Bulk WHOIS and DNS Lookup for a List of Domains

You have a list of domains from a CRM export, a brand-protection watchlist or a client network, and you need to know who registered them, when they expire, where the mail goes and whether email spoofing protection is set up. The NanoScrape Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup on Apify returns that for each domain in one flat row, without API keys. We ran it on 50 European SaaS domains: it took about a minute and cost $0.151.

Difficulty: Beginner
Time: 5 minutes
Cost: $0.003 per domain plus $0.001 per run; free tier covers the first $5/month
Tools: Apify, NanoScrape Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup
Open the Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup on Apify See pricing details

In this tutorial

  1. What you get
  2. Step 1: Paste your domains
  3. Step 2: Choose what to fetch
  4. Step 3: Run and export
  5. Key output fields
  6. Connect to AI agents via MCP
  7. Example: 50 European SaaS domains
  8. Lead qualification, brand protection, IT audits
  9. Data protection note
  10. What it costs
  11. FAQ

What you get

The Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup takes a list of domains and returns one record per domain. It queries the registry's RDAP service and WHOIS together and merges them, then asks a DNS resolver (Google Public DNS by default) for the records.

STEP 1

Paste your domains

  1. Open the actor page on Apify and click Try for free. A free account includes $5 of credit every month.
  2. In the Domains field, enter one domain per line. https://www.example.com/pricing becomes example.com.
{
  "domains": [
    "spotify.com",
    "sap.com",
    "mollie.com"
  ]
}
STEP 2

Choose what to fetch

Each domain is billed once, whether you switch WHOIS, DNS or both on.
STEP 3

Run and export

  1. Click Start. The log shows one line per domain; domains are processed six at a time.
  2. Open the Dataset tab when the status reads SUCCEEDED.
  3. Use Export to download JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch /items?format=json over the Apify API.

Key output fields

Connect to AI agents via MCP

The actor is available as an MCP tool. Paste this server URL into any MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor or VS Code:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=santamaria-automations/domain-whois-dns

Then ask in plain English, for example: "Check these 20 domains and tell me which ones have no DMARC record." The example below has a longer prompt that asks for the cost first.

Example: 50 European SaaS domains

Situation: you sell email security or deliverability services and want to know how well a sector protects its mail, which mail platform it runs on and which domains are up for renewal, before you write to anyone.

We looked up the homepages of 50 SaaS and tech companies with European roots on 2026-10-21, with WHOIS and DNS both on and the default resolver. The run used the actor's own local run mode on one machine, not an Apify cloud run. It took about a minute, all 50 lookups returned a record, and none had an error. Registrant details are not shown here, only counts.

Cost: 1 actor start at $0.001 + 50 domains × $0.003 = $0.151 on the Apify Free plan, at the Store price on 2026-10-21. We ran it locally, so we paid nothing for this run.

Show the exact input with all 50 domains 
{
  "domains": [
    "spotify.com",
    "sap.com",
    "atlassian.com",
    "mollie.com",
    "adyen.com",
    "messagebird.com",
    "bird.com",
    "typeform.com",
    "personio.de",
    "celonis.com",
    "n8n.io",
    "contentful.com",
    "mambu.com",
    "deepl.com",
    "trustpilot.com",
    "elastic.co",
    "zendesk.com",
    "intercom.com",
    "pipedrive.com",
    "hotjar.com",
    "paddle.com",
    "sendinblue.com",
    "brevo.com",
    "sennder.com",
    "taxfix.de",
    "lemlist.com",
    "payfit.com",
    "alan.com",
    "qonto.com",
    "algolia.com",
    "doctolib.fr",
    "mirakl.com",
    "contentsquare.com",
    "dataiku.com",
    "ovhcloud.com",
    "sumup.com",
    "bolt.eu",
    "pleo.io",
    "unity.com",
    "klarna.com",
    "tink.com",
    "vinted.com",
    "miro.com",
    "productboard.com",
    "cleverreach.com",
    "userlike.com",
    "wefox.com",
    "awin.com",
    "zalando.com",
    "tomtom.com"
  ],
  "includeWhois": true,
  "includeDNS": true,
  "dnsRecordTypes": [
    "A",
    "AAAA",
    "MX",
    "TXT",
    "NS",
    "CNAME",
    "SOA"
  ],
  "useDNSServer": "8.8.8.8:53",
  "timeoutSeconds": 10
}

Claude prompt:

Use the Apify MCP server. Run the actor santamaria-automations/domain-whois-dns with includeWhois and includeDNS on, and these 50 domains: spotify.com, sap.com, atlassian.com, mollie.com, adyen.com, messagebird.com, bird.com, typeform.com, personio.de, celonis.com, n8n.io, contentful.com, mambu.com, deepl.com, trustpilot.com, elastic.co, zendesk.com, intercom.com, pipedrive.com, hotjar.com, paddle.com, sendinblue.com, brevo.com, sennder.com, taxfix.de, lemlist.com, payfit.com, alan.com, qonto.com, algolia.com, doctolib.fr, mirakl.com, contentsquare.com, dataiku.com, ovhcloud.com, sumup.com, bolt.eu, pleo.io, unity.com, klarna.com, tink.com, vinted.com, miro.com, productboard.com, cleverreach.com, userlike.com, wefox.com, awin.com, zalando.com, tomtom.com.
Before you start the run, tell me what it will cost and wait for my OK.
When it's done, tell me: how many domains use Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or another email provider (email_provider); how many have a DMARC record and how the policies split into reject, quarantine and none (dmarc_policy); the registrars used, most common first; the median domain age in years from whois.age_days, ignoring domains without a creation date; and which domains expire within 365 days (whois.days_until_expiry). List the domains with no WHOIS dates separately.

Lead qualification, brand protection, IT audits

Data protection note

WHOIS and DNS data about a company's domain is public technical data. Registrant fields can contain personal data when the holder is a private person or sole trader. Under the GDPR you need a legal basis to store or use it, and in most cases you will not need those fields at all. Using the results for unsolicited marketing is governed by local rules on top of that, such as the UWG in Germany and Austria and the TKG in Austria. Check them before you contact anyone. This is not legal advice.

What it costs

The actor uses pay-per-event billing on Apify. There are two events:

The two add up: 100 domains cost $0.001 + 100 × $0.003 = $0.301, and 1,000 domains cost $3.001. The free Apify tier includes $5 each month, enough for about 1,600 domains. There is no subscription.

FAQ

Which domain endings work?

Any ending that a public RDAP server or WHOIS server answers for. In our 50-domain run, .com, .io, .de, .fr, .eu and others returned a registrar. The two .de domains returned no registrar and no dates because the registry shows less data, and one .eu domain returned no dates. The DNS side works for every domain.

Do I get the owner's name and email?

Mostly not. Most registrars hide private contact data. The registrant fields in the output are filled when the registry publishes them, and often contain only a note such as "redacted for privacy" or a link to a contact form. Do not plan around personal contact data from WHOIS. For business contacts use a website crawl, such as the Website Email Scraper.

How does it know the email provider?

It reads the MX records and matches the host names against a list of providers such as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. If a company puts a mail filter in front of its mailbox, the MX points to the filter, and the result is "Other / Self-hosted". In our run, two domains were filtered through Proofpoint and showed as Other for that reason.

Does has_dkim prove DKIM is set up?

It means at least one common selector name (for example google or selector1) resolves, or a DKIM text record sits at the domain. A company with a custom selector name can show false. In our run, 48 of 50 showed true.

How current is the expiry date?

It is the date the registry reports for the current registration term, calculated against the day of the run in days_until_expiry. A domain that expires in 40 days is not necessarily at risk, because most companies renew automatically. Use the field to spot unusual ones, not to predict lapses.

Can I run it on a schedule or on thousands of domains?

Yes. Domains are processed six at a time, which keeps the load on registries low. Set a schedule in Apify Console or call the actor over the API, and compare the datasets from two runs to see changes in registrar, name servers or email provider.

Related resources

Open the Domain WHOIS & DNS Lookup on Apify Browse all actors