not a standards-track document	"This is v2 of the proposal" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document
Version	Generally available on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans; docs last updated 2026-10-09 (2026-02-12)	v2 (2026-08)
Form / transport	HTTP header	well-known file
Found at	HTTP content negotiation: the client sends Accept: text/markdown and an enabled zone answers with Content-Type: text/markdown; charset=utf-8 and Vary: Accept. There is no manifest or well-known file.	/llms.txt (or /<path>/llms.txt, e.g. /docs/llms.txt)
Implementation	shipping — Cloudflare's own developer docs and blog answer Accept: text/markdown with text/markdown (our check, 2026-10-20); Cloudflare publishes no count of enabled zones	multi-implementation — Rankability (Tranco top-1000, June 2026: 8.7%) and SE Ranking (~300,000 domains analyzed: 10.13%) — independent third-party publisher-side counts, not our own probe
Evidence	3 verified	4 verified, 4 reported
Primary use case	Serve readable content to agents	Serve readable content to agents
Last verified	2026-10-23 (current)	2026-10-23 (current)
Specification	https://developers.cloudflare.com/fundamentals/reference/markdown-for-agents/	https://llmstxt.org

When to use which

Choose Markdown for Agents when your question is “Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?” and you accept its maturity: status "Vendor feature, available to Pro, Business and Enterprise plans and SSL for SaaS customers at no cost; not a standards-track document", implementation shipping (Cloudflare's own developer docs and blog answer Accept: text/markdown with text/markdown (our check, 2026-10-20); Cloudflare publishes no count of enabled zones).
Choose llms.txt when your question is “Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?” and you accept its maturity: status ""This is v2 of the proposal" — explicitly a community proposal open for input, not a standards-track document", implementation multi-implementation (Rankability (Tranco top-1000, June 2026: 8.7%) and SE Ranking (~300,000 domains analyzed: 10.13%) — independent third-party publisher-side counts, not our own probe).

Guidance is derived from the two records (question, status, implementation, prerequisites, pairings), not from opinion. Each record's page carries its numbered references.

Read the full articles

Markdown for Agents: Can an agent ask a site for a Markdown version of an HTML page, instead of parsing the HTML itself?
llms.txt: Where can an agent find a concise, curated map of a site's content, written for language models rather than browsers?

Ask the MCP server to compare any two: the compare-protocols prompt, or get on both ids. Connect.

cloudflare-markdown-for-agents.json · llms-txt.json · Markdown