DNS Lookup
Retrieve common DNS records with the standard server-side lookup, or opt in to compare A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and NS records across Cloudflare and Google.
Standard DNS lookups send the queried domain to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 DNS-over-HTTPS resolver for TXT, DMARC, and SRV records; other standard DNS and reverse DNS records use the platform resolver. When you enable public resolver comparison, the queried domain is sent to both Cloudflare and Google over DNS over HTTPS for A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and NS records.
Which DNS records does this lookup check?
Our DNS lookup tool resolves common DNS records for any domain. The standard lookup checks A records (IPv4), AAAA records (IPv6), MX records (mail servers), TXT records (SPF and verification), DMARC policy records, NS records (nameservers), SOA records (zone authority), SRV records (service discovery), and CAA records (certificate authority authorization). An optional comparison checks A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and NS answers from Cloudflare and Google. It compares only those selected public resolvers and is not an authoritative trace.
How to check DNS records after a change
- Enter a domain or DNS owner name, such as example.com or _sip._tcp.example.com, and run a standard lookup.
- Inspect address, mail, policy, and nameserver records. The DMARC check queries TXT at _dmarc under the entered domain, unless you already entered a _dmarc name.
- Enable public resolver comparison to compare A, AAAA, MX, TXT, and NS from Cloudflare and Google. Investigate differences alongside TTLs and your authoritative DNS configuration.
How to interpret the results
- A and AAAA
- IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Returned TTLs indicate remaining cache lifetime when available; internal and reserved addresses are omitted by this tool.
- MX, TXT, and DMARC
- MX names the mail servers; lower MX preference values are preferred. TXT can contain SPF and verification values. DMARC is a TXT policy at _dmarc. Seeing a policy does not validate the complete email authentication setup.
- NS, SOA, SRV, and CAA
- Nameservers, zone authority, service targets, and certificate authority authorization. Query the exact service owner name for SRV records.
- Missing records or resolver differences
- A missing record can be expected for an unused type. A failed record query is reported separately. Different public resolver answers can reflect cache state or location-dependent DNS; agreement does not prove every resolver has updated.
Common Use Cases
- Spot-check how your DNS records currently resolve after making changes
- Compare selected public resolver answers after DNS changes
- Debug email delivery issues by checking MX and SPF records
- Investigate domain configuration problems
- Check SPF and DMARC records for email authentication
- Find all nameservers responsible for a domain