QR Code Generator — free, no watermark, no sign-up
Create a QR code from a link, text, email or Wi-Fi credentials and download it as PNG or SVG. Free, unlimited, no watermark, no sign-up, never expires.
About the QR code generator tool
A QR code is a link that survives the physical world. It puts a URL on a poster, a menu, a business card, a parcel or a shop window without asking anyone to type an address, and every phone camera made in the last decade reads one without an app. That is why they went from a niche logistics technology to something you meet several times a day.
The format handles more than links. Wi-Fi credentials encoded as a QR code let a guest join a network by pointing a camera at a card rather than reading a long random key aloud. An email address opens a composer with the recipient already filled in. Plain text works for anything that just needs to be read — a serial number, an instruction, a reference code on equipment.
A crucial property is that the code is static. It encodes the data directly, so nothing is stored anywhere, no service has to stay online, and it cannot expire or be revoked. This differs sharply from the dynamic codes marketing platforms sell, which encode a short link to their own server that redirects onward. Those can be edited after printing and can track scans, but they stop working entirely if the company disappears or the account lapses — and printed codes outlive subscriptions with some regularity.
Two practical points decide whether a code actually works in the field. Download the SVG whenever it will be printed, because it is vector and stays sharp at any size, while a PNG sized for the screen turns into a blurred grid on a poster. And keep the quiet zone — the clear margin around the code — free of other design elements, since scanners rely on it to locate the pattern and a code crowded to its edges fails in exactly the low-light conditions where scanning is hardest.
How it works
Enter what it should contain
A link, plain text, an email address or Wi-Fi credentials. Shorter content produces a simpler, more reliable code.
Set the size
Screen use is fine at a few hundred pixels. For print, take the SVG instead so it stays sharp at any dimension.
Download PNG or SVG
No watermark, no sign-up, no expiry. The code encodes your data directly and will keep working indefinitely.
Frequently asked questions
- Do these QR codes expire?
- No, and they cannot. The data is encoded directly in the pattern rather than pointing at a redirect service, so there is nothing to keep online and no account to lapse. A code printed today will scan identically in twenty years, as long as whatever it points to still exists. That is not true of dynamic codes from marketing platforms.
- What is the difference between static and dynamic QR codes?
- A static code contains the data itself. A dynamic one contains a short link to a provider's server, which redirects onward — allowing the destination to be changed after printing and scans to be counted, at the cost of depending on that provider forever. These are static, which is the right choice unless you specifically need to edit a printed code later.
- Should I download PNG or SVG?
- SVG for anything printed — it is vector, so it scales to a business card or a billboard without losing a pixel of sharpness. PNG for screens, emails and documents where a fixed-size image is simpler to place. Printing a screen-sized PNG enlarged is the most common reason a code in the wild refuses to scan.
- How small can I print it?
- About two centimetres square is the practical minimum for a short URL scanned from close range, and larger is safer. The rule of thumb for distance is that the code should be roughly a tenth of the scanning distance — a poster read from two metres wants a code around twenty centimetres. More data means a denser pattern and a bigger minimum size.
- Why will my code not scan?
- Most often it was printed too small, enlarged from a low-resolution image, or has design elements crowding the quiet zone — the clear margin around it that scanners use to find the pattern. Low contrast is the other frequent cause: dark on light works, light on dark often fails, and inverted or low-contrast colour pairings are unreliable.
- Is there a watermark or a limit on how many I can make?
- Neither. No branding is added to the image, there is no sign-up, no daily cap and no paid tier that removes a mark. Generation happens in your browser, so there is no cost to meter — you can produce a code for every table in a restaurant or every item in an inventory in one sitting.
- Is my data sent to a server?
- No. The code is computed and drawn inside your browser tab, so the URL, text or Wi-Fi password you encode never crosses the network. Wi-Fi credentials are the case where this matters most — the whole content of that code is a network password you would not otherwise paste into a website.