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AI crawler profile

What is DuckAssistBot? How to allow or block DuckDuckGo's crawler

User-agent string to match in robots.txt and server logs: DuckAssistBot

Operator

DuckDuckGo

Purpose

AI search & live answers

robots.txt

Respects robots.txt

Official docs

DuckDuckGo documentation ↗

DuckAssistBot retrieves pages that DuckDuckGo's AI features (DuckAssist and Duck.ai integrations) summarize and cite in answers. Blocking it removes your content from those AI answers without affecting your regular DuckDuckGo search listings, which come from different sources.

Does DuckAssistBot respect robots.txt?

DuckDuckGo documents the agent and states it respects robots.txt.

Verify it's really DuckAssistBot

DuckDuckGo publishes no IP-range file for DuckAssistBot, so it can only be identified by its user-agent string — which anything can send. Treat traffic claiming this agent as unverified, and prefer a reverse-DNS check where the operator documents one before acting on it.

Block DuckAssistBot with robots.txt

robots.txt — block
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

Explicitly allow DuckAssistBot

robots.txt — allow
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Allow: /

Block DuckAssistBot at the server or CDN

robots.txt is the right first step for DuckAssistBot, since DuckDuckGo honors it. Use these only if you want the block enforced rather than requested — for example to stop agents spoofing the user agent. Matching on the user-agent string still trusts a self-declared header — and no IP-range file exists for this agent, so treat it as best-effort.

nginx
if ($http_user_agent ~* "DuckAssistBot") {
    return 403;
}
apache — .htaccess
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} DuckAssistBot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
cloudflare — WAF expression
(http.user_agent contains "DuckAssistBot")

Find DuckAssistBot in your server logs

shell
grep -i "DuckAssistBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l

Should you block DuckAssistBot?

For most sites, no. DuckAssistBot powers visibility: blocking it removes your pages from the cited answers DuckDuckGo's assistant shows its users — the AI-era equivalent of de-indexing yourself from a search engine. Block it only if you deliberately don't want that audience. Our guide on blocking AI bots covers the trade-offs in detail.

Check and monitor DuckAssistBot on your site

Related reading

Frequently asked questions

What is DuckAssistBot?

DuckAssistBot is DuckDuckGo's agent for AI search and live answers. Fetches pages to generate DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers.

Does DuckAssistBot respect robots.txt?

DuckDuckGo documents the agent and states it respects robots.txt.

How do I block DuckAssistBot?

Add "User-agent: DuckAssistBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt file. The change takes effect the next time the bot fetches your robots.txt.

Does blocking DuckAssistBot hurt my Google rankings?

No. DuckAssistBot is separate from Googlebot, which handles Google Search indexing. Blocking DuckAssistBot has no effect on your traditional search rankings, but it does remove your pages from the AI answers DuckDuckGo's assistant serves to its users.

How can I tell if DuckAssistBot is crawling my site?

Search your server access logs for the string "DuckAssistBot" — for example: grep -i "DuckAssistBot" /var/log/nginx/access.log | wc -l. Our free AI Bot Log Analyzer does this in your browser: paste a log file and it counts hits per AI crawler, including DuckAssistBot, with per-path breakdowns.

How do I use DuckAssistBot?

You don't — DuckAssistBot isn't a tool you run. It's DuckDuckGo's own crawler, operated by DuckDuckGo, that visits your site from their infrastructure. The only control you have over it is whether you allow or block it, via robots.txt or a server rule. If you're looking to crawl other sites yourself, you'd write your own crawler or use a crawling library; sending "DuckAssistBot" as your user agent would be impersonating DuckDuckGo.

Where is the official DuckDuckGo documentation for DuckAssistBot?

DuckDuckGo publishes it at https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot/. That page is the authoritative source for the user-agent string and DuckDuckGo's stated crawling policy.

Part of our directory of every known AI crawler, refreshed monthly. Last verified: 2026-08-14.