---
title: "DuckDuckGo: crawler operator profile | Agent Ready Crawlers"
description: "DuckDuckGo: crawler operator profile covering DuckDuckBot and DuckAssistBot. Sourced facts, standards, dated prices and limits, read 2026-11-05."
canonical: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/duckduckgo
site: "Agent Ready Crawlers"
last_updated: 2026-11-05
section: "Vendors"
---

# DuckDuckGo: crawler operator profile | Agent Ready Crawlers

> DuckDuckGo: crawler operator profile covering DuckDuckBot and DuckAssistBot. Sourced facts, standards, dated prices and limits, read 2026-11-05.

Source: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/duckduckgo
Site: Agent Ready Crawlers
Last reviewed: 2026-11-05

Crawler operator

# DuckDuckGo

In short

DuckDuckGo's DuckAssistBot retrieves pages while an answer is composed, cites them, and is not used for model training; a Disallow takes 72 hours to apply. Its search crawler, DuckDuckBot, has an IP file of its own, but on 5 November 2026 the two files matched byte for byte, so addresses alone cannot separate the bots.

Type

[Crawler operator](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/by-type/crawler-operator/)

Homepage

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

In one line

DuckDuckGo runs DuckDuckBot for its search index and DuckAssistBot for real-time fetches behind its AI-assisted answers, publishes an IP file for each, and says DuckAssistBot data is not used to train AI models.

Last read

2026-11-05

## What DuckDuckGo does for this layer

### From the vendor's own pages

DuckDuckGo says a robots.txt Disallow for DuckAssistBot takes effect after 72 hours. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot)) DuckDuckGo says opting out of DuckAssistBot does not affect organic rankings or whether a site appears in DuckDuckGo search results. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot)) DuckAssistBot identifies itself as DuckAssistBot/1.2 with a link to duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.html. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot)) DuckDuckGo says DuckDuckBot respects the rules at robotstxt.org and identifies itself as DuckDuckBot/1.1. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot))

### What our crawl saw

DuckDuckGo's duckassistbot.json and duckduckbot.json were byte-identical on 2026-11-05 (same SHA-1), each with 486 IPv4 prefixes and a creationTime of 2026-09-01. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json), dated 2026-09-01) duckduckgo.com answered HTTP 404 for the Web Bot Auth key directory path on 2026-11-05. ([duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory))

## Products and plans

| Product | What it does | Price model | From | As of |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| DuckDuckBot | Crawler for DuckDuckGo search results. | No price recorded |
| DuckAssistBot | Real-time crawler for AI-assisted answers; not used for model training. | No price recorded |

## Standards

| Standard | Status | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- |
| RFC 9309 (robots.txt) | Supports | Both help pages describe robots.txt control; DuckAssistBot opt-out takes 72 hours. (duckduckgo.com) |
| Web Bot Auth | No statement | Not on either help page; key directory path 404 (observed 2026-11-05). |
| Published IP list | Supports | duckassistbot.json and duckduckbot.json. (duckduckgo.com) |
| Reverse DNS check | No statement | Neither help page gives a reverse DNS pattern (read 2026-11-05). |

## Our checks

| Check | Result | Method | Date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Homepage fetch | HTTP 200 | GET with the crawl user agent after a robots.txt check | 2026-11-05 |
| Web Bot Auth key directory | 404 | GET /.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory with the crawl user agent | 2026-11-05 |
| duckassistbot.json and duckduckbot.json | identical files, 486 IPv4 prefixes each, creationTime 2026-09-01 | GET both and compare SHA-1 | 2026-11-05 |

## What DuckDuckGo does not do

-   DuckDuckGo's two range files were identical on 2026-11-05, so an IP check alone cannot tell DuckAssistBot from DuckDuckBot.
-   DuckDuckGo publishes no reverse DNS pattern or signature for either crawler (read 2026-11-05).

## Related pages on this site

-   [All crawler operators](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/by-type/crawler-operator/) 31 profiles
-   [The full vendor list](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/) 73 profiles in four types
-   [DuckDuckGo in the Crawler Index](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/operator/duckduckgo/) 2 rows
-   [DuckAssistBot](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/duckassistbot/) token DuckAssistBot
-   [DuckDuckBot](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/duckduckbot/) token DuckDuckBot

## Sources

-   [duckduckgo.com](https://duckduckgo.com) read 2026-11-05
-   [Is DuckAssistBot related to DuckDuckGo?](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckassistbot) read 2026-11-05
-   [Is DuckDuckBot related to DuckDuckGo?](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/results/duckduckbot) read 2026-11-05
-   [DuckDuckGo duckassistbot.json IP ranges](https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json) read 2026-11-05
-   [duckduckgo.com Web Bot Auth key directory path (GET probe)](https://duckduckgo.com/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory) read 2026-11-05
-   [DuckDuckGo duckduckbot.json IP ranges](https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckbot.json) read 2026-11-05

Last reviewed 2026-11-05