Five resolvers · one record type
DNS propagation checker
Ask Cloudflare, Google, dnsforge.de, DNS.SB and Control D for the same record at the same moment. Answers that differ from the majority are highlighted, with each resolver’s remaining TTL.
What this checker shows
After you change a DNS record, resolvers keep serving their cached copy until its TTL runs out. This tool asks five large public resolvers for the same record at once and puts the answers side by side. Records that differ from the most common answer are highlighted, and every card shows the remaining TTL: the longest that resolver may keep its current copy.
An honest caveat
Cloudflare, Google, DNS.SB and Control D are anycast services, so your browser reaches their sites nearest to you; dnsforge.de runs its servers in Germany. This compares five independent caches, not a tour of servers around the world, and a resolver elsewhere may hold an old copy until its own TTL expires.
Tips
- Lower the TTL a day before a planned change, then raise it again once everything has switched.
- Turn on automatic re-checks and watch the TTLs count down to the moment each resolver refetches.
- NXDOMAIN on one resolver only usually means it cached “does not exist” (negative caching, bounded by the SOA’s negative TTL) or, for dnsforge.de, that its blocklists cover the domain.
Frequently asked questions
How long does DNS propagation take?
As long as the old record’s TTL, counted from when each resolver last fetched it. With a 300-second TTL, caches update within five minutes; with 86400 it can take a day. A nameserver change also waits for the parent zone’s NS TTL, which is two days for .com.
Why does one resolver still show the old value?
It cached the record before you changed it and keeps it until the TTL on its card reaches zero. Resolvers fetch at different moments, so they switch over at different times.
Can I clear a resolver’s cache?
Cloudflare and Google run public cache-purge pages on their own websites. For the others, wait until the TTL expires.