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DuckDuckGo Usage Stats

Brian Dean

Written by Brian Dean

DuckDuckGo Usage Stats

DuckDuckGo is a search engine with one main USP: it doesn’t collect private user data.

Launched in September 2008, the service hit a milestone of 1 billion searches in 2013.

Since then, DuckDuckGo has continued to gain market traction.

Today, it registers an average of nearly 3 billion search queries a month.

So how big is DuckDuckGo in the search engine market?

Here’s a summary of what you’ll find out on this page:

Key DuckDuckGo Stats

  • DuckDuckGo handles an average of 3 billion search queries a month.
  • Worldwide, DuckDuckGo claims a 0.54% share of the search engine market. In the US, it holds a 1.96% share.
  • DuckDuckGo is the 2nd most popular search engine on mobile devices in the US.
  • 200 employees work at DuckDuckGo.

DuckDuckGo Daily Searches

On average, DuckDuckGo processes around 100 million daily searches. Daily search activity has remained relatively stable since 2021 and doesn’t show recent signs of growth.

The average number of daily queries on DuckDuckGo nearly doubled (1.92x) since January 2020.

DuckDuckGo Daily Searches

We’ve charted average daily DuckDuckGo searches since January 2011:

Note: DuckDuckGo stopped disclosing detailed daily traffic data in 2022. 100 million daily searches are estimated from 3 billion monthly searches (mentioned on the DuckDuckGo website) and divided by 30.
Date DuckDuckGo Daily Searches
January 2011 170 thousand
July 2011 246 thousand
January 2012 630 thousand
July 2012 1.38 million
January 2013 1.64 million
July 2013 3.4 million
January 2014 4.38 million
July 2014 4.95 million
January 2015 7.14 million
July 2015 8.65 million
January 2016 10.6 million
July 2016 10.77 million
January 2017 13.47 million
July 2017 15.65 million
January 2018 21.13 million
July 2018 23.53 million
January 2019 34.37 million
July 2019 41.93 million
January 2020 51.96 million
February 2020 52.95 million
July 2020 63.27 million
January 2021 95.28 million
July 2021 92.53 million
January 2022 106.05 million
March 2022 102.7 million
July 2022 92.4 million
September 2022 94.76 million
November 2022 96.92 million
2024* 100 million

Source: DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo Annual Search Queries

DuckDuckGo processes around 36 billion annual search queries.

From January to mid-November 2022 (the search engine hasn’t shared detailed traffic data since November 2022), DuckDuckGo processed 31.21 billion queries. To put it in perspective, DuckDuckGo had 35.3 billion searches in 2021.

DuckDuckGo Annual Search Queries

Here’s a table showing the annual number of searches on DuckDuckGo since 2010:

Note: DuckDuckGo stopped disclosing detailed annual traffic data in 2022. 36 billion annual searches are estimated from 3 billion monthly searches (mentioned on the DuckDuckGo website) and multiplied by 12.
Year DuckDuckGo Annual Searches
2010 16.41 million
2011 99.35 million
2012 496.24 million
2013 1.03 billion
2014 1.97 billion
2015 3.13 billion
2016 4.09 billion
2017 5.91 billion
2018 9.2 billion
2019 15.08 billion
2020 23.65 billion
2021 35.3 billion
2022 31.21 billion
2024 36 billion

Source: DuckDuckGo

Global DuckDuckGo Market Share

Across all platforms worldwide, DuckDuckGo claims a 0.54% search engine market share. That makes it the 5th most popular search engine globally.

The DuckDuckGo market share has been consistently increasing until 2022 and has since declined.

Global DuckDuckGo Market Share

Here’s a table showing DuckDuckGo’s worldwide market share since 2012:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2012 0.01%
2013 0.01%
2014 0.04%
2015 0.11%
2016 0.12%
2017 0.18%
2018 0.29%
2019 0.42%
2020 0.49%
2021 0.62%
2022 0.65%
2023 0.54%
2024 0.54%

Source: StatCounter

Global DuckDuckGo Desktop Market Share

DuckDuckGo has a 0.71% share of the worldwide desktop search market. This makes it the 4th most popular search engine among desktop users, behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Global DuckDuckGo Desktop Market Share

Here’s a table showing DuckDuckGo’s share of the global desktop search market since 2012:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2012 0.01%
2013 0.01%
2014 0.05%
2015 0.13%
2016 0.15%
2017 0.3%
2018 0.38%
2019 0.5%
2020 0.64%
2021 0.89%
2022 0.94%
2023 0.72%
2024 0.71%

Source: StatCounter

Global DuckDuckGo Mobile Market Share

DuckDuckGo claims a 0.46% share of the worldwide mobile search engine market. It ranks 6th, behind Google, Yandex, Baidu, Bing, and Yahoo.

The mobile market has proved harder for DuckDuckGo to crack than the desktop market where DuckDuckGo holds a larger 0.71% market share.

Global DuckDuckGo Mobile Market Share

Here’s a table showing the growth in DuckDuckGo’s mobile market share since 2014:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2014 0.03%
2015 0.05%
2016 0.06%
2017 0.08%
2018 0.19%
2019 0.33%
2020 0.38%
2021 0.47%
2022 0.51%
2023 0.46%
2024 0.46%

Source: StatCounter

DuckDuckGo US Market Share

In the US, DuckDuckGo claims a 1.96% market share of the search engine market across all device types. DuckDuckGo is the 4th most used search engine in the country, after Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Yahoo, the closest competitor, is only marginally ahead: it holds a 2.44% share of the US search market.

DuckDuckGo US Market Share

Here’s a table showing DuckDuckGo’s share of the US search engine market since 2012:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2012 0.02%
2013 0.05%
2014 0.12%
2015 0.32%
2016 0.34%
2017 0.52%
2018 0.69%
2019 1.15%
2020 1.61%
2021 2.42%
2022 2.41%
2023 1.93%
2024 1.96%

Source: StatCounter

DuckDuckGo US Desktop Market Share

DuckDuckGo has a 2.14% search engine market share among desktop users in the US.

DuckDuckGo only hit the milestone of a 1% market share in 2019. It has since more than doubled its share.

DuckDuckGo US Desktop Market Share

We’ve charted DuckDuckGo desktop US market share since 2012:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2012 0.02%
2013 0.06%
2014 0.14%
2015 0.37%
2016 0.39%
2017 0.62%
2018 0.67%
2019 1.1%
2020 1.63%
2021 2.53%
2022 2.63%
2023 2.13%
2024 2.14%

Source: StatCounter

DuckDuckGo US Mobile Market Share

DuckDuckGo has a 1.81% share of the US mobile search market. This makes it the second most popular mobile search engine in the US. Only Google is more popular, with a near-monopolizing 95.06% market share.

Globally, DuckDuckGo has a mobile market share of just 0.46%. However the search engine has made reasonable inroads into the US mobile market.

DuckDuckGo US Mobile Market Share

Here’s a table with the DuckDuckGo US mobile market share since 2013:

Year DuckDuckGo Market share
2013 0.01%
2014 0.08%
2015 0.21%
2016 0.22%
2017 0.33%
2018 0.59%
2019 1.02%
2020 1.52%
2021 2.29%
2022 2.22%
2023 1.76%
2024 1.81%

Source: StatCounter

DuckDuckGo App Downloads

DuckDuckGo offers mobile browsing apps for both iOS and Android.

The DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for iPhone users was downloaded 500,000 times in April 2024 alone.

The Android app receives even more downloads. It was installed 1,000,000 times in April 2024. The number of all-time downloads exceeds 50 million.

The DuckDuckGo app has excellent reviews on both the App Store and Google Play, with a cross-platform average of 4.5/5.

Sources: Play Store, Sensor Tower

How Many People Use the DuckDuckGo Chrome Extension?

DuckDuckGo has an extension available for Chrome browser users. The tool helps block hidden trackers and check website privacy grades.

The Chrome extension has more than 5 million users.

DuckDuckGo Chrome extension has more than 5 million users

Source: Chrome Web Store

DuckDuckGo Funding

DuckDuckGo has raised $113 million across 3 funding rounds, including a secondary investment of $100 million completed at the end of 2020.
DuckDuckGo has 29 investors.

Here’s a table with DuckDuckGo funding data:

Date Funding Amount
October 2011 $3 million
August 2018 $10 million
2020 $100 million

Sources: DuckDuckGo, Tracxn, Pitchbook

DuckDuckGo Valuation

As of the last funding round, DuckDuckGo was valued at an estimated $236-354 million.

Here’s a table showing DuckDuckGo’s valuation since 2011:

Year Valuation
2011 $19.82 million
2018 $74.8 million
2021 $236-354 million

Source: CB Insights, Dealroom

DuckDuckGo Donations

DuckDuckGo makes donations to organizations related to internet privacy.

The company donated a total of $1,100,000 to 25 organizations in 2023. Its largest donation of $125,000 was allocated to each of the 3 companies: Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), The Markup, and Public Knowledge.

DuckDuckGo has donated $5,873,549 since 2011.

DuckDuckGo Donations

We’ve prepared a table showing DuckDuckGo donation information since 2011:

Year Amount (Number of Organizations)
2011 $1,909 (6)
2012 $11,640 (7)
2013 $20,000 (7)
2014 $40,000 (6)
2015 $125,000 (5)
2016 $225,000 (9)
2017 $400,000 (16)
2018 $500,000 (21)
2019 $600,000 (11)
2020 $750,000 (15)
2021 $1,000,000 (20)
2022 $1,100,000 (24)
2023 $1,100,000 (25)

Source: DuckDuckGo

How Many People Work at DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo has 200 employees, working remotely from more than 15 countries. Headcount remained unchanged over the past year.

DuckDuckGo has 200 employees

Here’s a table showing the number of DuckDuckGo employees since March 2018:

Date Employees
March 2018 45
March 2019 59
March 2020 83
March 2021 124
March 2022 172
March 2023 200
March 2024 200

Source: DuckDuckGo

Conclusion

That’s it for my list of DuckDuckGo statistics in 2024.

The search engine continues to be a popular Google alternative among pro-privacy users.

From an almost non-existent market share years ago, DuckDuckGo is now the 2nd most popular mobile search engine in the US.

So it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

Despite the strong growth, DuckDuckGo still faces the significant barrier of Google’s worldwide search engine dominance.