What is a DNS lookup tool?

A DNS lookup tool queries the Domain Name System to retrieve records associated with a domain — including which server hosts the website, which handles email, which IPs the domain resolves to, and what services are authorised to use it.

How do I check MX records for a domain online?

Enter the domain and click Look up, then open the MX tab. MX records show the mail server hostname and priority value. Lower priority number means higher preference.

What does TTL mean in DNS records?

TTL (Time To Live) is the number of seconds a DNS record can be cached before resolvers must fetch a fresh copy. A TTL of 3600 means one hour of caching.

What is a CNAME record used for?

A CNAME record creates an alias from one domain name to another. It is commonly used to point subdomains to another hostname or to verify domain ownership with third-party services.

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DNS Lookup Tool: Check A, CNAME, MX, TXT & NS Records Online

Look up DNS records for any domain instantly. Check A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, SRV, CAA, and PTR records with live TTL values. Asks Google and Cloudflare DNS side by side and flags any difference between them. Enter an IP address for a reverse lookup.

✔ 10 record types ✔ Live TTL values ✔ A, MX, TXT, CNAME, NS ✔ SOA, SRV, CAA, PTR ✔ Export as .txt ✔ 100% browser based

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Domain name

Try:

Why we ask two resolvers. Every query runs against both Google and Cloudflare public DNS at the same time. If they return different answers, a change you made recently has not finished propagating, and that disagreement is flagged rather than hidden. One resolver alone cannot tell you that.

Reading TTL. Time To Live is how long a resolver is allowed to cache a record, in seconds. After you change a record, the old value can keep being served for up to one full TTL. A TTL of 3600 means an hour of waiting. Lower it before a planned migration, not after.

DNSSEC. When the AD flag comes back set, the resolver cryptographically verified the answer came from the real authoritative nameserver. Without it, DNS answers can be forged in transit.

About This Tool

How this DNS lookup tool queries records without a DNS socket in sight

Browsers cannot open a raw UDP socket to port 53 and talk to a nameserver directly, that capability is deliberately locked out of JavaScript for security reasons. So this tool does not perform a DNS query in the traditional sense. It asks two public DNS-over-HTTPS resolvers, Google (the service behind 8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare (behind 1.1.1.1), over normal HTTPS requests and gets JSON documents back describing the answer a real resolver would give.

Be clear about what leaves your browser here. The domain name you type, and only the domain name, is sent to dns.google/resolve and cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query once for each record type. Nothing else about you or your session goes with it beyond standard HTTPS request metadata. This is a third-party API call, not a purely client-side computation, and it is the only realistic way to run DNS lookups from a web page.

The request and response cycle

Step 1 Normalise the input The tool strips any leading http:// or https://, a port and anything after the first slash, so pasting a full URL still resolves the bare domain. Names with accents are converted to punycode, and names like _dmarc.example.com work. Enter an IPv4 or IPv6 address and it runs a reverse (PTR) lookup instead.

Step 2 Fire one fetch per record type Every lookup asks for all nine types at once, A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, CAA and SRV, from both resolvers. That is one fetch per type per resolver, all running in parallel through Promise.all, with a 10 second timeout each.

Step 3 Parse the DoH JSON shape Both responses follow the DNS-over-HTTPS JSON format, an Answer array of objects each carrying name, TTL and data. For SOA and MX records the tool splits the space-delimited data string to pull out fields like priority, primary nameserver, and serial number, since DoH JSON does not break those out separately.

Step 4 Render per type, then summarise Each record type gets its own colour-coded table, and tabs let you show one type at a time. A summary strip shows how many types returned data, whether DNSSEC validated and whether the two resolvers agree. If the name does not exist (NXDOMAIN), the resolvers fail (SERVFAIL) or a resolver cannot be reached, the tool says so instead of showing an empty result.

// the actual DoH call, from the tool source function query(resolver, domain, type){ var url = resolver.url + '?name=' + encodeURIComponent(domain) + '&type=' + encodeURIComponent(type); return fetchWithTimeout(url, {headers:{'Accept':'application/dns-json'}}) .then(function(r){ return r.json(); }); }

The TTL field is formatted into a readable span rather than a raw second count, so a value of 3600 shows as one hour rather than forcing you to do the arithmetic. TXT values are shown without the zone file quote marks, and long records split into several strings are joined back together. Cloudflare returns CAA records in raw hex form, which the tool decodes so both resolvers can be compared.

The record types on offer

Type	What it stores	Columns shown
A	IPv4 address	Value, TTL
AAAA	IPv6 address	Value, TTL
CNAME	Alias to another hostname	Value, TTL
MX	Mail exchange server and priority	Priority, Mail Server, TTL
TXT	Free-text, often SPF, DKIM or domain verification	Value, TTL
NS	Authoritative nameservers	Value, TTL
SOA	Zone authority, serial, refresh timers	Primary NS, Email, Serial, Refresh, Retry, Expire, Negative TTL
SRV	Service location, port and weight	Priority / Weight, Target:Port, TTL
CAA	Which certificate authorities may issue certs	Value, TTL
PTR	Reverse lookup, IP to hostname (enter an IP address)	Value, TTL

You are reading resolver caches, not the authoritative source. A DoH answer reflects what Google's or Cloudflare's resolver has cached, honouring the TTL of each record. If you just changed a DNS record at your registrar, this tool, like any resolver, may show the old value until the TTL expires. For a definitive authoritative check you would need to query the domain's actual nameservers directly, which requires tooling like dig +trace outside the browser.

Two extras worth knowing about

Two resolvers compared

When Google and Cloudflare give different answers, the tool lists both side by side. For TXT, MX or NS that usually means a change is still propagating. For A and AAAA it is often normal, because CDNs answer by location.

Tab-separated export

Download .tsv flattens every returned record across every type into a single tab-separated file with name, type, TTL and value, and Copy all puts the same records on your clipboard in zone file order. Both are built entirely client-side with a Blob and an object URL, no server involved in generating the download.

DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) Google and Cloudflare resolvers Third-party API call TTL-bound cache, not live authoritative data

RFC 8484 defines DNS Queries over HTTPS, the protocol Google's endpoint implements.
Google Public DNS JSON API reference documents the exact response shape this tool parses.
RFC 1035 is the original DNS specification defining record types, TTLs and the zone file format that MX and SOA data strings still follow.
RFC 6844 defines the CAA record, a newer addition used to restrict which certificate authorities can issue for a domain.

Diagnosing DNS problems

Verifying a CNAME or A record actually points where you expect after a DNS change, checking MX records before migrating email providers, confirming SPF and DKIM TXT records are published correctly to reduce spam flagging, auditing which nameservers a domain delegates to, and spotting a CAA record that might be silently blocking your certificate authority from issuing a new SSL certificate.

Common Questions

FAQ: DNS Lookup Tool

A DNS lookup tool queries the Domain Name System to retrieve the records associated with a domain. These records tell the internet where to route traffic — which server hosts the website, which handles email, which IP addresses the domain resolves to, and what third-party services are authorised to use the domain. This tool fetches nine common record types at once, and does reverse lookups for IP addresses.

Enter the domain in this DNS lookup tool and click Look up. Every record type is fetched at once, and the MX tab shows only the mail records. They appear in a table showing the mail server hostname and its priority value. A lower priority number means higher preference — the mail server with the lowest number receives email first.

TTL stands for Time To Live. It is the number of seconds a DNS record can be cached by resolvers before they must fetch a fresh copy from the authoritative nameserver. A TTL of 3600 means the record is cached for one hour. Lowering your TTL before making DNS changes gives you faster propagation when the change goes live.

A CNAME (Canonical Name) record creates an alias from one domain name to another. For example, www.example.com might be a CNAME pointing to example.com. This allows you to point subdomains to another domain or hostname without specifying an IP address directly. CNAMEs are commonly used to verify domain ownership with third-party services like Google Search Console or email providers.

Use this DNS lookup tool to query the domain after making a DNS change. It asks both Google and Cloudflare public DNS and flags any difference between them. If both show your new record values, most users and services will see them too. Full global propagation can take up to 48 hours depending on the original TTL.

Yes. This DNS lookup tool is completely free with no rate limits or account required. Run as many lookups as you need across any domain and any combination of record types.

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