Look Up a Domain's MX Records
See which mail servers accept email for a domain, and in what order. It's the first check when messages stop arriving, or after moving a company's email to a new provider.
How to use it
- Type the domain, such as example.com. You can also paste a full email address; the tool keeps the part after the @.
- Press Check. The answer usually arrives in under a second.
- Review the servers and the priority number next to each, and compare them with the values your email provider asks for.
After a check, the page address includes the domain, so you can send the link to a colleague or a support team and they'll see the same lookup.
Why use this tool?
- What the world sees, not your computer The query goes through the public resolvers of Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and Google (8.8.8.8), so you see what mail servers everywhere see, not an old copy cached on your computer or your office network.
- Priority and TTL for every server Each server is shown with its priority and TTL, so you know which one is tried first and how long the world will take to notice a change you make.
- Works with internationalised domains Type a domain in any script, Arabic included, and the tool converts it to the form DNS servers understand.
How to read an MX result
Every MX record has two parts: a priority number and a server name. Mail for your domain goes first to the server with the lowest number, and if it can't be reached, the next one is tried. The number says nothing about quality or speed, only order.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Several servers with different numbers, like 10 and 20 | A main server and a backup. Normal and healthy. |
| Several servers with the same number | Mail is spread across them, with none preferred. |
| Names ending in google.com | The domain's email is run by Google Workspace. |
| A name ending in mail.protection.outlook.com | The domain's email is run by Microsoft 365. |
| No records at all | The domain isn't set up to receive mail. Some sending servers will try the domain's own address instead, but that can't be relied on. |
The most common mistake after switching email providers is adding the new provider's records and forgetting to delete the old ones. Some mail then goes to the old server and is lost. If you see servers from two different providers, delete the records of the one you left.
What happens to your query
A browser can't make a DNS query by itself, so the domain you type is sent to our server, which asks public DNS resolvers and passes the answer back to you.
- Only the domain name is sent. No file is involved.
- The answer is cached for two minutes at most, so repeated lookups don't hammer the DNS resolvers.
- Like any website, our server logs technical data with each request, including the domain looked up and your IP address. These logs are kept for no more than 90 days and used only to protect the site and fix faults.
The full details are in our privacy policy.