DuckAssistBot: user agent, purpose, and whether to allow it
DuckAssistBot retrieves content for DuckDuckGo AI-assisted answers. DuckDuckGo documents that it is not used for training.
Specification
| Operator | DuckDuckGo |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Live fetchFetches a page in real time because a person asked. Traffic here tracks human interest, not a crawl schedule. |
| Agent kind | FetcherFetches on a person's request. Appears in your logs. Request volume follows human activity. |
| User agent | DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html) |
| robots.txt token | DuckAssistBot |
| robots.txt compliance | Documented: respects robots.txt |
| Verification | Published IP range filehttps://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json |
| Sends referral traffic | Yes |
| Attaches a citation | Yes |
| Status | Active |
| Legacy Kymo category | ai_answer |
| Source | Operator documentationhttps://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot/ |
| Verified on |
What blocking it costs you
Blocking DuckAssistBot removes you from DuckDuckGo AI-assisted answers, which cite their sources prominently. DuckDuckGo states the data is not used in any way to train AI models, and that opting out does not affect organic search rankings. A robots.txt change takes effect after 72 hours.
robots.txt directives
Both blocks below address DuckAssistBot only. Rules for one token never apply to another, even from the same operator.
Allow DuckAssistBot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Allow: /
Block DuckAssistBot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
Questions
What is the DuckAssistBot user agent?
DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)
Does DuckAssistBot respect robots.txt?
Documented: respects robots.txt
What does blocking DuckAssistBot cost me?
Blocking DuckAssistBot removes you from DuckDuckGo AI-assisted answers, which cite their sources prominently. DuckDuckGo states the data is not used in any way to train AI models, and that opting out does not affect organic search rankings. A robots.txt change takes effect after 72 hours.
Related crawlers
All AI crawlers and control tokens
See this bot in your own logs
Kymo classifies every crawler hit server-side using this registry, so DuckAssistBot shows up under DuckDuckGo with its purpose attached. Read how crawler detection works, or run a free free AI visibility check to see what each crawler currently gets back from your server. No account needed for the check.