Partly, yes. DuckDuckGo says its traditional links and images are largely sourced from Bing. It adds results from its own crawler (DuckDuckBot) and Instant Answers from sources like Wikipedia, and it doesn't build a profile of you or save your search history.
What DuckDuckGo takes from Bing
DuckDuckGo's help pages explain that it maintains its own crawler and indexes, but that the ordinary list of links and the image results are largely sourced from Bing. That's why results on the two often look alike.
What DuckDuckGo adds
- Instant Answers from many sources, such as Wikipedia and specialist providers.
- Its own crawling to supplement the results.
- Privacy: no search history tied to you and no personalized results or ads.
- !Bangs that send a search straight to another site (for example
!wfor Wikipedia).
Does Microsoft see my DuckDuckGo searches?
DuckDuckGo sends the search to its providers without your personal information, so Microsoft doesn't get a history of what you personally searched. Ads on DuckDuckGo are served through Microsoft Advertising, but DuckDuckGo says ad clicks aren't linked to a user profile.
Other search engines that use Bing
- Yahoo, under its long-running deal with Microsoft.
- Ecosia has long relied on Bing (and has been building a European index with Qwant).
- Various smaller engines and AI tools license Bing results.
DuckDuckGo vs. Bing
| DuckDuckGo | Bing | |
|---|---|---|
| Main source of links | Largely Bing, plus its own crawler | Its own index |
| Saves your history | No | Yes, unless you turn it off |
| Personalized results | No | Yes |
| Rewards | No | Microsoft Rewards |
If you like Bing's results but not the tracking, DuckDuckGo is the closest alternative. If you stay on Bing, see how to turn off Bing search history.
Frequently asked questions
Is DuckDuckGo owned by Microsoft?
No. DuckDuckGo is an independent company founded by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008. It licenses results from Bing.
Is DuckDuckGo better than Bing?
For privacy, yes. For features like Copilot, Rewards and personalized results, Bing offers more.