How to add an AAAA record
Two steps: get an IPv6 address from your hosting provider, then publish it as an AAAA record where your DNS lives.
1. Get the address from your host
The IPv6 address has to belong to the server or service that runs your site. Look in your host's dashboard or docs for "IPv6", "AAAA", or the DNS records they ask you to create. Some hosts give you an address. Others give you a hostname to point a CNAME at, and that hostname carries the AAAA for you. Check it here: if aaaa.bot/their-hostname says "IPv4 only", the host doesn't offer IPv6 on that path.
2. Add the record at your DNS provider
Your DNS provider is wherever your domain's nameservers point. Often that's your registrar, sometimes Cloudflare or your host. Open the DNS records page and add:
| Type | AAAA |
|---|---|
| Name / host | @ for the bare domain, www for www |
| Value | the IPv6 address from step 1, e.g. 2001:db8::1 |
| TTL | the default is fine (often 300 or "auto") |
Add one for each address your host gives you, and for www too if it has its own A record.
3. Check it
curl aaaa.bot/yourdomain.com
New records usually appear within minutes. If an old "no AAAA" answer was cached, it can take up to the record's TTL.
Things that go wrong
- Using a CNAME? Don't add an AAAA on the same name. A CNAME can't share a name with other records. The AAAA has to come from the CNAME's target.
- Cloudflare "proxied" records publish Cloudflare's own A and AAAA automatically, so the site gets IPv6 even if your origin server has none.
- Wrong address: an AAAA pointing at an address the server doesn't answer on is worse than none. IPv6 visitors get a timeout before the browser falls back to IPv4.