A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that encodes any short piece of text in a pattern of black and white squares. Modern phones decode them instantly with the built-in camera, which is why QR codes are everywhere from restaurant menus to login prompts to event badges. This generator turns any text you type into a QR code in your browser, with no upload and no third-party service. The most common payloads are short URLs, plain text, phone numbers (use the tel: prefix), email addresses (mailto:), Wi-Fi credentials (special WIFI: syntax), and contact cards (MECARD: or BEGIN:VCARD). You can adjust the error-correction level to make the code more robust to dirt or partial obscuring at the cost of slightly larger and denser output. Download the result as a PNG image for printing or copy the SVG markup for sharp scaling at any size.
Frequently asked questions
The theoretical max is about 4,296 alphanumeric characters or 2,953 bytes, but practical scanning becomes unreliable well before that. For URLs, keep them under 100 characters when possible; for plain text, under 250 characters. Use a URL shortener if you need to encode a longer link.