DNS / domain check

DNS lookup: read any domain's records in your browser

Every time you type a domain into your browser, something has to turn that name into a number a machine can reach. That something is DNS, the Domain Name System. People call it the phonebook of the internet, and the comparison holds up: you remember the name, DNS remembers the address. A DNS lookup is simply the act of asking that phonebook a question and reading the answer back.

This tool lets you do exactly that. Type any domain, and it pulls the live records that domain publishes — addresses, mail servers, nameservers and more — straight from Cloudflare's resolver. It only reads public data. Nothing here changes a domain's configuration; it just shows you what the world already sees.

What a lookup actually tells you

A domain doesn't store one piece of information. It stores a small collection of records, each with a job. Some point browsers to a web server. Some route email. Some prove to other services that you control the domain. When you run a lookup you get all of them at once, which is why it's the first thing most admins reach for when something breaks. If a site won't load or email bounces, the records usually tell you why before you've touched a single server.

The record types, plainly

You don't need to memorise all of them, but a handful come up constantly:

• A and AAAA are the address records. An A record maps a name to an IPv4 address like 203.0.113.10; an AAAA record does the same for the newer, much larger IPv6 space. These are what point a browser at the actual web server. If you want to dig into where that address sits, our IP lookup shows the provider and rough location behind it.
• MX records handle mail. They name the servers that accept email for a domain, and each one carries a priority number so sending servers know which to try first. No working MX record, no inbound email — it's that direct.
• NS records list the nameservers with authority over the domain. They're the servers that hold the real, official copy of everything else. If you've ever moved a domain to a new host, the NS records are what you changed.
• TXT records are free-form text, which makes them quietly powerful. They carry SPF and DKIM rules that tell receiving mail servers which senders are legitimate, plus verification strings that services like Google or Microsoft ask you to add so they can confirm you own the domain.
• CNAME records are aliases. Instead of an address, a CNAME points one name at another — say, www pointing to the bare domain — so they always resolve to the same place. Change the target once and every alias follows.

Why this lookup is private

Most lookups happen over plain DNS, which is unencrypted. Anyone sitting between you and the resolver — your network, your ISP — can see which domains you're asking about. This tool uses DNS-over-HTTPS instead. Your query rides inside an ordinary encrypted HTTPS connection to Cloudflare, the same kind of connection you use for any secure website. To anything watching the wire, it looks like normal web traffic, not a list of the domains you're curious about. You get the same answers, just without broadcasting the questions.

What people use it for

The everyday reasons are practical. When email stops arriving, checking the MX and TXT records is step one — a missing mail server or a broken SPF line explains most delivery failures. When you've just changed a record, a lookup confirms whether the new value is live yet; because resolvers cache old answers until the TTL expires, changes take time to spread, and seeing the fresh value here is reassuring. And when you simply want to know who hosts a site, the A and NS records hand you the answer. Pair this with our domain lookup for registration and WHOIS details, and you've got a fairly complete picture of how a domain is wired together.

None of this requires the command line or an account. Type a name, read the records, move on. That's the whole point of keeping it in the browser.

Frequently asked questions