Managing DNS Records

Once you've added a domain and it's using Vercel's nameservers, you can view its DNS records from your team's Domains page. From there, you can view, add, verify, remove the records, or add presets.

1. Selecting your Domain

   On your team's dashboard, open Domains in the sidebar. From the Domains page, click on a domain of your choice to view its Advanced Settings page.

2. Add DNS Record

   Once on the Advanced Settings page of your domain, select the Enable Vercel DNS button to fill out the DNS Record form. Once complete, click on the Add button.

   

   You can then create a new DNS record with 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, HTTPS, MX, NS, SRV, or TXT.
   • Value: The value of the record.
   • TTL: Default is 60 seconds. For advanced users, this value can be customized.
   • Comment: An optional comment to provide context on what this record is for.
   • More: Some records will require more data. MX records, for example, will request "priority".

   Once a DNS record has been added, it can take up to 24 hours to the DNS records to fully update and any local caches to be cleared.

If your domain uses Vercel's nameservers, you can point a subdomain to a service hosted elsewhere by adding the DNS records that service provides. You do not need to add the subdomain to a Vercel project.

For example, to host support.example.com with another provider, open example.com on your team's Domains page and add a DNS record:

Use the record type requested by the provider. Do not add both an A and a CNAME record for the same hostname. In Vercel's Name field, enter only support, not support.example.com. Add any additional verification records the provider requires, then verify the published records.

If your domain uses another provider's nameservers, make these changes at that DNS provider instead.

Once DNS records have been changed, you may wish to check that these have been set correctly. 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 dig command to check the DNS record for your domain:

$ dig A api.example.com +short

$ dig MX example.com +short

To remove DNS records:

1. On your team's dashboard, select the Domains section in the sidebar. From the Domains page, click on a domain of your choice to view its Advanced Settings page.
2. Select the ellipsis (⋯) to access the context menu and select Delete DNS Zone. Follow the prompts to delete the record.

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

Vercel does not provide an email service. To be able to receive emails or add specific DNS configurations through a domain that you've added to Vercel, you need to add the respective DNS Records, such as MX for email or TXT for other services.

Vercel streamlines this process for common third-party services by allowing you to add missing DNS Records using DNS Presets on your dashboard.

1. From your dashboard, open Domains in the sidebar.
2. Select the domain you wish to add a preset to and click the Add DNS Preset dropdown on the right:

3. You will be presented with a list of commonly used third-party providers. If your provider is listed, select it, and the necessary DNS Records—such as MX for email or TXT for other services like Bluesky will automatically be configured on your domain.

If your provider is not listed, please refer to their documentation to find out which DNS Records you need to add.

Vercel does not host mailboxes or provide a domain email service, including for domains purchased through or transferred to Vercel. To send and receive email at an address such as you@example.com, use an email provider and add its required DNS records.

If the domain uses Vercel's nameservers, add the records in Vercel. Otherwise, add them at your current DNS provider. Adding a domain to a Vercel project does not, by itself, move its DNS records or change its email configuration.

Open the domain from your team's Domains page and select your email provider from Add DNS Preset. Follow the preset instructions, then complete any domain verification or mailbox activation required by your provider.

If your provider is not listed, add its records manually.

Use the exact record values from your email provider's setup instructions. For example, Google Workspace maintains its MX record and Gmail activation instructions.

1. Open the domain's DNS settings and select MX as the record type.
2. Leave Name blank for the root domain. For email on a subdomain, enter only that subdomain's prefix.
3. Enter the Value and Priority supplied by your email provider, then select Add. Repeat for each required MX record. Lower priority numbers take precedence.
4. Add the provider's domain verification records, such as a TXT record. Use the exact name and value the provider specifies.
5. Complete the provider's verification and activation steps. Add any email authentication records the provider requires, such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

MX records control where incoming email is delivered. Adding MX records does not create a mailbox or configure outgoing email; complete those tasks with your email provider.

If email stops arriving after a nameserver change, check that the new DNS provider has your email provider's MX and verification records. Records at the previous DNS provider no longer control delivery after the nameserver change takes effect.

1. Run dig NS example.com +short to check which nameservers are authoritative. Edit records at that provider.
2. Run dig MX example.com +short and compare the returned hostnames and priorities with your email provider's instructions.
3. Restore missing records and correct typos. Remove obsolete MX records from a previous email service, while keeping all records your current provider requires.
4. Confirm that the domain is verified and the mailbox is active with your provider. Allow for DNS propagation and any additional activation time specified by the provider.

If the published records match and delivery still fails, contact your email provider with the domain name and any delivery error. Before a future nameserver change, copy and verify the existing records, including email records.

Once you have added a domain to your Vercel project and also verified the certificate is working as expected, you can choose three options of records to finally complete the migration: A, CNAME, or Nameservers. In case you decide to use an A or a CNAME record, then you can change those records in your DNS provider to make Vercel serve your deployment from the selected domain, as instructed on your dashboard.

If you decide to change the nameservers of your domain, copy and verify the existing DNS records before switching. Include MX records for email, TXT verification and authentication records, and any subdomains hosted by external services. Keep the previous DNS service active while the nameserver change propagates.

To locate the current DNS provider of your domain, you can run the following command:

$ dig NS example.com +short

The result will show the current DNS authority. Next, you'll need to locate your DNS records from the provider's dashboard.

After you've successfully located all records associated with your domain, you may now add them to Vercel. You can either do this manually or by importing a zone file.

Importing a zone file

If you have downloaded a zone file from your existing file, you may use the following comand to upload that to Vercel:

vercel dns import [your-domain] [zonefile]

If you do not apply a custom zone file, transferring in a domain automatically applies the default Vercel DNS settings.

To verify the records, you can now query the DNS configuration that will be served by Vercel:

$ dig A api.example.com +short @ns1.vercel-dns.com

Then, check the DNS records from the existing provider to make sure they match. If you were moving your DNS from Cloudflare, for example, the correct command would be:

$ dig A api.example.com +short @example.ns.cloudflare.com

Before proceeding, we recommend checking every record you moved. For more insight into the DNS resolution, remove the +short flag.

In your registrar's dashboard (where you bought the domain), change the Nameservers to your new provider. Nameserver changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate. If you bought the domain from Vercel, you can manage nameservers from the domains page.