What is DuckAssistBot?
Crawls pages in real time for DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers, which cite their sources; DuckDuckGo says the data is not used to train AI models.
- Operator
- DuckDuckGo
- Purpose
- AI search index
- Feeds
- AI-assisted answers in DuckDuckGo Search
- robots.txt token
DuckAssistBot- Follows robots.txt
- Yes
- IP ranges
- Published list
- Source
- DuckDuckGo documentation
DuckAssistBot user agent
DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)
Published as the string the crawler's user agent will appear as.
Match it in robots.txt with the token DuckAssistBot. User agents can be faked, so check requests against DuckDuckGo's published IP ranges before trusting them. Match the request IP against DuckDuckGo's published list (on the help page and as JSON); no reverse-DNS method is documented.
Should you block DuckAssistBot?
Disallowing DuckAssistBot removes you as a source for AI-assisted answers (after 72 hours) without affecting organic rankings or whether you appear in DuckDuckGo search results.
Yes. DuckDuckGo says DuckAssistBot follows robots.txt. “Once you’ve updated the file to disallow the DuckAssistBot user agent, the change will take effect after 72 hours”
Block DuckAssistBot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
Allow DuckAssistBot
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Allow: /
DuckAssistBot FAQ
What is DuckAssistBot?
Crawls pages in real time for DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers, which cite their sources; DuckDuckGo says the data is not used to train AI models.
What is the DuckAssistBot user agent?
DuckAssistBot identifies itself as: DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html). In robots.txt, match it with the token "DuckAssistBot".
Does DuckAssistBot respect robots.txt?
Yes. DuckDuckGo says DuckAssistBot follows robots.txt.
How do I block DuckAssistBot?
Add "User-agent: DuckAssistBot" followed by "Disallow: /" to the robots.txt file at the root of your site. Disallowing DuckAssistBot removes you as a source for AI-assisted answers (after 72 hours) without affecting organic rankings or whether you appear in DuckDuckGo search results.
Crawlable isn't the same as cited
Letting AI crawlers in is step one. Citedify checks whether ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews actually recommend your brand, and what to fix when they don't.
Facts on this page come from DuckDuckGo's documentation, checked 2026-09-28. Sources: duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot