Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) review and setup
What Google's free resolver actually offers, what it logs, and how it compares to the alternatives — plus the addresses and setup steps you need.
Is Google Public DNS good?
Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) is a fast, extremely reliable, globally distributed resolver with DNSSEC and encrypted transport. Its trade-off is privacy: it keeps a temporary log of a sample of queries and sends EDNS Client Subnet data by default, unlike some no-logging alternatives.
Addresses
Google Public DNS uses two IPv4 addresses and two IPv6 addresses. There is no separate filtered or family variant — this is the one resolver Google offers.
Primary (IPv4)
8.8.8.8 Secondary (IPv4)
8.8.4.4 Primary (IPv6)
2001:4860:4860::8888 Secondary (IPv6)
2001:4860:4860::8844
For encrypted transport, Google's DNS-over-TLS hostname is dns.google,
and its DNS-over-HTTPS endpoint is https://dns.google/dns-query. Most routers and
operating systems only need the plain IPv4 or IPv6 addresses above.
Reliability and global reach
Google runs Public DNS on the same anycast network that backs Search, Gmail, and the rest of its infrastructure. Anycast means the address 8.8.8.8 is announced from many data centers worldwide, and your query is automatically routed to the nearest healthy one. That scale is Google's strongest argument: the service has a long track record of near-total uptime, and it rarely feels the strain of regional outages the way a smaller resolver might.
In practice this makes Google a dependable default almost anywhere in the world — useful if you travel often or manage devices across multiple countries. It's also a big reason Google Public DNS appears so often in router firmware and ISP documentation as a fallback resolver.
Privacy: what Google actually logs
Keeps a temporary log for a small sample of queries (roughly 24–48h) and permanent anonymized logs. Sends EDNS Client Subnet, which can improve CDN locality but shares part of your network with authoritative servers.
Concretely, that means two things worth understanding separately:
- Temporary logging. A sample of queries, including the requesting IP address, is kept for roughly 24–48 hours before deletion — largely for abuse detection and debugging. Permanent logs are kept longer but have identifying details stripped.
- EDNS Client Subnet (ECS). Google sends a truncated portion of your IP address on to the authoritative DNS servers for the sites you visit, so content delivery networks can route you to a nearby edge server. This is a genuine speed benefit for CDN-heavy sites, but it does share a coarse approximation of your location beyond the resolver — something resolvers like Cloudflare and Quad9 disable by default.
Features
- DNSSEC validation — rejects DNS responses that fail cryptographic signature checks, protecting against certain spoofing attacks.
- Encrypted transport — supports DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS, so a network observer can't read your DNS queries in plaintext.
- No content filtering — Google Public DNS resolves every domain you ask for; it does not block malware, ads, or adult content. If you want filtering, pair it with browser or device-level tools, or consider a resolver like Quad9 or AdGuard DNS instead.
- EDNS Client Subnet — enabled by default, as covered above.
Pros and cons
Pros
- One of the largest, most established anycast DNS networks, with data centers across nearly every region.
- Consistently high uptime — Google runs it as core infrastructure alongside Search and Gmail.
- Supports DNSSEC validation, so it rejects tampered or forged DNS responses.
- Offers encrypted transport (DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS), so your DNS traffic isn't plaintext on the wire.
- Simple to remember and set up — 8.8.8.8 is the most widely documented public resolver on the internet.
Cons
- Keeps a temporary log of a small sample of queries (including the full IP address) for roughly 24–48 hours before deleting it, plus permanent logs with identifying details removed.
- Sends EDNS Client Subnet (ECS) by default, which shares part of your IP address with the site's authoritative DNS servers to improve CDN routing.
- No built-in malware, ad, or family-content filtering — it resolves everything you ask it to.
- Operated by Google, which some privacy-conscious users prefer to avoid regardless of the technical logging policy.
Who Google Public DNS suits
Google Public DNS is a strong fit if you value reliability , global coverage , and CDN locality over squeezing out the last degree of privacy. It suits people who travel and want a resolver that performs consistently across countries, IT admins who need a dependable fallback for router configurations, and anyone who wants a well-documented, encrypted resolver without configuring anything beyond two addresses. If minimizing what a resolver retains is your top priority, compare it against a resolver built specifically around that, such as Cloudflare DNS or Quad9 — see the best DNS for privacy guide for a fuller comparison.
How to set up Google Public DNS
Set your device or router's DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (add the IPv6 addresses above if your network uses IPv6). Configuration is done in your operating system's network settings or in your router's admin panel — the exact screens differ by device:
- Change DNS on Windows
- Change DNS on macOS
- Change DNS on Android
- Change DNS on iPhone
- Change DNS on Linux
- Change DNS on your router
Test it on your own connection
Documentation and reputation only tell part of the story — the resolver that's fastest for you depends on your ISP, region, and network path. Run the free DNS speed test to measure Google Public DNS's real latency from your own connection, alongside Cloudflare and other major resolvers, before you commit to switching.
Google Public DNS — questions
Is Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) safe to use?
Yes, technically — it's a stable, DNSSEC-validating resolver run by a company with strong operational security. "Safe" from a privacy angle is a separate question: Google retains a temporary log of a sample of queries and sends part of your IP to sites via ECS, which some users prefer to avoid.
Does Google log my DNS queries?
Google keeps a temporary log of a small sample of queries — including the full requesting IP address — for about 24 to 48 hours, after which it's deleted. It also keeps permanent logs with the IP address and other identifying details removed. See Google's own public DNS privacy page for the current policy.
What is EDNS Client Subnet and why does Google use it?
EDNS Client Subnet (ECS) forwards a truncated part of your IP address to the website's authoritative DNS servers, so a content delivery network can route you to a closer, faster server. It's a genuine performance feature, but it means your approximate network location is shared beyond the resolver itself — unlike resolvers that disable ECS by default.
Is 8.8.8.8 faster than 1.1.1.1?
It depends entirely on your ISP's routing and your location — there's no universal winner. Run the live DNS speed test from your own connection and compare the two directly; that result is far more meaningful than any general claim.
How do I switch to Google Public DNS?
Set your device or router's DNS servers to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 (or the IPv6 addresses if you use IPv6). Exact steps differ by operating system — see the setup guides below for Windows, macOS, Android, iPhone, Linux, and routers.