DNS Propagation Checker

Check whether a DNS record has propagated worldwide by querying 12 public DNS resolvers across the US, Europe, Russia, China, and global anycast networks (Google, Cloudflare, Quad9, OpenDNS, AdGuard, Yandex, AliDNS and more). Supports A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, and CAA records. Zero API keys, direct DoH queries. Just changed a nameserver? See when the world actually sees it.

10 / 10 free runs left today · Sign up free for 200/day

About the DNS Propagation Checker

When you change a DNS record — switching hosts, updating an A record, adding a new MX server, or pointing your apex to a CDN — that change does not take effect everywhere at once. Different DNS resolvers around the world cache the old value for anywhere from seconds to days depending on TTL. This tool queries 12 public DNS resolvers in parallel — Google, Cloudflare, Quad9, OpenDNS, AdGuard, Yandex, AliDNS, Mullvad, Control D, CleanBrowsing, DNS.SB, and NextDNS — and shows you exactly which ones have already picked up the new record and which are still serving the old one, plus the response time from each so you can spot slow resolvers.

How to read your results

Propagation percentage

The headline number at the top tells you what percent of the 12 global resolvers currently return the record. 100% means the change is fully propagated worldwide. Anything less means some resolvers are still caching an older record or have not received the update yet. Wait 5–15 minutes between checks and refresh.

Consistency indicator

Right next to the percentage, a "Consistent" or "Inconsistent" badge tells you whether every resolver that did return a record returned the same value. Inconsistent = some resolvers have the new record, others still have the old one. Once you see "Consistent" and 100% you are done.

Per-resolver table

Each row is one public resolver with its name, geographic location, the actual record values it returned, and the response time in milliseconds. If a row shows "—" or an error, that resolver is currently unreachable (rare; usually a regional outage).

Answer groups

When propagation is inconsistent, the "Answer groups" section collapses resolvers by the exact value they returned so you can instantly see "8 resolvers returning the new IP, 4 still returning the old one". This is the fastest way to confirm a propagation problem.

Frequently asked questions

Which DNS resolvers does this tool actually query?

Twelve public DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS) resolvers: Google (US), Cloudflare (global), Quad9 (Switzerland), OpenDNS (US), AdGuard (Cyprus), NextDNS (global), Mullvad (Sweden), CleanBrowsing (US), Control D (Canada), DNS.SB (Germany), AliDNS (China), and Yandex (Russia). All free, all public, no API keys. Direct HTTPS queries from our server straight to each resolver.

Why only 12 resolvers and not 50 like other propagation tools?

Because those 12 cover every region that matters (North America, Europe, Russia, China, global anycast) and adding more just means more slow checks for diminishing information. If Cloudflare, Google, and Quad9 all agree, the rest of the world almost certainly agrees with them too. 50-resolver tools are mostly showing you the same anycast network from different IPs.

Which record types does this support?

A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, CNAME, SOA, and CAA — selectable via the Record Type dropdown on the form. The most common use case is A records (after changing your web host), but TXT is useful for verifying SPF/DKIM changes and NS for confirming a nameserver delegation change.

How long does DNS propagation usually take?

It depends entirely on your TTL. If your previous TTL was 300 seconds (5 minutes), propagation is effectively complete in 5–10 minutes. If your TTL was 86400 (24 hours) — the old default — you may see inconsistency for up to 48 hours while resolvers finish expiring their caches. Some ISP-level resolvers intentionally ignore TTL and cache for longer.

A resolver is showing the old record. What can I do to speed it up?

Nothing on your end — caches expire on their own schedule and public resolvers do not accept cache-flush requests from strangers. The only thing you can do for future changes is lower the TTL 24 hours before you change the record. Set TTL to 60 or 300 seconds, wait a day, then make the change; propagation will be complete in minutes instead of hours.

The tool shows 100% but my website still loads the old site on my laptop.

Your laptop has its own DNS cache separate from the resolvers we queried. On Windows run `ipconfig /flushdns`, on macOS `sudo dscacheutil -flushcache && sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder`, on Linux `sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches`. Also flush your browser DNS cache (chrome://net-internals/#dns) and restart the browser.

Why does Cloudflare show "Global Anycast" instead of a country?

Because Cloudflare, NextDNS, and similar networks use anycast — a single IP address routed to the nearest data center from wherever the query originates. Our server is in one country, so Cloudflare resolves to whichever Cloudflare POP is closest to our server. Still a valid data point because Cloudflare's internal cache is globally synced within seconds.

I just changed my nameservers at the registrar. Why is this tool still showing the old ones?

Nameserver delegation changes propagate from the TLD registry down, which can take 24–48 hours for .com and .net and up to 72 hours for some ccTLDs. Also, this tool queries the authoritative NS via normal resolution, so until the TLD nameservers themselves return the new delegation, every public resolver will still see the old nameservers. Be patient and re-check every few hours.

Related tools, articles & authoritative sources

Hand-picked internal pages and external references from sources Google itself considers authoritative on this topic.