How to check a domain in Google DNS

This guide shows you how to query and interpret a domain in Google DNS using your browser.

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a foundational part of the internet. It converts easy-to-remember domain names (i.e., humanextended.com) into numerical IP addresses that computers use to locate each other (i.e., 63.250.43.134). Beyond name resolution, DNS also stores important configuration details, such as which server handles email for a domain.

Google Public DNS is a free, global DNS resolution service by Google. One feature of Google DNS is its public API endpoint (https://dns.google/query) which allows you to query DNS records over HTTPS. This is especially useful for developers, sysadmins, and anyone who wants to inspect DNS data without specialized tools or command-line utilities.

Instructions

Example response

{
  "Status": 0 /* NOERROR */,
  "TC": false,
  "RD": true,
  "RA": true,
  "AD": false,
  "CD": false,
  "Question": [
    {
      "name": "humanextended.com.",
      "type": 1 /* A */
    }
  ],
  "Answer": [
    {
      "name": "humanextended.com.",
      "type": 1 /* A */,
      "TTL": 60,
      "data": "63.250.43.135"
    },
    {
      "name": "humanextended.com.",
      "type": 1 /* A */,
      "TTL": 60,
      "data": "63.250.43.134"
    }
  ],
  "Comment": "Response from 156.154.132.200."
}

How to understand the response

Status:

"Status": 0 /* NOERROR */,

The status field indicates whether the query was successful. A status of 0 means no error occurred.

Flags:

The flags section indicates characteristics of the query and response.

Flag	Meaning	Example	Notes
TC	Truncated	false	The response was not truncated. Full data was returned.
RD	Recursion Desired	true	The client requested recursive resolution.
RA	Recursion Available	true	The server supports recursive queries.
AD	Authenticated Data	false	DNSSEC validation was not performed or not successful.
CD	Checking Disabled	false	DNSSEC checking was not disabled by the client.

Question:

This section specifies what was queried.

"Question": [
{
  "name": "humanextended.com.",
  "type": 1 /* A */
}

This example queried the domain humanextended.com for type 1 records. Type 1 is an A record.

Answer:

This section contains the results of the query.

{
  "name": "humanextended.com.",
  "type": 1 /* A */,
  "TTL": 60,
  "data": "63.250.43.135"
},
{
  "name": "humanextended.com.",
  "type": 1 /* A */,
  "TTL": 60,
  "data": "63.250.43.134"
}

In this example, the domain has two A (type 1) records, meaning it resolves to two different IP addresses. This means the client can in theory connect to either IP address to reach the server. Having multiple A records is a common setup for load balancing and redundancy.

• The TIL field (time-to-live) indicates the record is valid for 60 seconds before it should be refreshed again.
• The data field contains the IP address.

Comment:

This section contains additional information.

"Comment": "Response from 156.154.132.200."

This comment indicates the DNS server that provided the data. Note that comments are not part of the underlying DNS protocol. This is additional information provided by Google DNS and other diagnostic tools.

Reference

• Introduction to Google Public DNS  |  Google for Developers

See also

• How to check the safety of a website or domain with Google