DuckAssistBot: DuckDuckGo's Answer Crawler
What is DuckAssistBot?
DuckAssistBot retrieves content for DuckDuckGo AI-assisted answers. DuckDuckGo documents that it is not used for training. DuckAssistBot is separate from DuckDuckBot, and DuckDuckGo documents that content DuckAssistBot fetches is not used for model training.
Key facts
- DuckAssistBot is operated by DuckDuckGo, and its purpose is live fetch: fetches a page in real time because a person asked.
- The user agent for DuckAssistBot is documented by DuckDuckGo and contains the token DuckAssistBot.
- The robots.txt token for DuckAssistBot is DuckAssistBot, and DuckDuckGo documents that DuckAssistBot respects that rule.
- DuckAssistBot can send a visitor to your site, and DuckAssistBot attaches a linked citation when it uses your content.
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 this looks like in your logs
203.0.113.42 - - [04/Aug/2026:09:14:07 +0000] "GET /pricing HTTP/1.1" 200 18432 "-" "DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)"
The part that identifies the request is the token DuckAssistBot, inside the quoted user-agent field at the end of the line. Everything before it is the ordinary shape of a Common Log Format entry, and the address shown is a documentation address rather than one DuckDuckGo uses.
What DuckAssistBot does not do
DuckAssistBot does not guarantee a visit, because a read only becomes a visit if a person clicks the citation that came out of it.
DuckAssistBot does not crawl on a schedule, because it only requests a page when a person has already asked something that needs it.
DuckDuckGo publishes no crawl frequency for DuckAssistBot, so any schedule you read elsewhere is somebody's estimate rather than a documented figure.
How Kymo classifies it
Kymo files DuckAssistBot under DuckDuckGo as ai_answer, classified from the HTTP request on the server rather than from anything running in a browser.
A hit from DuckAssistBot counts on the AI Visibility page, which is the only page that counts crawls at all. An answer crawl is the only kind a person can click through from, so it is the only kind that belongs beside a visitor number.
Seen on our own sites
| Last seen | 15 Sep 2026 |
|---|---|
| Days active, last 30 days | 30 |
| Requests, last 30 days | 475 |
Counted by Kymo on kymo.in and remotestack.in, the two sites we run, up to 15 Sep 2026. Two sites is a small sample. Treat these numbers as proof the bot is active now.
Allow it or block it
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.
| Allow it if | Block it if |
|---|---|
| You want DuckDuckGo to read your live page when a person asks about you, which is the crawl most likely to send a real visitor. | You do not want your page read during a live question. Check the compliance row first: a fetcher started by a person may need an edge rule rather than a robots.txt rule. |
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
How do I know a request claiming to be DuckAssistBot is genuine?
DuckDuckGo publishes the IP ranges DuckAssistBot uses at https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json. Check the requesting address against that file. A user-agent string alone proves nothing, because anyone can send one.
Does blocking DuckAssistBot also block DuckDuckBot?
No. DuckAssistBot and DuckDuckBot are separate tokens, and DuckDuckGo treats each one on its own. A rule naming DuckAssistBot leaves DuckDuckBot free to carry on indexing your pages for DuckDuckGo search results. To stop that as well, name DuckDuckBot in a rule of its own.
Will I see DuckAssistBot in Google Analytics?
No. Google Analytics runs a JavaScript tag in a visitor's browser, and DuckAssistBot reads your HTML and leaves without running any script. Server-side logging is the only way to record it.
Does DuckAssistBot send traffic back to my site?
Yes. DuckAssistBot builds an index that DuckDuckGo cites its sources from, and a citation there is a link a person can click. A crawl is still not a visit, so expect the read count to run far ahead of the click count.
Related crawlers
All AI crawlers and control tokens
See this bot in your own logs
DuckAssistBot arrives because a person just asked DuckDuckGo something, and a browser tag never runs in time to record the moment.
Kymo reads the HTTP request on your server, so a crawler that never runs JavaScript is still recorded. You see which bots reached the site, which pages they took and how often, next to your human traffic.
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