After you change a DNS record, such as pointing a domain to a new host, moving email or switching nameservers, the change does not reach everyone at once. DNS services around the world keep copies of records for a set time, and each one only picks up the new version when its copy expires. The checker above asks 7 of the largest public DNS services for the same record at the same moment, shows what each one returns and how long until each copy refreshes, so you can see whether your change has spread or is still on its way.

What DNS Propagation Means

When someone visits a website or sends an email, their device asks a DNS service, usually run by their internet provider or a public service like Google or Cloudflare, to look up the domain. To keep the internet fast, that service saves the answer and reuses it for a period called the TTL, short for time to live. A record with a TTL of 3600 seconds can be reused for up to an hour before the service asks again.

Propagation is simply the time it takes for all those saved copies to expire and be replaced. Nothing is actively pushed out to the world. Your DNS host updates the record right away, and everyone else catches up as their copies run out.

What This Tool Checks

Pick a record type and enter a domain or hostname. The tool asks each of these services for that record at the same time:

• Google Public DNS, the most widely used public DNS service
• Cloudflare, behind the popular 1.1.1.1 service
• AdGuard DNS, NextDNS and DNS.SB, used by millions of people for privacy and filtering
• Alibaba Public DNS and 360 Secure DNS, two of the largest services in China

For each service, you see the answer it returns, whether it matches the answer most services agree on and how long until its copy expires. You can check A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS and TXT records, which cover website moves, email changes, nameserver changes and verification records.

How to Read Your Results

A green “Fully propagated” verdict means every service that answered returns the same record. An amber “Still propagating” verdict means some services still hold a different answer. Services that match the most common answer have a green dot, and those that differ have an amber one. The “Refreshes in” line under each answer shows when that service will ask your DNS host again.

The tool cannot know which answer is newer, only which one most services agree on. Right after a change, the most common answer may still be the old one. Compare the answers with the record you just set at your DNS host, and check again in a few minutes if the new value is still in the minority.

How Long DNS Propagation Takes

For an ordinary record change, the longest wait is the TTL the record had before you changed it. If the old A record had a TTL of one hour, every service that saved it will have the new version within an hour. Common TTLs range from five minutes to a day, and many DNS hosts default to between one and four hours.

Nameserver changes work differently. The pointer from the registry to your nameservers often has a TTL of one or two days, set by the registry rather than by you, so moving a domain to a new DNS host can take up to 48 hours to reach everyone. In practice, most services pick up the change within a few hours.

How to Make DNS Changes Spread Faster

The single most useful trick is to plan ahead. A day before a change, lower the TTL on the record you are about to change to 300 seconds, or five minutes. Once the old, longer TTL has expired everywhere, make the real change. Every copy then expires within five minutes, and the switch is almost instant. Afterward, raise the TTL again to reduce load and improve speed.

If a change is already made and a large service is still showing the old answer, Google and Cloudflare both offer free pages where you can ask them to drop their saved copy of a record. Other services cannot be refreshed by hand, so the only option is to wait for their copy to expire.

Why You Might See Different Answers That Are Both Correct

Not every difference means a change is still spreading. Large websites often return different addresses to different services on purpose, to send visitors to the nearest server or to spread traffic across many machines. A popular site might show one set of addresses on Google and another on Cloudflare, and both are correct.

If the answers differ but none of them is an old value you recognize, the domain is probably using this kind of load balancing, and there is nothing to fix. This is common for sites behind content delivery networks.

When a Record Will Not Propagate

If a record never appears, even after the old TTL has passed, the problem is usually with the setup rather than with propagation. The most common causes are adding the record at a DNS host that is not actually in charge of the domain, a typo in the record name, or a record added to the wrong domain in an account with several domains.

To rule these out, look up the domain’s nameservers by choosing NS above, and confirm they belong to the DNS host where you made the change. If a service returns a server error instead of an answer, the domain may have a DNSSEC problem, which our DNSSEC Checker can confirm.

Checking After Moving Your Website or Email

When you move a website to a new host, check the A record, and the AAAA record if the new host uses IPv6. When you move email, check the MX records, and remember that some senders will keep delivering to the old server until their copy expires. Keep the old mailbox active for at least a day after an email move, so nothing is lost while the change spreads.

After a nameserver change, check NS first. Once the new nameservers appear everywhere, check the A and MX records to confirm the new DNS host has the same records as the old one.

Your Checks Stay Private

We do not keep a record of the domains you check or anything about who checked them. Each result is held for one minute so a repeated check loads quickly, then deleted. Lookups are sent from our server, so the DNS services see our server’s address, not yours.