A Record Lookup
See the IPv4 addresses a domain resolves to.
An A record is the most basic answer DNS gives: this name maps to this IPv4 address. When a browser loads example.com it asks for the A record, gets back something like 93.184.216.34, and opens a connection there. Almost every other DNS record exists to support or qualify that one lookup.
A name can carry more than one A record, and this is how the simplest form of load balancing works — the resolver hands back the whole set and the client usually tries the first. Because the order rotates between queries, two lookups a second apart can legitimately disagree, which is normal rather than a fault.
The most common surprise is seeing addresses you do not recognise. If your site sits behind a CDN or a proxy, the A records point at the provider's edge network, and your origin server's real address is deliberately hidden. That is the intended design: the origin should not be reachable directly.
What this tool does
Every address, not just the first
A domain can publish several A records for round-robin load balancing. All of them are listed, in the order the resolver returned them.
Confirm a migration
After moving hosts, compare the addresses here against your new server. Until they change, traffic is still going to the old one.
Fresh answers
Each lookup is a live query, not a cached page. Combine it with the propagation checker to see how far a change has spread.
Spot the CDN
Addresses in Cloudflare, Fastly or CloudFront ranges mean you are seeing the CDN edge, not your origin server — which is usually what you want.
Frequently asked questions
What is an A record?
An A record ("address record") maps a hostname to an IPv4 address. It is the record a browser looks up to find which server to connect to for a domain. The name comes from the original DNS specification, where A was simply the first record type defined.
Why does a domain have more than one A record?
Publishing several A records is the oldest form of DNS load balancing. The resolver returns all of them and rotates the order between queries, so clients spread across the addresses. It also provides crude failover: if one address is unreachable, most clients retry the next.
Why do I see Cloudflare addresses instead of my server?
Because your traffic is proxied. When a CDN or reverse proxy is in front of your site, the A records point at that provider's edge network, and requests reach your origin server from there. Your origin address is intentionally not published — publishing it would let attackers bypass the CDN entirely.
Can a domain have both an A record and a CNAME?
Not for the same name. The DNS specification forbids a CNAME coexisting with other records on one name, so a name is either an alias or has its own addresses. Different names on the same domain can mix freely — the apex can hold A records while www is a CNAME.
How long does an A record change take to apply?
The authoritative change is immediate, but resolvers keep serving the old value until the record's TTL expires — commonly 300 seconds to a few hours. Lower the TTL a day before a planned migration so the switch happens quickly, then raise it again afterwards.
What is the difference between an A record and an AAAA record?
They answer the same question for different address families: A returns an IPv4 address, AAAA returns an IPv6 address. A dual-stack domain publishes both, and modern clients generally prefer the IPv6 answer when they have working IPv6 connectivity.
Monitor it, don't just check it
One-off checks catch what is broken today. CertNotify watches your certificates, domains, DNS and code continuously and tells you before something breaks.