aiodns

What it is and what it does

aiodns wraps pycares to provide asynchronous DNS resolution within asyncio applications. Instead of blocking on DNS lookups, it returns futures that resolve when the DNS query completes, allowing your event loop to handle other work concurrently. The main API is the DNSResolver class, which offers methods like query_dns() for standard lookups, gethostbyaddr() for reverse lookups, getaddrinfo() for socket-style resolution, and getnameinfo() for address-to-hostname conversion.

The package supports a wide range of DNS record types (A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, SRV, NS, SOA, CAA, NAPTR, PTR, ANY) and returns results as pycares DNSResult objects with answer, authority, and additional sections. Version 4.x introduced a new query_dns() method returning native pycares types; the older query() method remains for backward compatibility but is deprecated. The resolver is designed to be long-lived and reused across many queries rather than created and destroyed frequently.

Use it for:

• Resolve hostnames to IP addresses asynchronously in web servers or network clients without blocking the event loop.
• Perform bulk DNS lookups (MX, TXT, CNAME records) in background tasks or monitoring tools.
• Implement reverse DNS lookups (gethostbyaddr) in logging or security audit systems.
• Build DNS-aware service discovery or load balancing logic that queries multiple record types.
• Test DNS resolution behavior in asyncio-based test suites using the async context manager pattern.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Provides asynchronous DNS resolution for asyncio applications using the pycares library, supporting query types including A, AAAA, MX, CNAME, TXT, and others.

Yes. aiodns is a stable, actively maintained package (Production/Stable status, recent release, 594 GitHub stars) with low install friction and no known vulnerabilities. It fills a clear need for non-blocking DNS in asyncio applications. The MIT license is permissive. Install it if you need asynchronous DNS resolution in an asyncio codebase; the single dependency (pycares) is well-established. Avoid only if you have no asyncio requirement or prefer the standard library's synchronous socket.getaddrinfo().

Install

aiodns on PyPI

pip install aiodns

uv add aiodns

poetry add aiodns

Installing aiodns

Before you install

Low install friction with a single runtime dependency (pycares). Active maintenance with a recent release 86 days ago; supports current Python versions (3.10–3.14). Repository shows 594 stars and ongoing development.

License in practice

MIT license (permissive) allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart

import asyncio
import aiodns

async def main():
    resolver = aiodns.DNSResolver()
    result = await resolver.query_dns('example.com', 'A')
    for record in result.answer:
        print(record.data.addr)

asyncio.run(main())

Requires Python 3.10 or later; on Windows with custom non-thread-safe pycares builds, requires asyncio.SelectorEventLoop or winloop instead of ProactorEventLoop.

Verify before relying

• Whether the Windows event loop limitation (ProactorEventLoop incompatibility with non-thread-safe c-ares) affects prebuilt pycares wheels in practice.
• Performance characteristics and typical query latency compared to synchronous DNS resolution.

Package facts

Evidence: aiodns-4.0.4-py3-none-any.whl

Tags

More Networking packages