DNS Lookup
Check A, MX, TXT and other DNS records for any domain through Google's DNS-over-HTTPS. 100% free, no signup. Everything runs in your browser.
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Enter a domain, pick a record type, and this tool shows you the current DNS records along with their TTLs. It covers the six types that answer nearly every real-world question: A and AAAA for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, MX for mail routing, TXT for verification strings and SPF, NS for nameservers, and CNAME for aliases. Lookups resolve through Google's public DNS over HTTPS JSON API, the same resolver countless devices already use as 8.8.8.8.
What travels over the network: the domain name and record type you query, sent to Google's resolver. That is the entire payload, and it is the same information your device sends every single time you visit any website. No account, no API key, and if the resolver is unreachable the tool says so instead of showing stale answers.
How to use
- Type a bare domain like example.com. No https prefix and no path needed.
- Choose a record type: A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS or CNAME.
- Run the lookup.
- Read each record with its TTL, the number of seconds resolvers are allowed to cache that answer.
- After making a DNS change, rerun the same lookup to watch the new value appear.
- Check MX records when email misbehaves, and TXT records when a service asks you to prove domain ownership.
Why use our dns lookup?
The biggest benefit is skipping the terminal. I built this the week I migrated this very site's DNS and caught myself rerunning dig every ninety seconds like a nervous parent. Now that check is a browser tab I can open from any machine, including a phone, with the output formatted for humans instead of for 1987.
Seeing TTLs next to every record teaches you why DNS changes feel slow. A TTL of 3600 means resolvers everywhere are allowed to serve the old answer for up to an hour after your change. Once you can see that number, propagation stops being a mystery and becomes a countdown.
Honesty about what this tool can and cannot tell you: results come from Google's resolver, including its cache. Seeing your new record here means Google has picked it up, which is a genuinely good sign, but other resolvers around the world may keep serving the old answer until their own cached copy expires. No single lookup tool can promise the whole internet has caught up.
The six supported types cover the practical territory: where the site lives, where the mail goes, who controls the zone, what the domain is verified for, and what points at what. For most site owners that is the entire DNS story, told in five seconds. I deliberately left out the exotic record types, because a picker with thirty options helps nobody and the six that remain answer the questions people actually arrive with.
It also slots into the rest of the developer shelf here, alongside our JWT decoder and epoch timestamp converter, for those days when the whole job is staring at strings other machines produced.
Who is this tool for?
Site migrations are the classic case. You have repointed an A record or swapped nameservers, and now you want evidence. Run the lookup, note the TTL, rerun after it should have expired, and watch the new value land. Far calmer than refreshing the site and wondering which server answered.
Email setup and debugging lives in MX and TXT records. After connecting Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 you can confirm the MX records actually say what the setup wizard claims, and check that your SPF record made it into the TXT records intact. Half of all mystery mail problems are a typo visible right here.
Domain verification requests are constant: search consoles, email providers and SaaS tools all ask you to add a TXT record and then make you wait. This tool shows you the moment the record is visible, so you click their verify button once, not eleven times.
And for plain investigation: NS records reveal where a domain is hosted, and an A record lookup hands you an IP you can push straight into our IP address lookup to see which network it actually sits on.
Frequently asked questions
Time to live: the number of seconds a resolver may cache a DNS answer before asking again. A TTL of 300 means changes spread within minutes; 86400 means old answers can linger for a day. Lowering the TTL a day before a planned migration is the classic trick for making the eventual switch feel fast.
Different resolvers, different caches. This tool asks Google's resolver; your terminal probably asks your ISP's. During propagation they can legitimately disagree until every cache expires.
Google's public DNS service receives the domain and record type, exactly as documented in their DNS over HTTPS JSON API. It is the same query your device makes constantly while browsing; nothing extra about you is attached.
Honestly: up to the old record's TTL, plus a little slack for resolvers that ignore the rules. If your old TTL was an hour, most of the internet catches up within an hour. Claims of instant worldwide propagation are marketing.
A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS and CNAME. Rarer types like SOA, SRV or CAA are not in the picker; for those, a command line client is still your best friend.
Yes. Type the full hostname, like blog.example.com or mail.example.com, and pick the record type as usual. CNAME lookups on subdomains are especially common.
The tool reports the failure clearly. It never quietly substitutes a cached answer of its own, because with DNS a stale answer is precisely what you are trying to rule out.