Websites blocking DuckAssistBot
DuckDuckGo's fetcher for DuckAssist, the AI-generated answers feature in its search results.
Operated by DuckDuckGo · Search and AI assistant · operator documentation
4.18%
block DuckAssistBot
1.03 million of 24.63 million domains with a known robots.txt policy
0.38%
block it by name
94,642 domains, the rest inherit a blanket
* block
2.33%
restrict it by name
573K domains name it and close some of its paths
2.86%
name it in robots.txt
705K domains give it rules of their own
Data for Sep 2026. All four percentages
divide by the same 24.63 million domains. Blocked counts both
explicit User-agent: DuckAssistBot blocks and blanket
* blocks the crawler inherits.
Blocking trend
2%
4%
6%
Aug 2026
Sep 2026
Share of domains with a known robots.txt policy
blocking DuckAssistBot in each monthly crawl. The denominator moves with each crawl and is
defined in the methodology.
Historical mentions, HTTP Archive
1%
2%
3%
Nov 2024
May 2025
Oct 2025
Apr 2026
Sep 2026
Share of sites in each month's
HTTP Archive crawl whose robots.txt named
DuckAssistBot. This series counts
mentions only (the archive keeps no rule text), comes from a different population than our own
crawl above, and the two are never merged.
High-authority sites blocking DuckAssistBot by name
| Domain | OPROpen Page Rank | Blocking since |
|---|---|---|
| linkedin.com | 9.82/10 | Aug 2026 |
| nytimes.com | 9.28/10 | Aug 2026 |
| amazon.co.jp | 9.16/10 | Sep 2026 |
| usatoday.com | 9.08/10 | Sep 2026 |
| wired.com | 9.07/10 | Oct 2026 |
| lnkd.in | 9.05/10 | Aug 2026 |
| investopedia.com | 9.01/10 | Oct 2026 |
| amazon.fr | 8.99/10 | Sep 2026 |
| wa.gov | 8.93/10 | Oct 2026 |
| uol.com.br | 8.92/10 | Oct 2026 |
| huffpost.com | 8.91/10 | Aug 2026 |
| heise.de | 8.88/10 | Oct 2026 |
| mashable.com | 8.87/10 | Sep 2026 |
| francetvinfo.fr | 8.87/10 | Sep 2026 |
| politico.eu | 8.85/10 | Oct 2026 |
| arstechnica.com | 8.84/10 | Aug 2026 |
| buzzfeed.com | 8.84/10 | Oct 2026 |
| radiofrance.fr | 8.82/10 | Aug 2026 |
| wikihow.com | 8.81/10 | Aug 2026 |
| pcmag.com | 8.80/10 | Aug 2026 |
| amazon.com.au | 8.77/10 | Sep 2026 |
| guardian.co.uk | 8.77/10 | Sep 2026 |
| rfi.fr | 8.73/10 | Aug 2026 |
| verywellmind.com | 8.72/10 | Aug 2026 |
| metro.co.uk | 8.72/10 | Aug 2026 |
| people.com | 8.70/10 | Aug 2026 |
| bild.de | 8.70/10 | Oct 2026 |
| nos.nl | 8.67/10 | Oct 2026 |
| thestar.com | 8.64/10 | Oct 2026 |
| launchpad.net | 8.63/10 | Oct 2026 |
Sites whose robots.txt names DuckAssistBot (or a legacy
alias) with a full block, ranked by Open Page Rank. Sites blocking every crawler with a blanket
* rule are counted above but not listed here. Since dates start at our first
observation of the rule.