MX Lookup

Check a domain's mail exchange (MX) records, sorted by priority, with resolved server addresses and TTL.

About this tool

MX (Mail Exchange) records tell the internet which mail servers handle email for a domain, and in what order of preference — a lower priority number is tried first, with higher numbers acting as backups. Missing or misconfigured MX records are one of the most common causes of undelivered email.

What a healthy MX setup looks like

  • At least one MX record pointing to a mail server that actually accepts mail for the domain.
  • The mail server hostname in the MX record should itself resolve to a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address (shown in the results table above).
  • For deliverability beyond just receiving mail, the domain should also publish SPF and DMARC TXT records authorizing which servers can send mail on its behalf — check both with Email Security Checker.

Common MX problems

  • No MX records — the domain can't receive email at all, even if it has a website.
  • MX pointing to a dead host — often left over after switching email providers (e.g. moving from a hosting company's mail to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365) without removing the old record.
  • Wrong priority order — if a backup server is set to a lower priority number than the primary, mail may route through the wrong system first.

Can a domain have more than one MX record?

Yes — multiple MX records with different priorities are normal and provide redundancy if the primary mail server is temporarily unreachable.

I changed email providers — why does the old MX still show up?

DNS changes take time to propagate (see TTL, explained on the DNS Lookup page). If it's been more than 48 hours, double-check the old MX record was actually removed from your DNS zone, not just added to alongside the new one — or check DNS Propagation Checker to see whether different resolvers still disagree.

Related tools:

DNS Lookup DNS Health Checker Email Security Checker Nameserver Lookup