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dns

DNS

The internet's phone book, answered in milliseconds from 330+ cities.

1.1.1.1Public resolver

#1Fastest resolver (DNSPerf)

330+Cities answering queries

100%Uptime since launch

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What is DNS?

DNS (Domain Name System) is the system that turns a human-friendly name like example.com into the numeric address (IP address) that computers actually use to find each other. Cloudflare DNS does two jobs: it acts as your domain's authoritative DNS (the official record of where your site lives), and it runs 1.1.1.1, a public resolver anyone can use to look up names.

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Think of it like a phone book

You remember a friend's name, not their phone number. DNS is the phone book that looks up the number for you. The authoritative DNS is the official directory that says 'example.com lives at this number'. The resolver is the helpful operator who reads that directory and tells you the answer fast.

Every time someone visits your website, sends you email, or clicks a link, a DNS lookup happens first. If that lookup is slow or fails, everything that follows is slow or fails too. That is why fast, reliable DNS matters so much.

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Why use Cloudflare DNS?

Slow or unreliable DNS quietly hurts every visitor. Cloudflare answers DNS queries from a huge global network, so the answer almost always comes from a city near the user.

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Extremely fast

Answers come from 330+ cities worldwide. The 1.1.1.1 resolver is consistently ranked the fastest public resolver by independent benchmarks like DNSPerf.

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Hard to tamper with

DNSSEC adds cryptographic signatures to your records so attackers cannot secretly redirect your visitors to a fake site.

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Always online

Cloudflare's authoritative DNS has maintained 100% uptime since launch, with built-in protection against DNS-based DDoS attacks.

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Easy to manage

A clean dashboard lets you add, edit, or delete records in seconds. Changes propagate from Cloudflare almost instantly.

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Key concepts & record types

A DNS zone is the collection of records for one domain. Each record has a type that says what kind of answer it gives. Here are the ones you will meet most often.

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A / AAAA record

Points a name to an IP address. 'A' is for IPv4 (like 192.0.2.1), 'AAAA' is for IPv6. This is how a browser finds your web server.

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CNAME record

An alias that points one name to another name (e.g. www.example.com to example.com). Cloudflare's CNAME flattening even lets you use one at the root of your domain.

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MX record

Mail eXchange: tells the internet which server should receive email for your domain. Without it, email won't arrive.

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TXT record

Stores free-form text, often used to prove you own a domain or to set up email anti-spam rules like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

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TTL

Time To Live: how long resolvers may cache (remember) a record before re-checking. Short TTL = faster updates; long TTL = less lookup traffic. 'Auto' lets Cloudflare pick a sensible value.

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Proxied vs DNS-only

An orange cloud means traffic is proxied through Cloudflare (you get caching, security, hidden origin IP). A grey cloud means DNS-only: Cloudflare just answers the lookup and traffic goes straight to your server.

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When should you use it?

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You own a domain

Anyone running a website, blog, app, or email on their own domain needs authoritative DNS. Cloudflare's free plan covers this.

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You want faster page loads

Because DNS is the very first step of every visit, fast DNS shaves real milliseconds off how quickly your site starts loading.

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You care about safety

Turn on DNSSEC and proxying to protect visitors from hijacking and to hide your server's real IP address from attackers.

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You browse the web

Even without a website, you can set your device or router to use the 1.1.1.1 resolver for faster, more private lookups.

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How to get started

Add your site to Cloudflare
Sign up for a free account, choose 'Add a site', and enter your domain. Cloudflare scans your existing DNS records and imports them automatically.
Update your nameservers
At your domain registrar, replace the existing nameservers with the two Cloudflare nameservers shown in your dashboard. This hands authoritative DNS to Cloudflare.
Add or edit a DNS record
Go to DNS > Records > Add record. Pick a Type (e.g. A), enter the Name (e.g. www) and the IPv4 address, leave TTL on Auto, choose Proxied or DNS-only, then Save.
Turn on DNSSEC
Under DNS > Settings, enable DNSSEC and copy the DS record Cloudflare gives you into your registrar to finish protecting the domain.

bashTest resolution with dig

# Ask Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 resolver for the A record of example.com
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com A +short

# See the full answer including TTL
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com A

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Tips & pricing

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Authoritative DNS is free

Cloudflare's authoritative DNS and the 1.1.1.1 resolver are free on every plan, including the Free plan. There is no per-query DNS fee for standard zones.

Use a short TTL (like 5 minutes) before a planned migration, then raise it again afterwards to cut lookups.
Keep email records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) grey-cloud / DNS-only — email shouldn't be proxied.
Enable DNSSEC for any domain handling logins, payments, or email.
Set your home router to 1.1.1.1 to speed up DNS for every device on your network.