DNS Lookup Guide: Reading A, MX, TXT and NS Records

What this tool does

The DNS Lookup tool queries public DNS for a domain and shows its records with TTLs and plain-English notes. Because it asks a resolver directly over DNS-over-HTTPS rather than reading your device's cache, it reflects what the wider internet sees right now — useful for confirming a change has taken effect.

The record types

Type	What it holds
A / AAAA	The IPv4 / IPv6 address the name points to.
MX	Mail servers that accept email for the domain, with priorities.
TXT	Free-form text — SPF, DKIM, and verification tokens live here.
NS	The authoritative name servers for the domain.
CNAME	An alias pointing one name at another.
CAA	Which certificate authorities may issue TLS certs for the domain.
SOA	Zone metadata: primary name server and refresh/expiry timers.

TTL and propagation

Every record carries a TTL — the number of seconds resolvers are allowed to cache it. When you change a record, resolvers that cached the old value keep serving it until their copy expires, which is the "propagation delay" people notice. The trick is to lower a record's TTL a day before a planned change so the switch happens quickly, then raise it again afterwards to reduce lookups.

Common tasks

• "Is my site pointing at the new server?" Check the A/AAAA record matches the new IP.
• "Why is my mail bouncing?" Confirm the MX records exist and point at your mail provider, then check the SPF TXT record. The email auth checker lints SPF, DKIM and DMARC for you.
• "Has my verification record propagated?" Look for the expected TXT value.

Privacy

DNS is inherently public — every record here is data any device on the internet can request. The only thing sent from your browser is the domain name, to Cloudflare's (and, as a fallback, Google's) public DoH resolver. This site stores nothing.

Ready to try it? Open the DNS Lookup →