Search Crawler
✓ GEO Recommendation: Keep Open
DuckAssistBot
Operated by DuckDuckGo · Powers DuckAssist
DuckAssistBot crawls pages in real time to power DuckDuckGo's AI-assisted answers, which prominently cite their sources. DuckDuckGo states this data is not used in any way to train AI models.
Owner
DuckDuckGo
Trigger
Real-time, per query
Used for AI Training
No
robots.txt control
Yes
Impact if blocked
Stops being a source for DuckAssist answers — DuckDuckGo states this does not affect organic search rankings
How to identify
User-Agent: DuckAssistBot
What it does
DuckAssistBot is a web crawler for DuckDuckGo Search that crawls pages in real time for AI-assisted answers, which prominently cite their sources.
DuckDuckGo's help documentation is explicit that this data is not used in any way to train AI models, and that opting out via robots.txt does not impact organic search rankings or whether a site appears in DuckDuckGo's results.
Why we recommend keeping it open
- Being a source keeps you eligible for citation and a link in DuckAssist's AI-generated answers
- DuckDuckGo states this data is not used to train AI models
- Opting out does not affect your organic search rankings or presence
Identification & robots.txt
User-Agent identifier
DuckAssistBot
Verification
Additional verification information is available in DuckDuckGo's official documentation.
Robots.txt guidance — to opt out
User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /