DuckDuckGo

DuckAssistBot

DuckDuckGo says it is not used to train AI models.

Class: User fetch
robots.txt: Says it honours robots.txt; An opt-out takes effect after 72 hours.
Evidence: Confirmed from operator documentation; Source

Published User-Agent

DuckAssistBot/1.2; (+http://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html)

Proving it is real

robots.txt

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

Cloudflare custom rule expression

(http.user_agent contains "DuckAssistBot")

nginx

if ($http_user_agent ~* "DuckAssistBot") {
    return 403;
}

Matching a name only blocks bots that tell the truth about it. Before you do this, read what each decision costs.

Last reviewed Nov 2, 2026