MX Record Lookup
Instantly check mail server configurations for any domain
- ✓ Direct from root nameservers - See real-time MX configurations
- ✓ IP resolution included - View the actual mail server IPs
- ✓ No sign-up required - Free to use anytime
About MX Records
MX (Mail Exchange) records are DNS records that specify which mail servers are responsible for accepting email messages on behalf of a domain. When you send an email to [email protected], your email server looks up the MX records for example.com to determine where to deliver the message.
Understanding MX Record Results
Priority Values
The priority (or preference) value indicates the order in which mail servers should be used. Lower numbers have higher priority:
- Servers with the lowest priority values are tried first
- If the primary server is unavailable, the next highest priority server is used
- Servers with the same priority may be used in a round-robin fashion for load balancing
Hostname and IPs
Each MX record contains:
- Hostname: The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the mail server
- IP Addresses: The actual IP addresses that the hostname resolves to
- Both IPv4 (A records) and IPv6 (AAAA records) may be displayed if configured
Frequently Asked Questions
Why would I need to look up MX records?
There are several reasons you might need to check a domain's MX records:
- Troubleshooting email delivery issues
- Setting up your own mail server for a domain
- Verifying that email configurations are correct after DNS changes
- Determining which email service a company or organization uses
- Security research and verification
What do common MX record patterns mean?
Different MX record patterns often indicate specific email providers:
- aspmx.l.google.com - Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)
- mx*.mail.microsoft.com - Microsoft 365 or Exchange Online
- mx*.mailhostbox.com - Amazon WorkMail
- mx*.mailgun.org - Mailgun email service
- mx*.sendgrid.net - SendGrid email service
- mx*.zoho.com - Zoho Mail
Is there a limit to how many domains I can lookup?
This free tool is provided for reasonable use. While there's no strict limit, we implement rate limiting to prevent abuse. If you need to perform bulk MX lookups for many domains, consider using our API service or contact us for custom solutions.
How recent are the results?
The results are fetched in real-time from DNS servers when you perform a lookup. However, due to DNS caching at various levels, recent changes to MX records might take time to propagate through all DNS servers worldwide (typically from a few minutes up to 48 hours).
Why do some domains have no MX records?
If a domain doesn't have MX records, it means one of several things:
- The domain is not configured to receive email
- The domain might be using the implicit MX record (falling back to A records)
- There might be DNS configuration errors
- The domain might not exist or might have expired
RFC 5321 specifies that if no MX records exist, email servers should attempt delivery to the A record (the web server) of the domain as a fallback.
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