QR Code Scanner & Generator

This is the fastest way on a computer. Take a screenshot of the code, then press Ctrl+V (⌘+V on Mac) on this page. No saving, no uploading.

• Windows: press Win + Shift + S, drag around the code, then Ctrl + V here.
• Mac: press ⌘ + Ctrl + Shift + 4, drag around the code, then ⌘ + V here.
• Phone: take a screenshot, then tap the box above and pick it from your photos.

Got a photo or an image file instead? Drag it onto the box or click Browse. PNG, JPG, WEBP and GIF all work. If there are several codes in one picture, we read all of them and number them on the image.

Click Camera, then Start camera, and allow access when your browser asks. Hold the code inside the frame. As soon as it reads, the camera switches off by itself.

Nothing is recorded or sent anywhere — the video stays on your device and only single frames are checked for a code. On a laptop you can pick which camera to use; on phones that support it you get a flashlight button too.

On a phone, the built-in camera app can also read QR codes. Our scanner is handy when you want to see what's inside before opening it, copy a WiFi password, or scan a code from a picture you already have.

We don't just dump the raw text. The scanner recognizes what the code is and gives you the right buttons:

A QR code can hide any link, and fake codes stuck over real ones (on parking meters, for example) are a known scam. Before you open a link, we show the full address with the real domain in bold, and we flag the usual warning signs:

• a short link (bit.ly and friends) that hides the real destination,
• look-alike characters in the domain (a classic phishing trick),
• a bare IP address instead of a website name,
• an “@” trick that makes [email protected] look like PayPal,
• a link that isn't encrypted (http instead of https).

A warning doesn't mean the link is bad, and no warning doesn't guarantee it's good. It just tells you when to look twice.

Every change to the scanner runs through an automated test on this exact page. We feed it QR codes that have been messed up on purpose and check it still reads them correctly:

• rotated 25°, upside down, and skewed as if photographed at an angle,
• blurred, covered in noise, and saved as a heavily compressed JPEG,
• light gray on white, inverted (white on black), and on a transparent background,
• tiny (90 px wide), or small inside a busy screenshot full of text,
• three different codes in one picture.

All of those pass. We also pushed to find the limits, using clean digital images: the scanner still read a code blurred by 6 px on a 396 px image (8 px was too much), a code only 55 px wide (45 px was too small), and dark squares just 25 shades darker than the background on a 0–255 scale. A real camera photo has more problems to deal with, so treat these as best-case numbers.

1. The code is cut off. The whole square must be in the picture, including the white border around it.
2. Something covers it. In our tests, covering just 5% of the middle of a normal code made it unreadable. Codes with logos are built with extra error correction to survive that; a sticker or a finger isn't planned for.
3. It's too small or too blurry. Crop or zoom in so the code fills more of the picture, and hold the camera steady.
4. Glare. Shiny menus and phone screens reflect light. Tilt slightly, or take a screenshot instead of photographing a screen.
5. It's not a QR code. Some codes look similar (Data Matrix, Aztec, app-only codes like some social media tags). This scanner reads QR and Micro QR.

Switch to Create a QR code at the top, or open the full QR code generator with logo, colors and print-ready downloads.

Want guests to join your network without typing the password? Make a WiFi QR code. Handing out business cards? A contact card code saves your details in one scan. They're free, have no watermark, and the codes never expire — the content is stored in the code itself, not on our server.