Free MX Checker
Validate Your MX Records & Mail Routing
Run a free MX record check to verify your mail servers, priority order, and DNS configuration.
Enter your domain to perform a live MX lookup, validate your routing setup, and detect configuration issues.
About Free MX Record Checker by DMARKOFF
Our free MX Record Checker queries authoritative DNS servers and shows how email is routed to your domain.
It shows the mail servers that receive email for your domain, their priority, resolved IP addresses, reverse DNS status, and TTL, so you can quickly verify that mail routing is configured correctly.
If it detects an issue, such as an invalid hostname, missing PTR record, or forward/reverse DNS mismatch, you'll see the exact fix to apply.
What Is an MX Record?
MX (Mail Exchange) records are DNS entries that tell other mail servers where to deliver email for your domain. They:
• Route incoming email to the correct mail server
• Define backup servers with priority values for redundancy
• Keep your domain ready to receive inbound messages
MX records work with SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), the standard for sending and routing email. Without properly configured MX records, your domain will be unable to accept emails.
Example of Valid MX Records
A domain can publish multiple MX records to improve reliability and ensure email continues to be delivered if one mail server becomes unavailable.
Each record has a priority value that tells receiving mail servers which server to try first:
In this example:
Host (@) – Indicates the MX records apply to the root domain (domainname.com).
Type (MX) – Specifies that these are Mail Exchange records used to route incoming email.
Priority (10) – mailhost1.domainname.com and mailhost2.domainname.com share the same priority. Receiving mail servers can choose either server, providing load balancing and redundancy.
Priority (20) – backup.domainname.com is a backup mail server. It is used only if both priority 10 servers are unavailable.
TTL (45000) – Defines how long DNS resolvers cache the record before checking for updates again.
What MX Record Checker Detects
Our Free MX Record Checker analyzes your MX configuration and highlights potential issues in a clear, structured report:
✓ Confirms your domain exists and has valid name servers
✓ Confirms MX records exist for your domain
✓ Confirms no MX record points to a CNAME (MX targets must resolve directly)
✓ Confirms each MX hostname resolves to an IP address
✓ Checks that each MX server has a valid PTR (reverse DNS) record
✓ Confirms forward and reverse DNS match for each MX IP
Results include each MX record's priority, hostname, resolved IP addresses, reverse DNS status, and TTL, giving you a complete view of your mail routing configuration. When a check fails, you'll get the specific fix to apply.
Benefits of Regular MX Checks
• Ensure your domain is always ready to receive email
• Confirm redundancy across backup or load-balanced mail servers
• Catch outdated or misconfigured MX records before they cause delivery failures
• Detect forward/reverse DNS mismatches that can affect deliverability
• Reduce the risk of delays, bounces, or rejected messages
• Validate changes after DNS updates or mail server migrations
• Quickly audit mail routing across multiple domains
Why Choose Free MX Record Checker
Free to use — no signup required for the MX record check.
Instant results — a full MX lookup takes seconds.
Session history — check MX records for multiple domains and compare results on a single page.
FAQ
An MX record lookup retrieves the mail exchange records published in a domain's DNS. It shows which mail servers receive email for that domain and the priority order they're used in.
Without MX records, a domain can't receive email. They direct incoming mail to the correct server and provide backup routing if the primary server is unavailable.
Yes. Many domains publish multiple MX records to provide redundancy or distribute incoming email across multiple mail servers. Receiving servers choose which one to contact based on the published priority values.
Lower priority numbers are tried first. If a domain has multiple MX records at different priorities, the lowest one acts as the primary server, with higher numbers as fallbacks. Records with equal priority are treated as interchangeable. Receiving servers may pick between them randomly or via their own load-balancing logic.
Yes. Incorrect MX records can cause incoming email to be delayed, misrouted, or rejected entirely.
Each MX server should have a reverse DNS (PTR) record that resolves back to the same hostname. Mismatches can reduce trust with receiving mail servers and contribute to deliverability issues.
Check MX records after any DNS or email service change, and periodically as part of routine DNS maintenance to catch unauthorized modifications. Regular checks also confirm your backup servers are still correctly configured for redundancy.
The checker identifies exactly what's wrong, such as a hostname pointing to a CNAME, a missing PTR record, or a forward/reverse DNS mismatch, and shows the specific fix to apply. Update the relevant DNS record, then rerun the check to confirm it passes.
An MX record should point directly to the hostname of a mail server, not to an IP address or a CNAME record. That hostname must resolve to one or more IP addresses (A or AAAA records) so other mail servers can deliver email successfully.