AI crawler profile
What is DuckAssistBot? How to allow or block DuckDuckGo's crawler
Operator
DuckDuckGo
Purpose
AI search & live answers
robots.txt
Respects robots.txt
Official docs
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.
Block DuckAssistBot with robots.txt
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
Explicitly allow DuckAssistBot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Allow: /
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
- AI Crawler Access Checker — see whether your current robots.txt allows or blocks DuckAssistBot.
- robots.txt Generator for AI Bots — build a robots.txt with per-bot rules for all 28 known AI crawlers.
- AI Bot Log Analyzer — paste server logs and count real DuckAssistBot hits, entirely in your browser.
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". 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.
Part of our directory of every known AI crawler, refreshed monthly. Last verified: 2026-07-18.