Migration Notice (Nov 21, 2025)

Please switch to pay per event actors. This actor will continue to be maintained and supported until all current users have migrated. However, the monthly rental price will increase.

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DNS Lookup Actor

A versatile Apify Actor for quickly retrieving DNS records (A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, NS, SOA) for a list of domain names, as well as performing reverse DNS lookups. Ideal for DNS validation, cybersecurity audits, domain management, market intelligence, and competitive research.

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🛠️ How the DNS Lookup Actor Works

✅ Standard DNS Lookup

Provide a list of domain names (without protocol prefixes like https:// or subdomains like www.), and the Actor retrieves DNS records including:

• A
• AAAA
• MX
• CNAME
• TXT
• NS
• SOA
• DMARC * Adds the _dmarc subdomain automatically *

Optionally specify which DNS record types to retrieve using the dnsRecordTypes parameter. If omitted, all common DNS types above are fetched by default.

💡 Note: Only valid domain names should be used. Protocols like https:// or ports (e.g. :443) are not supported.

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🔁 Reverse DNS Lookup

Set the optional parameter reverseLookup to true and provide IP addresses (IPv4 or IPv6) instead of domain names to perform reverse DNS (PTR) lookups.

⚠️ Only IP addresses are allowed when reverseLookup is true.

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📥 Input Parameters

The Actor accepts the following JSON input:

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
domains	array	✅ Yes	List of domain names or IP addresses to query.
dnsRecordTypes	array	❌ No	Specific DNS record types to retrieve. Ignored for reverse lookups. Default: ["A", "AAAA", "MX", "CNAME", "TXT", "NS", "SOA"].
reverseLookup	boolean	❌ No	Set to true to enable reverse (PTR) lookups. Default: false.

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💡 Sample Inputs

Standard DNS Lookup

{
  "domains": ["example.com", "apify.com"],
  "dnsRecordTypes": ["A", "MX"]
}

Reverse DNS Lookup

{
  "domains": ["8.8.8.8", "1.1.1.1"],
  "reverseLookup": true
}

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📤 Output Format

Each result includes the queried domain/IP, the DNS records, and the status of the lookup.

[
  {
    "domain": "example.com",
    "dnsRecords": [
      { "type": "A", "ttl": 300, "address": "93.184.216.34" },
      { "type": "MX", "ttl": 3600, "exchange": "mail.example.com", "priority": 10 }
    ],
    "status": "Success"
  }
]

Reverse Lookup Output

[
  {
    "domain": "8.8.8.8",
    "dnsRecords": [
      { "type": "PTR", "hostname": "dns.google" }
    ],
    "status": "Success"
  }
]

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🔍 Technical Use Cases

• ✅ DNS auditing and validation
• ✅ DNS propagation troubleshooting
• ✅ Domain migration checks
• ✅ DNSSEC verification
• ✅ Infrastructure and email provider identification
• ✅ IP-to-hostname mapping (PTR)

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💼 Business Use Cases

• Sales & Marketing Intelligence

  • Identify email hosting providers for targeted outreach.
  • Recognize DNS patterns linked to specific technologies.

• Competitive Intelligence

  • Analyze competitor DNS infrastructure.

• Market Research

  • Discover technology stacks and providers used by prospects.

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🔄 Integration with Automation Tools

This Actor can easily be integrated with automation platforms like Clay or used within custom Apify workflows.

📘 Sample Call from Another Apify Actor:

import { Actor } from 'apify';

await Actor.init();

const dnsResults = await Actor.call('xyzzy/dns-lookup', {
    domains: ['apify.com', 'google.com', 'microsoft.com'],
    dnsRecordTypes: ['A', 'AAAA', 'MX', 'TXT', 'NS', 'SOA', 'CNAME']
});

const { items } = await Actor.openDataset(dnsResults.defaultDatasetId).getData();
console.log('DNS Results:', items);

await Actor.exit();

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🔗 Visit the full collection on xyzzy's Apify profile