Free A Record Lookup & Checker

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Check live A DNS records, TTL values, and trace the full root-to-authoritative resolution path.

A (Address) Records Overview

What is an A record?

An A record, or Address record, maps a domain name to its corresponding IPv4 address. This record is essential for directing traffic to your website's server.

Why do you need an A record?

Without an A record, users will not be able to find your website using its domain name. The A record ensures your domain resolves to the correct IP address. If your server supports modern IPv6 networking, you can also test your Free AAAA Record Lookup. If you are setting up email services on the same domain, check our Free MX Record Lookup and Free SPF Validator to prevent delivery issues.

A record structure

An A record consists of the domain name, TTL (Time to Live), record type (A), and the IP address. Example: example.com. 3600 IN A 192.0.2.1

How to create an A record?

In your DNS host's dashboard, add an A record: set the host to @ for the root domain (or a label such as www for a subdomain), enter the server's IPv4 address as the value, and choose a TTL. The record goes live once the previous value's cache expires within its TTL.

FAQs

No, an A record maps a domain to a single IPv4 address. Use multiple A records for redundancy.

There is no fixed propagation window - resolvers cache the old value only for the length of its TTL. If you lower the TTL in advance and wait for the old cache to expire, the change is picked up within minutes; the “24–48 hours” figure is just a conservative upper bound for stale caches and misconfigured resolvers.

If an A record is incorrect, users will be directed to the wrong IP address, and your website will be inaccessible.

An A record maps a domain directly to an IPv4 address, while a CNAME maps a domain to another domain name. Use an A record for a fixed IP and a CNAME to alias one name to another.

A common TTL is 3600 seconds (1 hour). Use a lower TTL (e.g. 300s) before planned IP changes for faster propagation, and a higher TTL for stable records to reduce DNS lookups.

A Record Troubleshooting & Common Fixes

Website still loads the old server after updating the IP address

When you update your server's IPv4 address, visitors may continue hitting your old hosting provider for several hours. This happens because intermediate DNS resolvers and local computer caches honor the previous record's TTL (Time to Live).

How to fix: Check your old record's TTL value. If it was set to 86400 (24 hours), caches will keep serving the old IP until that timer expires. You can verify whether the authoritative nameservers have your new IP by running our lookup tool above. On your local machine, clear your resolver cache by running ipconfig /flushdns (Windows) or sudo dscacheutil -flushcache (macOS).

The www version works, but the root domain (example.com) fails

A frequent setup mistake occurs when an A record is only created for the www host, leaving the naked root domain (the apex zone @) unmapped.

How to fix: Log in to your DNS management console and add a second A record with the host or name set to @ (or left blank, depending on your provider) pointing to the same server IPv4 address. Ensure your web server (Nginx or Apache) is also configured to listen for both server names.

DNS manager errors when trying to add a CNAME at the root domain

Under DNS standards (RFC 1912), a CNAME record cannot coexist with other records (such as MX, NS, or SOA) at the root domain. If you have an A record or MX record at @, your DNS provider will reject a CNAME on the same root name.

How to fix: If your web hosting (e.g. Shopify, Vercel, Heroku) asks for a root CNAME, use direct A records pointing to their provided static IP addresses, or use a DNS provider that supports “CNAME Flattening” or ALIAS / ANAME records.

DNS check returns Cloudflare IPs instead of your hosting IP

If you use Cloudflare, Sucuri, or an edge CDN with proxying turned on, public DNS lookups intentionally return the CDN's anycast proxy addresses rather than your origin server's real IP.

How to fix: This is normal and expected for DDoS protection and CDN caching. If you specifically need direct access to your origin server for testing or mail delivery, switch the DNS record proxy status from “Proxied” (orange cloud) to “DNS Only” (gray cloud).

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