DuckAssistBot
DuckDuckGo · Real-time crawler for DuckDuckGo AI-assisted answers that cite sources (not used to train AI models per DuckDuckGo)
By Vinespire Editorial Team, Editorial ·
Update: Verified against DuckDuckGo operator documentation for DuckAssistBot.
This page is the operator/profile guide for DuckAssistBot. To paste a full robots.txt and check DuckAssistBot plus other AI crawlers in one pass, use the Robots.txt AI Crawler Validator. Short definitional entries also live in the AI search glossary.
Related free utilities are in free AI SEO tools.
What is DuckAssistBot?
DuckAssistBot is documented on DuckDuckGo Help Pages as a web crawler for DuckDuckGo Search that crawls pages in real time for AI-assisted answers which prominently cite their sources. DuckDuckGo states that this data is not used in any way to train AI models—an important distinction from many training-oriented crawlers. Publishers may opt out of being a potential source for those AI-assisted answers by Disallowing the DuckAssistBot user agent in robots.txt; DuckDuckGo says the change takes effect after 72 hours, and that opting out does not impact organic search rankings or whether sites appear in ordinary DuckDuckGo search results. The crawler’s user agent is documented as DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html), and DuckDuckGo publishes IP addresses (including JSON) for identification. robots.txt product token matching uses DuckAssistBot. Contact for opt-out problems is documented as crawling@duckduckgo.com. For GEO, DuckAssistBot is an answer-engine retrieval surface: allowing it can make public pages eligible as cited sources in DuckDuckGo’s AI-assisted answers, while blocking is a source-eligibility choice independent of classic DuckDuckBot search crawling.
How to block DuckAssistBot
Add this group to robots.txt to disallow DuckAssistBot. Path rules can be narrowed if you only need to protect parts of the site.
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Disallow: /
How to allow DuckAssistBot
For most public marketing and documentation sites, allowing well-behaved AI agents is the default recommended stance for AI visibility—while remaining a factual robots.txt Allow rule you can reverse later.
User-agent: DuckAssistBot Allow: /
Should you block DuckAssistBot?
Allow DuckAssistBot if you want public pages available as potential cited sources in DuckDuckGo’s AI-assisted answers. DuckDuckGo documents that this crawl is not for model training, which matters for teams whose objection is specifically training reuse rather than answer citation. Block if you do not want participation in that AI answer feature; DuckDuckGo states organic search rankings are unaffected by the opt-out and that ordinary search appearance is separate. Blocking DuckAssistBot does not configure DuckDuckBot—maintain a separate group if you also need classic search crawl policy. After Disallow, wait for the documented propagation window and confirm in logs. As always, robots.txt is not a security boundary for private content. Re-read DuckDuckGo’s help page if the product name or user-agent version string changes.
Category: Search indexing
Official documentation (DuckDuckGo)
Last verified: . Re-check operator docs after major crawler announcements.
Related bots (Search indexing)
DuckAssistBot FAQ
- DuckDuckGo documents publisher opt-out via robots.txt Disallow for DuckAssistBot, with changes taking effect after 72 hours per official help pages.