DNS Lookup Tool

What Is a DNS Lookup?

The Domain Name System (DNS) is the internet's directory. It turns names that people can remember, such as example.com, into the information computers need, such as IP addresses and mail servers. A DNS lookup asks a DNS resolver for that information and shows what it returns.

Each piece of information is stored as a record, and each record has a type. A website's address is one type of record, its mail servers are another, and so on. This tool lets you look at those records for any public domain name.

How to Use This DNS Lookup Tool

• Type a domain name, such as example.com. If you paste a full web address, the tool uses just the domain name part.
• Choose a record type, or choose All common types to check A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA and CAA together.
• Press Lookup, then read the results for each record type.
• Use Copy results to copy the results as plain text.

After a lookup, the address of this page updates to include the domain and record type, so you can bookmark it or share it. Opening such a link only fills in the form. Nothing is looked up until you press Lookup.

Subdomains work too. For example, email authentication records are often found at names such as _dmarc.example.com. Enter the full name and choose TXT. This tool is for domain names. To see the IP address of your own connection, use the WhatIsMyIP homepage.

DNS Record Types Explained

A record

An A record connects a name to an IPv4 address. A name can have several A records, which is one way sites spread traffic across servers or stay available if one fails.

AAAA record

An AAAA record does the same job for IPv6 addresses. A domain can have A records, AAAA records, both or neither. For how the two address versions differ, see IPv4 vs IPv6.

MX record

MX records say which mail servers accept email for a domain. Each has a priority number, and lower numbers are normally tried first. What happens when a domain has no MX records depends on the sending mail server.

NS record

NS records name the DNS servers responsible for a domain's records. They show who hosts the domain's DNS, which may be different from who hosts its website.

TXT record

TXT records hold free-form text. They are commonly used to prove ownership of a domain to a service and to publish email authentication settings such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC. A single TXT record can contain several text strings, which this tool joins together when it displays them.

CNAME record

A CNAME record makes one name an alias of another. When you look up the A record of a name that is an alias, the answer usually starts with the CNAME and then shows the addresses of the target. A name with a CNAME generally cannot have other record types at the same name, so CNAMEs are normally not used at the root of a domain.

SOA record

The SOA (start of authority) record holds administrative details about a DNS zone: the primary name server, a contact mailbox written in DNS format, a serial number, and timing values that control how often and how long data is refreshed or cached.

CAA record

CAA records state which certificate authorities are allowed to issue TLS certificates for a domain. A domain without CAA records does not restrict issuance in this way.

How to Read the Results

• TTL (time to live) is the number of seconds a resolver is allowed to cache a record. Resolvers count it down, so the value you see can be lower than the one configured at the source.
• No records returned means the resolver answered normally but had no records of that type. It does not by itself prove whether the domain is registered or whether other record types exist. A domain can have A records and no MX records, for example.
• Name not found (NXDOMAIN) means the resolver reported that the name does not exist in DNS. Check the spelling first.
• Resolver error (SERVFAIL) means the resolver could not complete the lookup. Possible causes include misconfigured DNS, unreachable name servers and DNSSEC validation problems.
• Type not supported means the resolver itself reported that it does not support that record type. This is different from an empty result.
• Lookup failed means the tool could not get an answer from either resolver, for example because of a timeout, a lost connection or a browser extension blocking the request.
• Alias only means the name is an alias (CNAME) but the resolver returned no records of the requested type for its target.

When you check all common types and some of them fail, the types that succeeded are still shown, so you can see which results are missing.

Why DNS Results Can Be Out of Date or Different

This tool asks a public resolver, not the domain's own name servers directly. Resolvers cache answers for as long as each record's TTL allows, so a recent change may not show up yet. Different resolvers may also hold different cached answers, and some services deliberately return different answers depending on where a request comes from.

For these reasons, treat the results as a helpful snapshot, not as a guarantee that they are current or identical everywhere. How long a DNS change takes to be seen depends on the TTLs involved and on the resolvers that cached the old data, so there is no single time that applies to every change.

Privacy and DNS Lookups

To look up a record, your browser sends the domain name you typed straight to Google Public DNS. If Google cannot be reached, the request is sent to Cloudflare DNS instead. Those services receive the request under their own policies. This tool does not set cookies or save your lookups in your browser. For how this website handles information in general, read the Privacy Policy.

Frequently Asked Questions