DNS Record Types
Look up one record type at a time — A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME, SOA, CAA or SRV — with an explanation of every field.
9 tools in this category
Look up the IPv4 (A) records a hostname resolves to.
Look up the IPv6 (AAAA) records a hostname resolves to.
Look up the mail servers (MX records) that accept email for a domain.
Look up a domain’s TXT records, including SPF, DKIM, DMARC and verification strings.
Look up the authoritative name servers (NS records) for a domain.
Look up the canonical name (CNAME) a hostname is aliased to.
Look up a zone’s Start of Authority (SOA) record and its timers.
Check which certificate authorities may issue certificates for a domain (CAA).
Look up the host, port, priority and weight for a service (SRV record).
DNS record types at a glance
A DNS zone is a set of records, each with a type that says what kind of answer it holds. These are the types you meet in practice — what each one stores, and what it is normally used for.
| Type | Holds | Typically used for |
|---|---|---|
| A | Name, TTL, Address | Pointing a hostname at an IPv4 address |
| AAAA | Name, TTL, Address | Pointing a hostname at an IPv6 address |
| MX | Preference, Exchange, TTL | Routing inbound email to a mail server |
| TXT | Name, TTL, Text | SPF, DKIM and DMARC policies, and domain-verification tokens |
| NS | Name, TTL, Name server | Delegating a zone to its authoritative name servers |
| CNAME | Name, TTL, Canonical name | Aliasing one hostname to another |
| SOA | MNAME, RNAME, Serial, Refresh, Retry, Expire, Minimum | Zone metadata: serial number, admin contact and cache timers |
| CAA | Flags, Tag, Value | Restricting which certificate authorities may issue certificates |
| SRV | Priority, Weight, Port, Target | Advertising the host and port of a named service |
| PTR | Name | Mapping an IP address back to a hostname (reverse DNS) |
To query several types in one go, use the DNS Lookup. To check whether a change has reached every resolver, use the DNS Propagation Checker.
Other categories
All toolsWhat you can do with DNS Record Types
Look up one record type at a time — A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, CNAME, SOA, CAA or SRV — with an explanation of every field.
- A Record — Look up the IPv4 (A) records a hostname resolves to.
- AAAA Record — Look up the IPv6 (AAAA) records a hostname resolves to.
- MX Record — Look up the mail servers (MX records) that accept email for a domain.
- TXT Record — Look up a domain’s TXT records, including SPF, DKIM, DMARC and verification strings.
- NS Record — Look up the authoritative name servers (NS records) for a domain.
- CNAME Record — Look up the canonical name (CNAME) a hostname is aliased to.
- SOA Record — Look up a zone’s Start of Authority (SOA) record and its timers.
- CAA Record — Check which certificate authorities may issue certificates for a domain (CAA).
- SRV Record — Look up the host, port, priority and weight for a service (SRV record).
Browser tools compute locally and send nothing to a server. Server tools issue a single outbound query at the edge; the values you type are not logged or stored. See our methodology and data sources.