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DNS test: check your resolver's speed and reliability

Run a live DNS test to see whether your resolver answers, how fast it responds, and how often it succeeds — directly from your browser, with nothing installed and nothing stored.

DNS Speed Test

Each resolver is queried 8 times (plus 2 warm-up, excluded) — more lookups give a steadier, more accurate median but take longer. Measures 34 resolvers in your browser: verified where the resolver allows it, otherwise an approximate round trip.

Runs entirely in your browser. We measure how quickly each resolver answers a fresh lookup over encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS — no downloads, no account, nothing stored.

What a DNS test actually checks

DNS test

A DNS test measures whether a resolver answers domain lookups, how quickly it answers, and how reliably it succeeds across repeated attempts — the three things that determine how fast the DNS step of loading a page feels.

Some tests also check DNSSEC validation, a security feature separate from speed.

Every time you visit a website, your device asks a DNS resolver to translate the domain name (like example.com) into an IP address before it can request the page. A DNS test measures that one step in isolation, across the resolver options available to you:

Reachability
Does the resolver answer at all? A resolver that times out or refuses to respond fails the most basic requirement, no matter how fast it is when it does work.
Latency
How long each lookup takes, in milliseconds. Lower is better, but consistency matters as much as the raw number — see jitter below.
Reliability
The share of lookups that succeed across several attempts. A resolver that answers 19 times out of 20 is less trustworthy than one that answers all 20, even if the 20th is a touch slower.
Jitter
How much response times vary from one lookup to the next. A resolver with low jitter feels predictable; one with high jitter causes occasional stalls even if its average looks fine.
DNSSEC support
Whether the resolver validates DNS Security Extensions signatures, which protect against forged DNS responses. This is a security check, not a speed check — a resolver can be fast and still skip validation.

How a DNS test differs from a speed test

A general internet "speed test" measures bandwidth — how many megabits per second your connection can move once data starts flowing. A DNS test measures something that happens earlier and separately: how long it takes to look up the address before any data transfer begins. The two are unrelated in what they measure, even though people often use "speed test" loosely for both.

A faster resolver can shorten the brief delay before a page starts loading, particularly on the first visit to a new site, which makes browsing feel snappier. It does not increase your download or upload bandwidth, and it will not make a slow website load large images or video any faster once the connection is established.

How to run a DNS test here

  1. Scroll to the test panel above and choose a mode — Quick, Standard, or Detailed.
  2. Start the test. Your browser sends several fresh, randomized lookups to each resolver over encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS and times each response.
  3. Read the results: each resolver is ranked by median latency, with jitter and reliability shown alongside so you can spot a resolver that is fast but inconsistent.
  4. Run it again on a different network or at a different time of day if you want to confirm the result — network conditions shift, and the most consistent winner across a few runs is the one worth trusting.

For a full breakdown of every metric — median, average, minimum, jitter, and reliability — see the complete DNS speed test and the DNS benchmark guide. For the exact technical process behind every number, including what a browser can and cannot measure, read the methodology.

Common reasons a DNS test fails or looks wrong

If the test won't complete, shows no results for a resolver, or reports unusually high latency, the cause is almost always something between your browser and the resolver rather than the resolver itself:

  • VPNs. A VPN routes your traffic — including DNS — through its own servers, often in a different region. This can hide a resolver's real reachability or add distance that inflates latency. Test with and without the VPN to see the difference.
  • Content filtering and parental controls. Network-level or router-level filtering can intercept, redirect, or block lookups to certain resolvers, causing a "failed" result even though the resolver itself is healthy elsewhere.
  • Corporate or school networks. Managed networks frequently force all DNS traffic through an internal resolver, ignoring the address your device requests. Public resolvers can appear unreachable in this environment even though they work fine at home.
  • Browser extensions and privacy tools. Ad blockers, tracker blockers, and some antivirus suites can intercept or drop the encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS requests this test uses. Try disabling them temporarily if a specific resolver consistently fails.
  • Router-level DNS overrides. Some routers rewrite DNS requests to a fixed resolver regardless of what your device asks for, which can make every resolver in the test show the same result.

DNS test — frequently asked questions

What does a DNS test actually check?

A DNS test checks whether a resolver answers lookup requests (reachability), how quickly it answers (latency), how consistently it succeeds across repeated attempts (reliability), and in some cases whether it validates DNSSEC signatures. It does not check your internet download speed.

Is a DNS test the same as an internet speed test?

No. An internet speed test measures how much data your connection can move per second — your bandwidth. A DNS test measures how quickly a resolver translates a domain name into an IP address, which is a separate, much smaller step that happens before a page starts loading.

Why did my DNS test fail or show no results?

The most common causes are a VPN or corporate network routing DNS traffic elsewhere, a browser extension or firewall blocking outbound requests, or a resolver that filters or redirects the test's lookups. Try again on a different network, or temporarily disable a VPN and see if the test completes.

What counts as a good DNS test result?

A good result is a resolver that answers reliably (close to 100% success), with low, consistent latency and low jitter. There is no single "good" millisecond number that applies to everyone — it depends on your location and connection, so compare resolvers against each other rather than against a fixed target.

Does a secure DNS test check encryption too?

This test measures resolvers over encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS, so every result you see already reflects an encrypted transport. "Secure DNS" can also refer to DNSSEC validation, which is a separate property listed for each resolver in the feature comparison.