QR Code Scanner (Free)

1. 1

   Add the image

   Drop an image onto the scanner, choose a file, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac). On a phone, Choose image lets you pick a photo or take a new one.

2. 2

   Or use your camera

   Select Use camera, allow access, and hold the code inside the frame. The camera stops as soon as a code is read.

3. 3

   Check what the code contains

   The scanner shows what kind of content it is (a link, WiFi details, a contact card, an email, a phone number, a location, an event or plain text) and its details. For a link, read the domain first.

4. 4

   Act on it, or don’t

   Open the link, copy the content or save the contact only if it is what you expected. Nothing happens until you choose.

A QR code only stores text. What your phone does with it depends on how that text starts, so the scanner works out the type and lays out its parts:

• Links show the domain on its own line, then the full address. The scanner points out links that aren’t encrypted (http instead of https), addresses with a user name before an @ sign, international domains that could imitate a familiar one, and links to a bare IP address.
• WiFi codes show the network name, password and security type. A web page can’t join a network for you, so copy the password into your WiFi settings.
• Contact cards in vCard or MeCard format list the name, phone numbers, emails and address; a vCard can be saved as a .vcf file for your contacts app.
• Email, text message, phone and map codes show who they write to or call and what they say. Calendar codes show the event and can be saved as an .ics file.
• Anything else is shown as plain text. Codes for other apps, such as two-factor setup or payment requests, are shown but never opened.

Each result also lists the code’s format (QR, Micro QR or rMQR), its version and size in modules, and its error correction level. The scanner reads up to 12 codes in one image and numbers them on the picture. It also reads inverted codes (light on dark) and says so, since not every phone camera can.

Scanning a code is harmless in itself; the risk is what it opens. Fake codes printed on stickers and stuck over real ones on parking meters and restaurant tables, and codes in emails you weren’t expecting, lead to lookalike login and payment pages. This is known as quishing.

That’s why this scanner never opens anything by itself. A link gets an Open link button, and its domain is shown separately so a lookalike stands out: yourbank.com and yourbank-secure-login.com are different sites. Opened links go to a new tab without passing on this page’s address. Read QR code security: quishing and how to scan safely for the warning signs.

The scanner uses ZXing-C++, an open-source port of the widely used ZXing barcode reader, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs inside your browser tab. CirculateQR uses the same library on its servers to check that its AI QR art scans. If your browser can’t run it, the scanner falls back to jsQR, a JavaScript decoder.

The only thing your browser downloads is the decoder itself, just under 1 MB, from this site. It isn’t part of the page load: it is fetched when you point at, focus or use the scanner. Images and camera frames are drawn and read in memory on your device. Neither the image nor what the code contains is sent to CirculateQR or anyone else, unless you choose to open a link.

• Crop to the code. A large photo with a small code in one corner is harder to read than a close crop with a little blank space around the code.
• Use even light. Glare from glossy paper or a screen, or a shadow across the code, hides modules.
• Use a sharp image: taken straight on, in focus, and at a decent resolution. A blurry zoomed-in crop rarely works.
• For a code on a screen, take a screenshot rather than photographing the screen, which adds moiré patterns and reflections.
• Keep the blank border (the quiet zone). A code cropped right to its edge, or touching text or another image, may not be found.
• A damaged, scratched or heavily designed code may be past what its error correction can repair. A clearer image of the same code is the only fix.

The scanner reads QR codes, including Micro QR and rMQR. It doesn’t read other barcodes, such as the EAN and UPC barcodes on products, or Data Matrix codes. If a code you printed is hard to read on phones, check its size with the QR code size calculator.