What is a DNS AAAA record?

DNS AAAA records map hostnames to IP addresses of hosts (computers) on the Internet, the same way DNA A records do. The fundamental difference between the two resource records is that the DNS AAAA map 128-bit IPv6 addresses (e.g. 2001:19f0:5:3c8c:5400:1ff:fe6f:aa02), whereas DNS A map 32-bit IPv4 addresses (e.g. 140.82.63.153). Since the IPv6 addresses are lengthier, they can accommodate more addresses than IPv4 addresses.

Input required to set DNS AAAA records

DNS AAAA record requires three inputs:

1. Name: This is the DNS name of a hostname. For example, the DNS name will be "www" for the hostname "www.example.com". To set up a DNS record for the root domain “example.com“, this field can be left empty or the symbol ‘@’ used instead. The DNS name must follow the limits defined in RFC1035,
   i. DNS name can have up to 250 characters, and must start with a letter (a-z), end with a letter or a digit (0-9), and can have only letters, digits, and hyphens (-) as characters.
   ii. DNS name can be split into labels using the dot (.) character, to a maximum of 8 labels. Each label can have 63 characters or less.
2. Data: For the DNS AAAA record, the data (target) is the IPv6 address of the host/computer on the Internet.
3. TTL: TTL or Time To Live is the time-span limit (in seconds) for the DNS data on the Internet. DNS caching servers use this limit while saving the record temporarily for faster DNS resolution.

Usage scope for DNS AAAA records

DNS AAAA records can map IPv6 addresses only, whereas the DNS A records map IPv4 addresses. For example, "2606:2800:220:1:248:1893:25c8:1946" is the IPv6 address of "example.com" hosted using a DNS AAAA record. Also, certain IPv6 addresses like local and reserved IPv6 address ranges, are not recommended to be hosted using DNS AAAA records.

How to host a DNS AAAA record

DNS records are hosted on the Internet through DNS hosting services. If you are using SlickAlpha DNS, check this related guide to learn how to add a DNS record on your SlickAlpha account.

How to check DNS AAAA records

DNS records can be queried directly on your system terminal using the dig command. To check your DNS AAAA records on the browser, try our free DNS Lookup tool.

Uses of DNS AAAA records

DNS AAAA records are essential in mapping IPv6 addresses of hosts to hostnames. Since IPv4 addresses are limited in range, IPv6 addresses may complement host connections on the Internet.