DuckAssistBot (DuckDuckGo): what it is and how to allow or block it
DuckAssistBot is DuckDuckGo's crawler that fetches pages in real time for its AI-assisted answers. Its robots.txt token is DuckAssistBot.
Facts
- Operator
- DuckDuckGo
- Category
- AI user-triggered fetcher
- robots.txt token
DuckAssistBot
- Honors robots.txt?
- Yes, per DuckDuckGo. Publishers can opt out by disallowing the DuckAssistBot user agent in robots.txt.
- User-agent example
DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)
- Official source
- DuckDuckGo: DuckAssistBot
- Published IP ranges
- https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json
- Compared with the source
What it is used for
Crawls pages in real time for DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers. DuckDuckGo states the crawled data is never used for model training. Opens one page because a person (or an answer being generated) needs it. The operator may treat robots.txt differently for these requests.
What happens if you block it
DuckDuckGo says opting out does not affect organic search rankings or whether sites appear in results. The change takes effect after 72 hours.
How to allow or block DuckAssistBot
Add one of these groups to the robots.txt at the root of your domain. A group that names the bot overrides a general User-agent: * group.
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Allow: /
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
Does your site allow DuckAssistBot today? The checker evaluates your robots.txt for this and every other bot.Check my site
What we see on our own sites
No request identifying as DuckAssistBot has been recorded in the last 30 days, so there is nothing to show yet. We never fill this in with estimates.
Counts come from the websites we operate; they hold no IP addresses or URLs, and a user agent is only a claim. See the bot traffic data and the methodology.
Related bots
Other AI user-triggered fetchers
- ChatGPT-User OpenAIThe fetcher ChatGPT uses when a person asks it to open or look at a web page.
- Claude-User AnthropicThe agent Claude uses to open a page when a person asks it a question that needs a website.
- Perplexity-User PerplexityThe fetcher Perplexity uses to visit a page when a person's question needs it.
- meta-externalfetcher MetaMeta's fetcher that retrieves individual URLs when a user asks, for example to help an AI complete a task.
All AI User-Triggered Fetchers · Bot directory · Which bots to allow or block · robots.txt generator · See a page as a bot