DNS Speed Test

Run a live benchmark of three public DNS resolvers from your browser, ranked by median response time.

What this test measures. It times how fast each public resolver answers an uncached lookup from where you are right now. It cannot measure your own ISP or system resolver, and it times the full encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS round trip, so the numbers run higher than a raw UDP query. Because every lookup resolves a name under one domain, the timing also includes a shared hop to that authoritative server, so treat the result as a relative comparison between resolvers rather than an absolute latency figure.

Sends 8 uncached lookups per resolver and reports the median.

How this DNS speed test works

This DNS speed test sends a series of live, uncached lookups to each public resolver and times how long every answer takes to return. It then ranks the resolvers by their median response time, so you can see which one answers fastest from your specific location and network. The whole benchmark runs inside your browser using DNS over HTTPS (RFC 8484), the same encrypted transport modern browsers and operating systems use.

Each lookup uses a random, non-existent hostname under our domain. That forces a cache miss every single time, which is the only way to get a fair, repeatable comparison. If the test reused a popular domain, whichever resolver happened to have it cached would win unfairly. A random label sends all three resolvers down the identical full-resolution path, so the timing reflects the resolver and network rather than a lucky cache hit. Professional benchmarking tools like DNSPerf and GRC’s DNS Benchmark use the same uncached approach.

What the numbers mean

The median is the middle value across all timed lookups, which makes it more reliable than an average because one slow outlier cannot skew it. The tool also reports the fastest and slowest single lookup for each resolver, so you can see how consistent that resolver is. Lower is better, and the fastest resolver is flagged with a green bar and a “Fastest” badge.

Why a browser cannot test your own DNS

A web page cannot send raw DNS queries over UDP port 53, because browsers do not expose low-level network sockets to JavaScript. This test can only reach public resolvers that offer a DNS-over-HTTPS endpoint with permissive cross-origin headers. That is why it benchmarks Cloudflare, Google, and DNS.SB rather than the resolver your router or operating system is actually configured to use.

To find or change the resolver your device uses, check your operating system network settings or your router’s DHCP configuration. If you want to understand the resolution process itself, our guide on how DNS works walks through every step from query to answer.

Which public DNS resolver is fastest?

Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 ranks as the fastest public resolver in most independent global benchmarks, with Google Public DNS and Quad9 close behind. Real-world speed depends heavily on your physical distance to the nearest resolver data center, so your own result is the one that matters most. Run the test a few times to see a stable pattern.

Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) — generally the fastest in worldwide testing and the privacy-focused pick, with a documented policy of purging query logs within 24 hours. See the official Cloudflare resolver page.
Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) — extremely reliable, globally distributed, and consistently quick. Details are on the Google Public DNS documentation.
DNS.SB — a privacy-oriented resolver included here because it exposes a CORS-friendly DoH endpoint suitable for browser benchmarking.

Quad9 (9.9.9.9) is an excellent security-focused, nonprofit resolver, but it is not included in this browser test because its DoH endpoint does not return the permissive cross-origin headers a browser needs, so it cannot be queried directly from this page.

Should you change your DNS resolver?

Switching to a fast public resolver can shave milliseconds off every new domain lookup, which adds up across a busy browsing session. The gain is most noticeable if your ISP’s default DNS is slow or if you value the stronger privacy commitments these providers publish. Changing DNS is safe and fully reversible.

Keep in mind that DNS speed affects only the lookup step, not your raw download bandwidth. If pages still load slowly after switching, the bottleneck is likely elsewhere. Our network troubleshooting guide covers how to isolate where the delay actually lives.

Related tools and resources

Want to inspect the records a resolver returns? Use our DNS Lookup to check A, AAAA, MX, TXT, CNAME, and NS records for any domain, or read DNS records explained for a full breakdown of each type. Check how far a recent DNS change has spread with the DNS propagation checker, see the difference between IPv4 and IPv6, or find your own IP address. Browse the complete networking tools hub for everything else.