What is an AAAA record?
An AAAA record tells the internet a website's IPv6 address. It's the IPv6 version of an A record.
When you type a domain into a browser, your computer asks DNS for the site's address. It usually asks two questions at once:
- A — "what is the IPv4 address?" The answer looks like
93.184.216.34. - AAAA — "what is the IPv6 address?" The answer looks like
2606:2800:21f:cb07:6820:80da:af6b:8b2c.
If both come back, your browser races the two connections and usually uses IPv6. If only an A record exists, the site is IPv4-only.
Why "quad-A"?
An IPv4 address is 32 bits; an IPv6 address is 128 bits — four times as long. The record for IPv4 was already called "A" (for address), so the IPv6 one became "AAAA".
What it looks like in DNS
example.com. 300 IN AAAA 2001:db8::1
Name, how long to cache it (seconds), class, type, and the address. A name can have several AAAA records — the browser picks one.
Check one
Type any domain on the home page, or from a terminal:
curl aaaa.bot/example.com dig AAAA example.com +short