DNS propagation checker

How to use this tool

1. Enter your domain name — for example, example.com — and pick the record type you changed. Checking an A record after a server move and an MX record after switching email providers are the two most common cases.
2. Select “Check propagation”. We query public DNS resolvers in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania at the same time.
3. Read the map and table. Green means a location already returns your new record, amber means it still serves an old value, and red means the resolver returned no answer. Re-check as often as you like — caches expire over time, so amber turns green on its own.

What is DNS propagation?

DNS propagation is the time it takes for a change to your DNS records — a new IP address, a different mail server, an updated TXT record — to become visible to everyone on the internet. When you update a record at your DNS provider, the change is live on your authoritative name servers within seconds. But most people never query your name servers directly: their devices ask a recursive resolver, usually run by their ISP or a public service like Google or Cloudflare, and those resolvers keep a cached copy of your records.

Until every resolver's cached copy expires, different parts of the world can see different answers for the same domain. That in-between state is what “waiting for DNS to propagate” means — and it's why your new website can work perfectly on your phone while a customer on another continent still lands on the old server.

How long does DNS propagation take?

DNS propagation typically takes from a few minutes up to 48 hours. The single biggest factor is the TTL (time to live) on the record you changed: a record with a TTL of 300 seconds is refreshed by resolvers within about five minutes, while a TTL of 86,400 seconds can keep old values in caches for a full day. Most changes are visible worldwide within a few hours.

Three things determine your actual wait: the TTL that was set on the record before you changed it, how strictly each resolver honors that TTL (a few ISPs stretch it), and — for name server changes — how quickly your domain registry publishes the update, which can add up to 24–48 hours for NS changes specifically.

Why do some locations still show the old record?

Resolvers don't check with your name servers on every request — that would be slow and wasteful. Instead, each resolver caches your record for the number of seconds specified by its TTL and serves the cached answer until it expires. Because every resolver first cached your record at a different moment, their caches also expire at different moments. A resolver in Frankfurt that cached your A record one minute before you changed it will keep the old value for almost a full TTL, while one in Singapore that happened to look it up one minute after already has the new one.

This is normal and resolves on its own. If a location stays amber long past your TTL, the resolver may be ignoring TTLs or serving from a stale secondary — our guide on how DNS caching works explains how to investigate.

How to speed up DNS propagation

• Lower the TTL in advance: a day before a planned change, drop the record's TTL to 300 seconds. Old caches expire quickly, so the switch itself completes in minutes. Raise the TTL again once you've confirmed propagation.
• Flush public caches: you can force individual resolvers to refresh. Google (developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/cache) and Cloudflare (one.one.one.one/purge-cache) both offer public cache-flush pages, and your own machine's cache can be cleared with ipconfig /flushdns (Windows) or dscacheutil -flushcache (macOS).
• Avoid unnecessary NS changes: changing your domain's name servers always involves the registry and parent zone, so it's the slowest change (up to 48 h). If you only need to point at a new server, change the A record and leave the name servers alone.
• Know what's impossible: propagation can't be “pushed” — no service can reach into third-party resolver caches. Anyone selling faster propagation is selling TTL management, which you can do yourself for free.

Reading the results

Up to date (green) — the resolver returns the same value as your authoritative name servers.

Stale (amber) — the resolver answered, but with a value that differs from your authoritative servers. Its cache hasn't expired yet; check the TTL column to see roughly how long remains.

No answer (red) — the resolver returned NXDOMAIN, an error, or timed out. For a newly registered domain this usually means the registry hasn't published it yet; for an existing domain it can indicate a DNSSEC or zone problem worth investigating with our DNS health report.

Frequently asked questions

Is 100% propagation required before my site works?

No. Visitors are routed by whichever resolver they use, so your site works for each visitor as soon as their resolver has the new record. 100% simply means everyone worldwide now sees the same answer.

Why does my site work for me but not for others?

Your resolver has already picked up the new record; theirs is still serving a cached copy. This checker shows you exactly which regions are still behind, and the TTL column shows how long their caches can persist.

Can I speed up propagation after making a change?

Partially. You can flush Google's and Cloudflare's public caches and your own device cache, which covers a large share of real users. Other ISP resolvers refresh only when the old TTL expires.

How often is this data refreshed?

Every check queries all resolvers live — nothing is cached on our side. Use the re-check button or auto-refresh to watch propagation complete in real time.

Which DNS record types can I check?

A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT, PTR, SOA and CAA records. If you're not sure which type you changed, our guide to DNS record types explains what each one does.

Does propagation differ for new domains?

Yes. A newly registered domain isn't in any resolver cache, so there is nothing stale to wait out — it works as soon as the registry publishes the delegation, usually within minutes to a few hours.

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