diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 88ac716c..7982e816 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -82,7 +82,8 @@ faker==22.0.0
 playwright>=1.49.0
 pytest-playwright==0.4.4
 
-# --- Web Scraper (optional, feature-gated) ---
+# --- Web Scraper + Search (optional, feature-gated) ---
+ddgs>=0.1.0
 crawl4ai==0.4.247
 firecrawl-py==1.4.0
 scrapegraphai==1.13.3
diff --git a/src/api/routers/chat_tools/web_tools.py b/src/api/routers/chat_tools/web_tools.py
index cac4952f..cc1ca50f 100644
--- a/src/api/routers/chat_tools/web_tools.py
+++ b/src/api/routers/chat_tools/web_tools.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ log = get_logger("api.chat.tools.web")
 
 def _check_duckduckgo() -> bool:
     try:
-        import duckduckgo_search  # noqa: F401
+        import ddgs  # noqa: F401
         return True
     except ImportError:
         return False
@@ -28,25 +28,29 @@ def _check_serper() -> bool:
 
 
 async def _search_duckduckgo(query: str, max_results: int) -> List[Dict[str, Any]]:
-    """Search using duckduckgo_search library (no API key required)."""
+    """Search using ddgs library (no API key required)."""
     try:
-        from duckduckgo_search import AsyncDDGS
+        from ddgs import DDGS
     except ImportError as exc:
         raise RuntimeError(
-            "duckduckgo_search is not installed. Run: pip install duckduckgo-search"
+            "ddgs is not installed. Run: pip install ddgs"
         ) from exc
 
-    results: List[Dict[str, Any]] = []
-    async with AsyncDDGS() as ddgs:
-        async for r in ddgs.text(query, max_results=max_results):
-            results.append({
-                "title": r.get("title", ""),
-                "url": r.get("href", ""),
-                "snippet": r.get("body", ""),
-            })
-            if len(results) >= max_results:
-                break
-    return results
+    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+
+    def _do_search():
+        with DDGS() as client:
+            return list(client.text(query, max_results=max_results))
+
+    raw = await loop.run_in_executor(None, _do_search)
+    return [
+        {
+            "title": r.get("title", ""),
+            "url": r.get("href", ""),
+            "snippet": r.get("body", ""),
+        }
+        for r in raw
+    ]
 
 
 async def _search_serper(query: str, max_results: int) -> List[Dict[str, Any]]:
@@ -135,7 +139,7 @@ class InternetSearchTool(ChatTool):
                 "success": False,
                 "error": (
                     "No search backend available. "
-                    "Install duckduckgo-search (`pip install duckduckgo-search`) "
+                    "Install ddgs (`pip install ddgs`) "
                     "or set SERPER_API_KEY."
                 ),
                 "results": [],