---
id: duckduckgo-search
version: "8.1.1"
license: MIT License
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# duckduckgo-search — Search for words, documents, images, news, maps and text translation using the DuckDuckGo.com search engine.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 5.5M/mo

## What it is and what it does

duckduckgo_search is a Python wrapper that queries DuckDuckGo.com to retrieve search results without requiring an API key. It supports text search, image search, video search, and news retrieval across multiple regions and with configurable filters like safe search and time limits. The package includes both a Python API (DDGS class) and a command-line interface, making it usable in scripts or as a standalone tool.

The library depends on click for CLI functionality, primp for HTTP requests, and lxml for parsing HTML responses. It handles proxy configuration (HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5), custom headers, and timeouts. The package is classified as Production/Stable and actively maintained, though the description includes a deprecation notice.

Use it for:

- Scrape web search results for research, data collection, or content aggregation without API authentication.
- Build a multi-region search tool that queries DuckDuckGo across different locales and languages.
- Download images or videos in bulk by searching and filtering through DuckDuckGo's index.
- Integrate news search into a monitoring or alerting application to track topics across time periods.
- Create a command-line search utility for quick lookups from the terminal with filtering options.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Retrieves search results from DuckDuckGo for text, images, videos, and news without requiring an API key.

Yes, but with caution: the package works well for one-off searches and prototyping. The description includes a deprecation notice recommending migration to a renamed package. Install only if you have an existing dependency or need to maintain legacy code. No known security vulnerabilities.

## Install

pip install duckduckgo-search
uv add duckduckgo-search
poetry add duckduckgo-search

## Installing duckduckgo-search

Before you install: Low install friction with three lightweight runtime dependencies (click, primp, lxml). Active maintenance with recent commits and 2892 repository stars.

License in practice: MIT License permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install duckduckgo_search

from duckduckgo_search import DDGS

results = DDGS().text("python programming", max_results=5)
print(results)

Requires Python 3.9 or later. DuckDuckGo may rate-limit or block requests; proxy support is available but rotating proxies are recommended for sustained use.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package continues to work reliably given the official deprecation notice and redirect to a renamed package.
- Current rate-limiting behavior and whether DuckDuckGo actively blocks or throttles this library's requests.
- Stability and maintenance timeline for this package versus its renamed successor.

## Package facts

- License: MIT License (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 5.5M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

duckduckgo search api, web search without api key, scrape duckduckgo results, image video news search, search engine wrapper python, duckduckgo text search, multi-region search queries, web-scraping, search-engine, cli-tool

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/duckduckgo-search) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/duckduckgo-search/)