DeployRadar
Get helpFree scan

DuckAssistBot: what it does, and what blocking it means

DuckDuckGo's AI crawler. Blocking it takes you out of DuckAssist answers.

OperatorDuckDuckGo
What it doesSearch & citations
Obeys robots.txtYes, per its operator's docs
GovernsOther AI assistants
Has a crawlerYes
Last verified2 September 2026
Next review2 December 2026. We re-check every entry against the operator’s documentation each quarter.

What happens if you block DuckAssistBot?

Out of DuckAssist AI answers.

Blocking it affects

  • DuckAssist answers

It does not affect

  • Model training, which DuckDuckGo says this crawler is never used for

Does DuckAssistBot train AI models?

DuckDuckGo says content crawled here is never used for model training. This is real-time crawling for citations only, so the usual training-versus-visibility trade-off does not apply.

Rule changes are honoured within roughly 72 hours, faster than most, which is worth knowing when you are testing a fix.

How do you spot DuckAssistBot in your logs?

To find DuckAssistBot in your logs, match the User-Agent shown on this page. The robots.txt token is what the crawler reads, not what appears in the request.

Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; DuckAssistBot/1.2; +http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)

Anyone can send that User-Agent, so treat it as a claim. DuckDuckGo's published IP ranges are the stronger way to verify the request.

How do you block or allow DuckAssistBot in robots.txt?

To block DuckAssistBot:

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

To allow it explicitly, use an Allow: / rule if your file has a blanket User-agent: * disallow:

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Allow: /

With neither rule, DuckAssistBot is allowed by default.

Not sure how DuckAssistBot fits with the others? Build the whole file, or see which AI crawlers to allow.

How many sites block DuckAssistBot?

In our scan of the Tranco top 1,000 (1 to 2 October 2026, 499 sites measured), 9.4% disallowed DuckAssistBot in robots.txt. We read the rules for DuckAssistBot but did not request pages as it, so how many servers would refuse it is not measured.

Is your site blocking DuckAssistBot?

A CDN or bot-management rule can still block DuckAssistBot even when robots.txt says it is welcome. You cannot see that mismatch from the front of the site.

We request your robots.txt and homepage. We read your sitemap only when robots.txt hides pages from a crawler and we need to measure how much is affected. No other page.

Official sources

Which other crawlers do the same job as DuckAssistBot?

← All AI crawlers