DNS Propagation Checker
Look up a domain's A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS or TXT records on Cloudflare and Google public DNS and compare the answers. Useful for checking whether a DNS change has reached major resolvers. It does not test every region of the world.
Queries are sent from your browser straight to Cloudflare and Google public DNS over HTTPS.
- 1Enter the domain name, for example example.com
- 2Choose the record type you want to check
- 3Click Look up
- 4Compare the answers and TTLs from both resolvers
What this tool does
It looks up a domain's DNS records on two large public resolvers, Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8), and shows the answers side by side with their TTL values. The queries go from your browser straight to those services over HTTPS. You can check A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS and TXT records.
How to use it
- Type a domain such as
example.com(a pasted URL is cleaned up for you). - Choose the record type.
- Click Look up. The tool shows each resolver's answers and says whether the two agree.
Which record for which job
- A / AAAA: the IPv4 or IPv6 address your domain points to. Check these after moving a website to a new host.
- CNAME: an alias from one name to another, common for
wwwand for services that ask you to add one. - MX: where email is delivered, with a priority number. Check this after changing email providers.
- NS: the nameservers that answer for the domain. Check this after changing registrar or DNS host.
- TXT: free-text records used for domain verification and email authentication such as SPF.
Why "propagation" is a slippery word
DNS changes do not spread outward like a wave. Each resolver keeps its own cached copy of an answer for the record's TTL (time to live) in seconds. If the old record had a TTL of 3600, a resolver that cached it a minute before your change may keep serving it for nearly an hour. So "different answers" usually means "one cache has not expired yet". Lowering the TTL a day before a planned change shortens the wait.
What this tool can and cannot tell you
- If both resolvers return the new record, the change has reached two of the biggest resolvers. That is a good sign, but it does not prove that every region and internet provider has it.
- It does not test servers in different countries, and it does not show DNSSEC validation details.
- "Domain does not exist" (NXDOMAIN) means the name is not registered in DNS. "No error" with no records means the name exists but has no record of the type you chose.
- For CNAME chains, only records of the type you selected are compared.
- The lookup needs an internet connection and a browser that allows requests to these two services; some corporate networks block them, in which case the tool shows a lookup error.
When you are setting up a new site, pair this with the robots.txt generator and the sitemap generator once the domain resolves.