MX record lookup

A domain’s MX records say who receives its mail. They are the fastest way to find out which provider a company actually uses, whatever its website says.

MX records in priority order: the lowest number is tried first.

The domain you type is used for the lookup and then forgotten: it is not stored and not written to any log. Only a count of how often the tool was used is kept.

What an MX record is

An MX — mail exchanger — record is a line in a domain’s DNS that names a server willing to accept mail for it, with a priority number. A sending server reads the list, tries the lowest number first, and works up if that one does not answer. Two records with the same priority mean the load is shared between them.

That is all they do. MX records say nothing about sending: a domain can receive mail at Google and send through a marketing platform, and the MX records will not mention the second. For the sending side, look at SPF, DKIM and DMARC instead.

Lower priority numbers are tried first — 10 before 20.
No MX record usually means the domain does not receive mail at all.
A single MX pointing at a provider’s hostname is the normal arrangement.
A trailing dot in a DNS zone file is normal and is not part of the hostname.

MX records are about receiving. Reading and sending a mailbox is IMAP and SMTP, which is a different question.

What you can tell from them

Mostly, who runs the mail. Records ending in google.com mean Google Workspace; protection.outlook.com means Microsoft 365; mail.ovh.net, ionos.fr or infomaniak.ch name those hosts. This tool says which provider it recognises, because that is the question people are usually really asking — and it is the same recognition the IMAP and SMTP settings finder uses to produce server settings.

What you cannot tell is whether a particular address exists, how many mailboxes the domain has, or whether a message will be accepted. Those require sending mail, which this tool does not do.

When to check them

Before connecting a mailbox, if you do not know who hosts it — a custom domain rarely says.
After moving a domain to a new provider, to confirm the change has propagated.
When mail to a domain bounces: no MX record, or one pointing at a server that no longer exists, explains it.
When somebody insists their mail is at one provider and the records say another, which happens more often than you would think.

DNS answers are cached, by resolvers and by this tool’s upstream. A change you made minutes ago may not show yet; that is the DNS working as designed, not a failure here.

What this tool keeps

Nothing about you or the domain. The query runs, the answer is returned, and the domain is not stored and not written to a log. The only thing kept is a count of how many times the tool has been used, which carries no domains and no addresses.

There is a budget per caller per hour, which exists so a resolver cannot be used as a scanner from this page. If you hit it, the tool says so plainly rather than pretending the lookup failed.

Common questions

Why does a domain have several MX records?

For failover and load sharing. The sender tries the lowest priority first and moves up the list if it does not answer.

What does no MX record mean?

Usually that the domain does not receive mail. Some senders fall back to the domain’s A record, but a domain meant to receive mail should have MX records.

Can I see which provider sends a domain’s mail?

Not from MX records — they are about receiving. The SPF, DKIM and DMARC checker is the tool for the sending side.

Do I need an account?

No. Every tool here works without signing in, and none of them asks for your mailbox password — they work on a domain name or on text you paste.

Keep reading

Found your provider?

The Connect pages have its exact IMAP and SMTP settings, quoted from its own documentation.

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Page updated October 29, 2026