Free tool
QR Code Generator
Paste a link and get a QR code you can print. PNG for slides, SVG for anything going to a printer, and the whole thing is encoded in your browser: nothing is uploaded and no scan is ever counted.
Last updated: 2026-08-06
A QR code is the shortest route from something physical to something online. It turns a shop window, a coffee cup, a table tent, a booth banner or the last slide of a talk into a tap. For a social team it usually does one specific job: it gets someone from the thing in front of them to your profiles or your booking link without asking them to type a handle they will misspell.
This one encodes whatever text you paste, up to 213 bytes, which comfortably fits any URL you are likely to print. It uses error correction level M, the middle setting, which lets a scanner recover a symbol with roughly 15 percent of its area damaged: enough for a scuff on a sticker or a fold across a flyer. Download it as a PNG at 512, 1024 or 2048 pixels for slides and social posts, or as an SVG when it is going to a printer and needs to stay sharp at any size.
Point it at a page you control rather than at a single profile. Once a code is printed on a thousand coasters, the pattern is fixed forever, and the only thing you can still change is what sits at the far end of the link. A link-in-bio page is the usual answer: one URL on the print run, and behind it a page you can repoint at a new launch, a new booking form or a new profile whenever you want.
What this tool does not do is watch anybody. There is no redirect through our servers, no scan counter, no account step, and the link you type is never sent anywhere. The encoder is a plain function running in your tab, which also means the code keeps working if this page disappears tomorrow.
Measured in UTF-8 bytes, which is what the symbol actually holds. Plain URLs cost one byte per character, accented and non-Latin characters cost two or more.
The PNG is the size you pick, with the pattern drawn on whole pixels so no module ends up a hair wider than its neighbour. The SVG is vector, so take that one for print. Both carry the four module quiet zone and a solid white background.
Your code appears here as you type. It is built in this tab, so the link never reaches us and no scan is ever counted.
Scan the preview with your phone camera before you download it. If it reads here, it reads on paper, as long as you keep the margin and the contrast.
A finished code, for scale
This one was encoded when the page was built, by the same function the tool above runs. It is a real code, not a screenshot: point a camera at your monitor and it opens the link.
How a QR code actually works
Worth two minutes, because almost every failed print run comes back to one of these four things.
1. Modules, not pixels
Each little square is a module, and the grid is always four times the version number plus 17 modules per side. The smallest symbol, version 1, is 21 modules across; the largest offered here, version 10, is 57. More text means more modules in the same printed square, so a longer link is not just bigger data, it is physically finer detail for a camera to resolve.
2. The patterns that are not data
The three big squares in the corners are finder patterns: they tell a scanner where the code is, which way up it is, and how it is skewed, which is why a code reads at an angle or upside down. The dotted line between them is the timing pattern, setting the module grid, and the smaller squares inside larger versions are alignment patterns that correct for a curved or crumpled surface. None of it is your link. Cover a corner square and the code stops being findable at all, no matter how good the error correction is.
3. The quiet zone
The standard asks for 4 modules of blank margin all the way round. It is part of the code, not padding around it: without that clear border a scanner cannot tell where the symbol ends and the design begins. Both downloads here include it, and the most common way to break a perfectly good code is to crop it off or to let a photo, a border or a coloured panel run right up to the pattern.
4. Error correction
A QR code carries spare copies of its own data using Reed-Solomon coding, so a damaged, dirty or partly covered symbol still decodes. There are four levels, and the level is a trade: more recovery means more modules for the same link. This tool uses level M throughout.
| Level | Recovers | What that buys you |
|---|---|---|
| L, low | About 7 percent | Smallest grid for the same link, and the least forgiving. Fine on a screen, thin on anything that gets handled. |
| M, medium | About 15 percent | What this tool uses. It survives a scuffed sticker or a fold across a flyer while keeping the grid coarse enough to scan at small printed sizes. |
| Q, quartile | About 25 percent | Bought with a denser grid, so every module shrinks at the same printed width. Worth it mainly when part of the code will be covered. |
| H, high | About 30 percent | The level logo overlays rely on. It pushes the same link into a much busier symbol, which is the cost people forget when they compare two codes side by side. |
M is the level that suits printed marketing. It absorbs the wear a sticker, a coaster or a folded flyer picks up, and it keeps the grid coarse enough to survive being printed small or read from across a room. L is thinner than a physical object deserves, and Q and H buy recovery you mostly do not need by making every module smaller at the same printed width.
How much fits, version by version
The tool picks the smallest version your text fits in, so a short link produces a small, coarse, easy to scan code. Capacities below are byte mode at level M, which is what this generator uses, and the ceiling is 213 bytes.
| Version | Grid | Holds up to |
|---|---|---|
| Version 1 | 21 x 21 modules | 14 bytes |
| Version 2 | 25 x 25 modules | 26 bytes |
| Version 3 | 29 x 29 modules | 42 bytes |
| Version 4 | 33 x 33 modules | 62 bytes |
| Version 5 | 37 x 37 modules | 84 bytes |
| Version 6 | 41 x 41 modules | 106 bytes |
| Version 7 | 45 x 45 modules | 122 bytes |
| Version 8 | 49 x 49 modules | 152 bytes |
| Version 9 | 53 x 53 modules | 180 bytes |
| Version 10 | 57 x 57 modules | 213 bytes |
Versions stop at 10 on purpose. Past that the modules get too fine for the sizes these codes get printed at, and a link long enough to need version 11 is a link that wants shortening rather than a denser symbol.
Printing a code that actually scans
- Keep the quiet zone. A QR code needs a clear margin of about four modules on every side so a scanner can tell where the symbol ends. Both downloads include it already, so place the file as it is rather than cropping tight to the pattern or letting a background photo run into the edge.
- Dark on light, never the other way round. Most scanners expect dark modules on a light background, and a light code over a dark photo, a gradient or a busy image is the single most common reason a printed code fails. Solid white behind pure black is the safe choice, and it costs you nothing.
- Print it at 2 cm across at the very least, which is about 0.8 inches. A rough rule for anything further away: allow about 1 cm of code for every 10 cm of scanning distance, so a poster read from two metres wants a code around 20 cm wide.
- Test scan before the print run, not after. Open the plain camera app on two phones, one new and one old, and try it from the distance people will really stand at, in the light the code will really live in. A code that works on your desk at 10 cm can fail on a wall at 2 metres.
- Short links make lighter codes. A 25 character URL fits a version 2 symbol with 25 modules per side, while a 120 character tracking URL needs version 7 at 45 modules per side, so every module is smaller and the code is harder to read at the same printed width. Strip the campaign parameters, or use a short link.
- Give the code something to say. A bare square gets ignored. One line under it, telling people what they get for scanning it, is worth more than any styling: "Scan for the menu" or "Scan to book" beats a code sitting on its own.
Frequently asked questions
Does a QR code expire?
No. A QR code is not a record held on a server somewhere, it is your text encoded directly into the pattern of black and white squares. Nothing has to stay online for the code to keep working, no account has to stay active, and it cannot be switched off. Codes made here have no expiry because there is nothing to expire.
Can I change the link after the code is printed?
Not the code itself: the destination is baked into the pattern, so changing it means printing a new one. What you can change is where that URL leads, if the URL belongs to you. Point the code at your link-in-bio page and you can repoint that page at a new offer, a new form or a new profile as often as you like while the printed code stays valid. That is the reason to spend a moment on the destination before you print a thousand of anything.
Can I put my logo in the middle of the code?
Not in this version, and the reason is that it is a promise we cannot keep for every code. Level M error correction recovers about 15 percent of a damaged symbol, so a small logo often survives, but whether it does depends on the size of the logo, where it lands, and which modules it covers. We would rather not hand you a control that quietly produces codes failing on the one phone you did not test. Put the logo beside the code instead, in a caption or a frame, where it does the branding job without eating data.
Should I download the PNG or the SVG?
PNG if the code is going into a slide, a social post or an email, where a fixed pixel size is what everything else expects. SVG if it is going to a printer or into a design file: it is vector, so it stays perfectly sharp at any size, from a business card to a trade show banner, and it is a fraction of the file size. When in doubt for print, take the SVG.
Is my link sent to your servers?
No. The encoder runs entirely in your browser: your text becomes a grid of modules in the tab, the preview is drawn from that grid, and the PNG is rasterized on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no redirect in the middle of the link, so we never see a single scan. That also means we cannot tell you how many people scanned it, which is the honest trade for not tracking anyone.
How long can the link be?
Up to 213 bytes of UTF-8, which is the capacity of the largest symbol offered here, version 10 at error correction level M. Practically every URL fits, including long ones with campaign parameters. Accented and non-Latin characters cost more than one byte each, so the counter on the page measures bytes rather than characters, and it shows which version your text selected as you type.
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