How can I manage my Vercel DNS records?

Information on how to view, add, and remove Vercel DNS records.
Last updated on May 21, 2024
Domains & DNS

When using a custom domain with Vercel, you are able to manage DNS records for the domain if it is using Vercel's nameservers.

You can create a new DNS record by using the DNS UI. For example, to create a record you would need the following data:

  • Name: The prefix or location of the record. For www.example.com, the name argument would be www.
  • Type: Types can be A, AAAA, ALIAS, CAA, CNAME, MX, SRV, or TXT.
  • Value: The value of the record.
  • TTL: Default is 60 seconds. For advanced users, this value can be customized.
  • More: Some records will require more data. MX records, for example, will request "priority".
The DNS UI for a freshly added domain, with default records.
The DNS UI for a freshly added domain, with default records.

Once DNS records have been changed, you may wish to check that these have been set corretly. There are many third-party tools that do this, such as DNS Checker and DNS Map - these show the state of your DNS records in different regions of the world.

You can also use the terminal to check the DNS record for your domain, examples of doing this for the records above are found below:

dig A api.example.com +short
76.76.21.21
Verifying the A record set for a domain using the terminal.
dig MX example.com +short
example-com.mail.protection.outlook.com.
Verifying the MX record set for a domain using the terminal.

DNS records, with the exception of nameservers, are usually very quick to update, but can take a few minutes in some cases.

If you need to remove DNS records, you can do so once again by using the DNS UI.

The "Delete" option highlighted for a given record.
The "Delete" option highlighted for a given record.

Default records can't be removed. However, new records can override them if required.

When working with DNS records, it can be easy to make minor errors in the syntax, these can be difficult to debug. Below is a list of common errors made when adding DNS records and the steps required to resolve them.

Incorrectly adding an A record to a custom domain with a record value of 127.0.0.1.
Incorrectly adding an A record to a custom domain with a record value of 127.0.0.1.

To solve this problem, remove the record and add it again without the domain as the "name" argument:

Correctly adding an A record to a custom domain with a record value of 127.0.0.1.
Correctly adding an A record to a custom domain with a record value of 127.0.0.1.

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