---
title: "NS record"
description: "An NS record names the authoritative name servers for a domain and delegates its DNS zone. Learn its role, delegation and its link to glue records."
url: "https://nodea.io/en/glossary/ns-record"
lang: "en"
updated: "2026-07-13"
---

# NS record

> An NS (Name Server) record is a DNS entry that names the servers authoritative for a domain — the ones that hold its zone with all the other records.

An **NS record** (*Name Server*) is a [DNS](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/dns) entry that names the *authoritative* name servers for a given domain — the ones that officially hold its zone with all the other records (A, MX, TXT and so on). An NS record performs **delegation**: it tells the rest of the internet whom to ask about entries for this domain.

## What an NS record involves

Delegation works on two levels. The top-level domain registry (e.g. *.com*) holds NS records pointing to the domain's name servers; those in turn contain identical NS records inside their own zone. A typical setup uses at least two servers, e.g. *ns1.provider.com* and *ns2.provider.com*, for redundancy. When a name server sits under the same domain as the delegated zone, you also need [glue records](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/glue-records) — IP addresses entered directly in the registry to break the loop.

## The NS record in practice

You change NS records when moving a domain's DNS hosting to a new provider — for example from the registrar's panel to an external DNS platform or a [CDN](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/cdn). Changing name servers is one of the most fundamental domain operations: once done, the whole [propagation](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/dns-propagation) of the new zone depends on the delegation TTL at the TLD level, which can be measured in hours. That is why DNS migrations are planned with a margin, keeping parallel, consistent zones at both providers for a while.

### How is an NS record different from changing name servers at the registrar?

They are two levels of the same information. Name servers set at the domain registrar (in the TLD registry) delegate the domain and take precedence. The NS records inside the zone itself should match them — a mismatch (a lame delegation) causes DNS problems that are hard to diagnose.

## Related

- [DNS](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/dns)
- [DNS Server](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/dns-server)
- [Glue records](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/glue-records)
- [DNS propagation](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/dns-propagation)
- [A record](https://nodea.io/en/glossary/a-record)

---

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