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TTL Checker

How long resolvers cache each of your records.

How it works

How long do resolvers cache each of your DNS records?

TTL (time to live) is the number of seconds a resolver may keep a record before asking again. Too long and every change takes a day to roll out; too short and you add latency and load on every lookup. Enter a domain and we fetch its A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA and CAA records, show the remaining cache time Cloudflare's resolver reports, estimate the configured value, read the SOA negative-cache timer and tell you record by record whether the setting is sensible and what to use instead.

Results appear here after you click Check TTLs.

How this works

1
Fetch eight record types
A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA and CAA are queried in parallel over DNS-over-HTTPS.
2
Estimate the zone value
The remaining cache time the resolver reports is snapped up to the nearest common TTL setting.
3
Compare with guidance
Each type has a recommended range; outliers and the SOA negative-cache timer are explained.

Frequently asked questions

What is TTL in DNS?: Time to live is the number of seconds a resolver may cache a DNS record before asking your nameservers again. A TTL of 3600 means up to an hour of caching. It is set per record in your DNS panel and is the main factor in how fast a change spreads.
Why does the TTL shown here keep changing?: Resolvers report how much cache time is left, not the original setting. If your zone says 3600 and Cloudflare fetched the record 20 minutes ago, you see about 2400. Refresh and it drops further until it expires and resets to the full value.
What TTL should I set?: 3600 (one hour) is a safe default for most records. Use 300 for anything you expect to change soon or that is part of a failover plan, and 86400 for NS and other records that almost never change. Lower before a planned change, raise afterwards.
Does a low TTL slow down my website?: Slightly: visitors whose resolver has expired the record wait one extra lookup, typically 20 to 100 ms. For normal sites that is negligible, which is why 300 to 3600 is a comfortable range. Very low values such as 30 s are only worth it for active failover.
What is the negative-cache TTL?: When a name does not exist, resolvers cache that 'no' answer for the SOA minimum field (or the SOA TTL if smaller). If it is 86400, a new subdomain can appear missing for a day to anyone who looked it up early. Keep it at 3600 or less.

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