AI crawler list · DuckDuckGo · AI search index

DuckAssistBot

Fetches pages in real time for AI-assisted answers in DuckDuckGo Search, which show their sources. DuckDuckGo says the data is not used to train AI models and opting out does not affect organic rankings.

Facts checked against DuckDuckGo docs on Oct 20, 2026.

Operator

DuckDuckGo

Used for

DuckDuckGo AI answers

Type

AI search index

Obeys robots.txt

Yes

Is DuckAssistBot allowed on your site?

Reads your robots.txt and requests your page as each AI bot. Free, no signup.

Should you allow it?

Allow it.

If you block it: Your pages stop being used in DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers (within about 72 hours). Organic rankings are unaffected.

DuckDuckGo says opt-outs take about 72 hours.

robots.txt rules

Allow DuckAssistBot

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Allow: /

Block DuckAssistBot

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

Disallow DuckAssistBot from one folder only

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /private/
Allow: /

Put each User-agent group in the robots.txt at your domain root. A bot follows the most specific group that names it and ignores the generic User-agent: * group, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside it. Build a full file with the AI robots.txt generator.

User agent string

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

Versions in the string can change. Match on the token DuckAssistBot, and verify real traffic as shown below rather than trusting the header.

How to verify it's really DuckAssistBot

Find its requests in your server logs (the path to your access log depends on your host):

grep -i "DuckAssistBot" access.log

DuckDuckGo publishes DuckAssistBot's source IP addresses.

Published IP list: duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json

Check one IP against the list (prints True or False):

curl -s https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json | python3 -c "import sys,re,ipaddress as a; ip=a.ip_address(sys.argv[1]); print(any(ip in a.ip_network(c,strict=False) for c in re.findall(r'[0-9a-fA-F:.]+/[0-9]+', sys.stdin.read())))" 203.0.113.7

Common mistakes

Writing a User-agent: DuckAssistBot group and expecting your User-agent: * rules to still apply. A crawler follows only the most specific group that matches it and ignores the others, so repeat any shared Disallow lines inside the DuckAssistBot group.
Leaving a CDN or host "block AI bots" setting on and only checking robots.txt. Those settings block requests at the network edge. Cloudflare, for example, changed its defaults on September 15, 2026 for customers who did not opt out: bots it classifies as Training or Agent are blocked on pages that display ads, and multi-purpose crawlers that combine Search and Training are affected by the Training block.
Trusting the user agent header alone. Anyone can send "DuckAssistBot" in a request; verify the source IP as shown above before allowlisting or blocking.

FAQ

What is DuckAssistBot?

Does DuckAssistBot respect robots.txt?

Yes, according to DuckDuckGo.

What happens if I block DuckAssistBot?

Your pages stop being used in DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers (within about 72 hours). Organic rankings are unaffected.

Should I block DuckAssistBot?

Allow it.

Sources

Related AI crawlers

OAI-SearchBot · Claude-SearchBot · PerplexityBot · Googlebot · Bingbot · Applebot · meta-webindexer · Amzn-SearchBot

Facts checked against DuckDuckGo docs on Oct 20, 2026. Spot an error? rankroot.support@proton.me