🏢 DNS NS Record Lookup

Query DNS NS (Nameserver) records to find the authoritative nameservers for any domain.

Enter Domain Name:

💡 Tip: Enter a domain and click "Lookup NS Records" to retrieve all nameservers.

Enter a domain name and click "Lookup NS Records" to view results.

What the nameservers tell you

NS records name the servers that hold the real answers for a domain. Every other lookup ends up at one of them, so they are the first thing to check when a domain behaves oddly: whoever operates these hostnames controls where the site and the mail go, whatever your control panel says.

The query is made by SimpleMoney's API server, not by your browser, so the list is the one a resolver elsewhere on the internet would follow today. If you have just moved host, that is the number worth trusting — your own machine may still be answering from cache.

Reading the list

Two or more is the norm, and usually four. The registry requires at least two so that one failure does not take the domain off the internet.
The names give the operator away. ns-1234.awsdns-56.org is Route 53, *.cloudflare.com is Cloudflare, and a pair at your web host means DNS is being run there.
NS on a subdomain means that subdomain has been delegated to a different set of servers and is managed as its own zone.

Two copies of this list exist: the delegation stored at the registry by your registrar, and the NS records inside the zone itself. They are supposed to match. When they do not, resolvers follow the delegation, and the zone's own copy quietly misleads you.

Frequently asked questions

How long does changing nameservers take?

Up to about two days. The delegation held by most top-level domains carries a TTL of 172800 seconds, and resolvers that cached the old one keep using it until then. That is where the familiar 48-hour figure comes from.

Why do these differ from the nameservers at my registrar?

Either the change is still propagating, or the zone was copied to a new provider without updating the delegation. Set them at the registrar first, and make sure the new provider's zone lists the same names.

How many nameservers should a domain have?

Two at minimum, and there is little benefit past four. What matters more than the count is that they are not all in one place; a good provider spreads them across separate networks.