Authoritative DNS servers

Authoritative DNS servers are the go-to source for a domain's DNS records. They store the official and most up-to-date information, including IP addresses, mail servers, and other important details about the domain.

When you register a domain, you choose the authoritative DNS servers that will manage its DNS records. These servers are usually provided by your domain registrar or a third-party DNS hosting service.


Non-authoritative DNS servers

Non-authoritative DNS servers, also called recursive or caching DNS servers, don’t hold the official DNS records for domains. Instead, they act as intermediaries, forwarding DNS queries to authoritative servers and storing the responses temporarily in a cache.

Most ISPs and organizations use non-authoritative DNS servers to handle user requests efficiently. These servers cache the DNS records they retrieve from authoritative servers for a certain duration (set by the DNS record’s TTL value), which helps speed up future queries and reduce internet traffic.