MX Record Checker
Look up the mail exchange servers for any domain. See priorities, provider detection, and routing issues in seconds.
What We Check — And Why It Matters
MX records are the foundation of your inbound email. A misconfiguration here means missed emails, lost DMARC reports, and broken deliverability.
MX Record Presence
We verify that MX records exist and are correctly formatted. Missing MX records mean your domain cannot receive email — a common misconfiguration that's easily missed.
Priority Values
Lower priority numbers mean higher preference. We display the routing strength for each server so you can immediately see which servers handle your primary mail flow.
Provider Detection
We automatically identify your email provider — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Mimecast, Proofpoint, and more — so you know at a glance who's handling your inbound mail.
Duplicate Priority Warnings
Duplicate priority values cause receiving servers to select mail hosts at random, leading to inconsistent routing. We flag any conflicts so you can assign unique priorities.
How MX Priority Works
Lower numbers are preferred first. Higher numbers act as fallbacks.
Primary
First choice for all inbound mail. This server handles the bulk of your traffic.
Secondary
Used only if the primary server is unavailable. Provides failover redundancy.
Backup
Last resort. Accepts mail if all higher-priority servers are offline.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about MX records and email routing.
What is an MX record?
An MX (Mail Exchange) record is a DNS entry that specifies which mail servers are responsible for accepting incoming email for your domain. Without correctly configured MX records, email sent to your domain will bounce or be undeliverable.
What does the priority number mean?
Lower numbers = higher priority. When a sending server wants to deliver email to your domain, it queries your MX records and tries the lowest-numbered server first. If that server is unavailable, it falls back to higher-numbered records. This lets you configure primary and backup mail servers.
Why do I have multiple MX records?
Multiple MX records provide redundancy. If your primary mail server (lowest priority) goes down, email is automatically routed to the next one. Most hosted email providers (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) provision multiple MX records for high availability.
Is it bad to have two records with the same priority?
It depends. If both records point to the same provider's servers, it's fine — they'll load-balance traffic. If they point to different providers, receiving servers will pick one at random, which can cause delivery inconsistencies. In that case, assign different priorities so routing is predictable.
How does this affect my DMARC setup?
MX records control inbound mail, while DMARC, SPF, and DKIM protect against outbound spoofing. They work together: a properly configured MX ensures you receive email and DMARC reports (rua/ruf), while SPF/DKIM/DMARC ensure email sent from your domain is authenticated.
MX Records Are Just the Start
Your MX records tell the world where to send email. DMARC, SPF, and DKIM tell the world who's allowed to send on your behalf.
Check your full email authentication posture with our DMARC checker — and get continuous monitoring with Dmarclytics.
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