Bot signals — AI crawler & agent

DuckAssistBot IP addresses

DuckDuckGo DuckAssistBot

DuckAssist AI-answer retrieval infrastructure; shared with DuckDuckBot, not proof of individual request purpose.

risk.is_airisk.is_crawler Ranges Reviewed

Check an IP

Is this IP really DuckAssistBot?

Checks the address against what DuckDuckGo DuckAssistBot publishes, the same evidence behind risk.is_ai.

01 — Verification

How IPAPI.GR verifies DuckAssistBot.

Only from what DuckDuckGo DuckAssistBot publishes about itself. No third-party blocklists, no behavioural guesses. Live address counts change with every publication, so check the official file for the current list.

DuckDuckGo DuckAssistBot

risk.is_airisk.is_crawler
Method
Ranges Published IP ranges
Format
JSON range file
Refresh
Every hour. If a refresh fails, entries expire after 24 hours instead of being trusted forever.

02 — In the response

What a match looks like.

A lookup of a DuckAssistBot address sets risk.is_ai and risk.is_crawler. The flags come with geolocation and network data in the same response, for Pro API keys.

This publication is AI crawling or retrieval traffic, so it counts as both an AI source and a crawler.

The response says which kind of bot an address belongs to, not which operator. Pair it with the user agent: a request that claims to be DuckAssistBot but doesn't match is unverified.

GET /api/lookup/{ip}?key=PRO_KEY
{
  // … location and network fields …
  "risk": {
    "is_ai": true,
    "is_crawler": true,
    "is_scanner": false
  }
}

03 — Configuration

Allow, block or verify it yourself.

nginx + jq
# 1. Build a geo include from the official file (cron, e.g. hourly).
#    Keep the old file if the download fails or comes back empty.
curl -fsS https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json \
  | jq -r '.prefixes[] | (.ipv4Prefix // .ipv6Prefix // empty) | "\(.) 1;"' \
  > /etc/nginx/duckassistbot-ranges.conf.new && [ -s /etc/nginx/duckassistbot-ranges.conf.new ] && mv /etc/nginx/duckassistbot-ranges.conf.new /etc/nginx/duckassistbot-ranges.conf \
  && nginx -t -q && nginx -s reload

# 2. In the http block: 1 when the client IP is in the published ranges.
geo $duckassistbot_ip {
    default 0;
    include /etc/nginx/duckassistbot-ranges.conf;
}
Built from duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json, a JSON file with a prefixes array.

04 — Questions

About DuckAssistBot.

Where does DuckAssistBot publish its IP addresses?

DuckDuckGo DuckAssistBot publishes its addresses at https://duckduckgo.com/duckassistbot.json. IPAPI.GR reads that publication directly, not a third-party copy.

How often is the DuckAssistBot list refreshed?

IPAPI.GR re-fetches it every hour. If a refresh fails, the previous entries expire after at most 24 hours instead of being trusted forever.

Which risk flag does DuckAssistBot set?

A matching address sets risk.is_ai and risk.is_crawler in the lookup response. The risk flags are returned for Pro API keys.

Verify DuckAssistBot on every request.

Pro: 40,000,000 requests a day with is_ai, is_crawler and is_scanner in every lookup.