---
title: "DuckAssistBot: user agent, token, block rate | Agent Ready Crawlers"
description: "DuckAssistBot from DuckDuckGo: exact user-agent string, robots.txt token DuckAssistBot, live answer fetch purpose and how to verify it. Read 2026-11-04."
canonical: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/duckassistbot
site: "Agent Ready Crawlers"
last_updated: 2026-11-04
section: "Crawlers"
---

# DuckAssistBot: user agent, token, block rate | Agent Ready Crawlers

> DuckAssistBot from DuckDuckGo: exact user-agent string, robots.txt token DuckAssistBot, live answer fetch purpose and how to verify it. Read 2026-11-04.

Source: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/duckassistbot
Site: Agent Ready Crawlers
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04

Live answer fetcher from DuckDuckGo

# DuckAssistBot

In short

DuckAssistBot is DuckDuckGo's live answer fetcher. The token to write in robots.txt is DuckAssistBot. Check a visitor against the operator's published IP list. Verisoul reports it signs requests; DuckDuckGo's page names only the IP list. On robots.txt, disallowing DuckAssistBot takes effect after 72 hours; data is not used to train AI models; opting out does not affect organic rankings.

Operator

[DuckDuckGo](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/operator/duckduckgo/) Vendor profile: [DuckDuckGo](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/duckduckgo/)

Purpose

Live answer fetch [All live answer fetch rows](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/purpose/live-answer-fetch/). Fetches a page because a person asked an assistant about it, one request at a time.

User-agent string

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

robots.txt token

`DuckAssistBot` Matched case-insensitively (RFC 9309). The token and the user-agent string are different things.

Respects robots.txt

Yes, per operator

DuckDuckGo: disallowing DuckAssistBot takes effect after 72 hours; data is not used to train AI models; opting out does not affect organic rankings. [Source](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot), read 2026-11-04.

Verification

Published IP list (JSON)

Match the source address of a request against the operator's published list. [Documentation](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json), read 2026-11-04.

IP ranges

[duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json)

Rate behaviour

Crawls pages in real time for AI-assisted answers.

Block rate

**8.1%** of 5,938 top-10,000 sites with a parsed robots.txt disallow `DuckAssistBot` at the root (483 sites). 4.3% name it; 3.8% refuse it only through a \* group. Rank 25 of 31 tokens measured.

Across all 8,624 parsed robots.txt files in the crawl: 5.8% (3.0% named). Crawl of 2026-11-04; [report](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/block-rates/).

Documentation

[duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot), read 2026-11-04.

Note. Verisoul reports it signs requests; DuckDuckGo's page names only the IP list.

## Allow and refuse lines

### To allow DuckAssistBot

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Allow: /

### To refuse DuckAssistBot

User-agent: DuckAssistBot
Disallow: /

Refusing or allowing in robots.txt states a preference. Enforcement of a refusal belongs in your WAF; see how to verify the identity above.

## DuckDuckGo in the Verification Ledger

Two IP lists. [All operators](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/verification/).

IP lists

-   [duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json)
-   [duckduckgo.com/duckduckbot.json](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckbot.json)

Reverse DNS

publishes nothing

Key directory

publishes nothing

Cloudflare

not checked

Visa TAP registry

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

Mastercard Agent Pay

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

## Other DuckDuckGo rows

-   [DuckDuckBot](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/duckduckbot/) Search index token DuckDuckBot

## Sources

-   [duckduckgo.com: duckassistbot](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot) read 2026-11-04
-   [duckduckgo.com: duckassistbot (JSON)](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json) read 2026-11-04
-   [Verisoul: DuckAssistBot](https://www.verisoul.ai/agents/duckassistbot) read 2026-11-04

Last reviewed 2026-11-04