Why should you use MX Record Lookup application?

Actually, there is no need to use online MX Record Lookup application. Because in 99% cases you already have a local application for this task. Most of the operating systems already have a terminal tool for DNS lookups. Usually, the tool you can use is named as nslookup. There is also another popular console application, which name is dig. Both applications could also lookup for MX records.

However, if you don't want to use console apps, or read manuals, or you have any other inexplicable reason to avoid these great console tools, you can use this online application instead.

By the way, you should also know that we have another nice online app. It is the DNS Lookup application. This application does the same thing but also looks up for more DNS records, like NS, CNAME, SPF and others.

How it works

How to use the MX Record Lookup application

STEP 1

Enter the Domain Name

Enter the domain name for which you want to check the MX records.

STEP 2

Click the Button

Click the "Lookup MX Record" button.

STEP 3

Check the Results

Check the results. You will see a list of mail servers that accept emails for the domain.

STEP 4

Copy the Result

Hover over the result and click the copy button to copy it to the clipboard.

What is MX Record and why people check it?

MX records are used to route emails. Some people have their own domain and want to have an email address, which ends with this domain name. But usually, they don't want to setup their own mail servers. Instead, they use a third-party mail service, like Google Mail, Microsoft 365, or others. To do this, they have to configure their domain's MX records to point to the mail service provider's servers.

So, when someone sends an email to such domain, the sender's mail server does the MX Record Lookup to find out where to send the email. For example, if you have a domain example.com and you use Google Mail, the MX record for example.com will point to mx.google.com. You can register new Google mail account, for example, it could have a login like someone@example.com. You can login to this account and use it as usual Gmail account. But the email address will be from your own domain. Moreover, you can change your mail service provider at any time. Just register a new account in another mail service provider and change the MX record in your domain's DNS settings.

Send email with MX Record lookup example

We also should note that MX records configures only incoming emails. If you want to send emails from your domain, but using third party mail service providers, you should also configure your SPF record. Use our SPF Record Lookup application to check your SPF record. You can also read more about SPF records in our knowledge base.

Multiple MX Records

It's possible to have multiple MX records for a single domain. This is beneficial when you want to set up a backup mail server. If the primary mail server is down, the sender's mail server will attempt to send the email to the next mail server on the list. You can also use multiple MX records to distribute the load among several mail servers.

If you have multiple MX records, the sender's mail server will attempt to send the email to the mail server with the lowest priority number first. If this mail server is unavailable, the sender's mail server will attempt to send the email to the mail server with the next lowest priority number, and so on. If multiple MX records have the same priority number, the sender's mail server will distribute the emails to these mail servers in a round-robin manner. However, some mail servers might choose mail exchangers randomly if they have the same priority.