DuckDuckGo Search API v1

Available endpoints

Rank checks cost one credit at any depth

/rank-check takes a query and a domain or URL, scans up to 200 organic positions, and returns whether the site was found, its best position and every match with its page. It is the route to use for SEO rank tracking. A rank check costs 1 credit regardless of depth: scanning 200 positions across 10 or more result pages is billed as one request. serpPagesFetched reports how many result pages were read and is never billed.

Everything else bills on what it reads: /search one request per result page (10 results on the first, up to 15 on each after), /news and /videos one per list page, /instant-answer and /suggestions one each. /resolve-url makes no request to DuckDuckGo and is free.

Rankings depend on where the searcher is

The same query ranks differently in different countries. Every search defaults to region: "us-en", a US searcher; pass uk-en, de-de, fr-fr or any of DuckDuckGo’s 64 region codes — or wt-wt for none — to see what someone there sees. Positions also shift over time, so track them rather than reading one check as permanent.

Every response carries a notes array. It is where a scan that stopped at the first matching page, a depth DuckDuckGo could not reach, or a later page that could not be read announces itself.

What this API does not return

• More than about 200 results. DuckDuckGo lists roughly 190–200 organic results for a query and then stops; endOfResults turns true.
• A total-result count. DuckDuckGo does not publish an “about N results” figure.
• Image search, sitelinks, or panels beyond the instant answer. Maps, weather and shopping panels are not returned.