QR Code Scanner

How to use the qr code scanner

1. Choose a photo or screenshot containing the code, or start the camera.
2. Read what the code contains, and what kind of payload it is.
3. Copy the contents if you want them; nothing opens on its own.

About this tool

A QR code is a way of typing something you cannot read, which is exactly why codes stuck over the real ones on parking meters, restaurant tables and charging points have become a common fraud. The whole value of scanning one here is that nothing happens automatically: the contents are shown as text, the destination is printed rather than linked, and you decide.

It reads what a phone camera reads — QR codes, Data Matrix, Aztec, PDF417 and the common one-dimensional barcodes — from a photograph, a screenshot or the camera, and it explains what it found. A WiFi payload is named as a WiFi payload, with the warning that the password is in the code; a contact card, a calendar event and a location are each identified rather than dumped as raw text.

The honest limitation is browser support. This uses the Barcode Detection API that the browser already provides, which exists in Chrome, Edge and Android browsers and does not exist in Firefox or desktop Safari. The alternative would be bundling a decoding library of roughly a megabyte and serving it to everyone, and that is not a trade this site makes for a tool most people use once. Where the API is missing the page says so plainly instead of showing a spinner that never resolves.

Nothing is uploaded and nothing is opened. If the camera is used, the video track is stopped as soon as a code is found or the page is left, because a camera light left on after someone has moved away is a real failure and not a cosmetic one.

Common uses

• Checking where a QR code on a poster or a table actually leads.
• Reading a code from a screenshot or a PDF on a desktop machine.
• Recovering the network name from a printed WiFi code.

Frequently asked questions

Why does it not work in Firefox or Safari?

Because it uses the browser's own Barcode Detection API, which those browsers do not implement. Bundling a megabyte of decoder for everyone is the alternative, and it is not one this site makes.

Does it open the link it finds?

No, deliberately. The address is shown as text so you can read it first, which is the point of checking a code rather than pointing a phone at it.

Is the image or camera feed uploaded?

No. Decoding happens in the browser, and the camera track is stopped as soon as a code is found or you leave the page.