openclaw/docs/tools/duckduckgo-search.md

summary	read_when	title
DuckDuckGo web search -- key-free fallback provider (unofficial, HTML-based)	You want a web search provider that requires no API key You want to use DuckDuckGo for web_search You need a zero-config search fallback	DuckDuckGo Search

DuckDuckGo Search

OpenClaw supports DuckDuckGo as a key-free web_search provider. No API key or account is required.

DuckDuckGo is an **unofficial, HTML-based** integration, not an official API. Expect occasional breakage from bot-challenge pages or HTML changes. Use it as a convenient fallback, not a production-grade provider.

Setup

No API key needed. Set DuckDuckGo as your provider:

```bash openclaw configure --section web # Select "duckduckgo" as the provider ```

Config

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "duckduckgo",
      },
    },
  },
}

No plugins.entries config is needed — DuckDuckGo has no API key or plugin-specific settings.

Tool parameters

Parameter	Description
query	Search query (required)
count	Results to return (default: 5)

DuckDuckGo does not support provider-specific filters like country, language, freshness, or domain_filter.

Notes

• No API key — works out of the box, zero configuration
• Unofficial — scrapes DuckDuckGo's non-JavaScript search pages, not an official API or SDK
• Bot-challenge risk — DuckDuckGo may serve CAPTCHAs or block requests under heavy or automated use
• HTML parsing — results depend on page structure, which can change without notice
• Best-effort reliability — treat as a fallback for development, demos, or environments where no API key is available

For production use, consider [Brave Search](/tools/brave-search) (free tier available) or another API-backed provider.

Related

• Web Search overview -- all providers and auto-detection
• Brave Search -- structured results with free tier
• Exa Search -- neural search with content extraction