What is DNS?
DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet's phone book — it translates human-readable domain names like example.com into IP addresses that servers use to communicate. Different DNS record types serve different purposes: A records map a domain to IPv4, AAAA to IPv6, MX specifies mail servers, TXT holds verification tokens and SPF policies, CNAME is an alias to another domain, NS lists authoritative name servers, and SOA contains administrative metadata. This tool queries Cloudflare's DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) endpoint, which means your queries are encrypted and not visible to your ISP.
How to use this tool
- 1 Type a domain name (e.g. example.com) and click Lookup, or press Enter.
- 2 Use the record type buttons to filter to a specific type, or use All to see all seven types at once.
- 3 Each section shows the record data and TTL (time-to-live in seconds).
- 4 Results from Cloudflare DNS may differ from your ISP DNS due to caching and propagation.
Frequently asked questions
What is DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH)?
Traditional DNS queries are sent in plaintext and visible to your ISP, router, and anyone on the network. DoH wraps the DNS query in HTTPS, encrypting it so only the DoH resolver (Cloudflare) sees your query. This tool sends queries to cloudflare-dns.com/dns-query.
Why might results differ from nslookup or dig?
DNS records are cached at multiple levels. Cloudflare may return a cached response that differs from your local resolver. TTL in the result shows how long the record has been cached.
What does TTL mean?
Time-to-live is the number of seconds a DNS resolver may cache the record before re-querying the authoritative server. A TTL of 300 means the record can be cached for 5 minutes. Lower TTLs allow faster DNS changes; higher TTLs reduce DNS query volume.
What is the SOA record?
The Start of Authority record contains metadata about the DNS zone: the primary name server, the email address of the zone administrator (encoded as a domain), and timing parameters for zone refresh.
Is my query sent to Cloudflare?
Yes — DNS resolution requires querying a resolver. This tool uses Cloudflare DoH (1.1.1.1). No queries are sent to ServoDev servers.