QR Code Generator
Pick what it should do, design it, and download it. No account, no watermark.
Build your code
Free, no account, and the code never expires. Nothing you type is uploaded.
Every QR code is a container for a short piece of text, and almost everything that makes one useful comes down to two decisions: what you put inside it, and what file you take away. Put a plain address inside and any camera opens a page. Put a contact block inside and the phone offers to save a person. Put network credentials inside and it offers to join. The square looks identical in all three cases, which is why the choice of type is the first thing this generator asks.
The second decision is the file, and it is the one people get wrong. A screen needs pixels; a printer needs outlines. Downloading a small bitmap and enlarging it for a poster produces the soft, stair-stepped edges that make a scanner hesitate, and no amount of care in the design stage recovers from it. Choosing a vector file at that point costs nothing and removes the problem permanently.
Everything below runs in your browser. The text you type is encoded on this page and never reaches a server, and the result is yours to use commercially with nothing overlaid on it.
Ten things a code can hold
The type decides what the phone offers to do after the scan, so it is worth matching to the action you actually want. A link to a contact page and an encoded contact card both end with someone having your number, but only one of them saves without typing.
If you are unsure, a web address is the safe default: it works on every device ever made, and anything you can express as a page can be reached through it.
- Website address — opens a page. The most compatible option there is
- Contact card — offers to save a name, phone, e-mail and company
- Wireless network — offers to join without typing the password
- Plain text — shows words. Useful on equipment labels and packaging
- E-mail, SMS and phone number — opens a pre-filled message or a dialler
- Calendar event — offers to add a date, time and place
- Location — opens map coordinates
- Payment — encodes a bank transfer request for a banking app
Which file to download
There are four, and the honest summary is that two of them are for screens and two are for print. A bitmap has a fixed pixel grid and looks exactly as sharp as the size it was made at. A vector file stores the modules as shapes, so it prints crisply at a business-card size and a billboard size from the same download.
Resolution is offered from 512 up to 4096 pixels for the bitmap formats. The upper end is not decoration: a code printed across an A2 poster at 300 dpi genuinely needs several thousand pixels along its side, and asking for it now is easier than discovering the shortfall at the printer.
- PNG — sharp edges, transparent background supported. The default for screens
- WebP — the same image at a smaller file size, for pages where weight matters
- SVG — outlines, not pixels. Scales to any size and edits in design software
- PDF — outlines in a page a print shop can accept without questions
How big to print it
A camera needs enough modules in its frame to read the pattern, and the working rule is a ratio of about ten to one: the printed side should be roughly a tenth of the distance the scanner will stand at. Two metres away, that is a twenty-centimetre square. Across a car park it is a great deal more than people expect, which is why van livery and building signage are where undersized codes fail most often.
Leave the quiet margin alone. The blank border around the pattern is part of the specification rather than styling, and cropping it to fit a layout is a common way to make a code that scans in the design file and not on the wall.
Error correction, and the cost of asking for more
Four levels of redundancy are available, and they let a code survive damage — a scratch, a fold, a logo placed over the middle. The highest level tolerates roughly a third of the pattern being unreadable.
Redundancy is not free. Every level adds modules, and more modules in the same printed square means each one is smaller and needs a closer or better camera. The useful default sits in the middle: enough tolerance for a laminated menu that gets handled all day, without inflating a code that has to stay legible from across a room. Reach for the highest level when something will genuinely cover part of the pattern, not as a precaution.
- L — about 7% recoverable. Clean screens only
- M — about 15%. The sensible default for most printing
- Q — about 25%. Handling, folding, outdoor use
- H — about 30%. Necessary when a logo sits over the centre
Why the preview says verified
A generator can produce a square that looks correct and cannot be read, and the usual causes are design choices rather than bugs: too little contrast between the modules and the background, a logo grown until it covers data, or a gradient that fades one corner into its backdrop.
So the preview does not take the drawing on trust. It renders the code, converts it to an image and reads it back with an actual decoder, then compares what came out against what went in. The badge appears when that round trip succeeded, which means it is a measurement of this specific design rather than a general assurance. When a change breaks readability, it says so before you print several hundred of them.
Questions people ask
Is it really free, and is there a catch?
The generator is free with no account and no watermark, and the codes it makes are yours to use commercially. Static codes carry their content directly, so they work without us existing. Paid plans exist for the separate thing of editing a code's destination after it is printed and seeing scan analytics.
Does the code expire or stop working?
A static code cannot expire. The content is inside the pattern rather than on a server, so nothing we do or stop doing affects it. Anyone telling you a code must be renewed is describing their own redirect service, not the format.
Can I put my logo in the middle?
Yes, and the middle is the right place — the three large corner squares are how a camera finds and orients the pattern, so cover those and reading fails. Keep the logo under about a fifth of the width, raise error correction to the highest level, and check that the verified badge is still showing afterwards.
Which format should I send to a printer?
PDF, or SVG if they ask for it. Both are vector, so the print shop can place the code at any size without loss. Send a bitmap only when the final size is already fixed and you generated it at that size or larger.
Do you see what I type into the generator?
No. Encoding happens in your browser, so the address, password or contact details never leave the page. That is also true of the download, which is produced locally.
Can I change where the code points after printing it?
Not with a static code — its content is fixed in the pattern. That is what a dynamic code is for: the printed square holds a short link that we redirect, and you edit the target whenever you like. Ours keeps redirecting even if you stop paying.
Related generators
Need to change it after printing?
That is a dynamic code — and ours keeps redirecting even if you cancel.