MX Lookup

Find mail exchangers (MX records) for a domain.

Lookup

Results

Copy to Clipboard
MX
Run a lookup to see results here.

MX Lookup FAQs

Common questions about MX records and email delivery.

What is an MX record?
An MX (Mail Exchanger) record tells other mail servers where to deliver email for a domain. It points to one or more hostnames (mail servers) responsible for receiving mail for that domain.

What does MX “priority” mean?
Priority (sometimes called preference) controls the order mail servers are tried. Lower numbers are tried first. If the preferred server is unavailable, senders will try higher-priority (backup) servers.

Why are there multiple MX records?
Multiple MX records provide redundancy and load distribution. It’s normal to have several servers at the same priority, or a primary plus backups at higher priorities.

Can an MX record point to a CNAME?
Per DNS standards, MX targets should be hostnames with A/AAAA records (not CNAMEs). Some providers still configure CNAMEs, but it can cause delivery issues with strict validators.

Why does it show “Unavailable” (no MX records)?
A domain may have no MX records if it doesn’t accept email. Some domains rely on a fallback rule where mail is sent to the domain’s A/AAAA record, but many modern systems expect explicit MX records.

What does the resolver line mean?
It shows which DNS resolver was used to fetch the MX answers. Different resolvers can sometimes return different results temporarily due to caching or propagation.