Free QR code & barcode tools

Pick the tool by what should happen when someone scans or clicks.

• QR code — open a link, menu, form, file or plain text. Best for website links and anything that won't move. For more options, see the full QR code generator.
• Contact (vCard) QR — save your name, company, title, phone, email and website straight to the phone's contacts. Best for paper cards and badges.
• WiFi QR — join a network without typing the password. Best for offices, cafés, rentals and events.
• Barcode — Code 128 for IDs, asset tags and tickets; EAN-13 for retail products. Best for labels and cards read by laser scanners.
• Email signature — a clean signature with your details and a link to your digital card, to paste into Gmail or Outlook.

The free tools make static QR codes. The data — the URL, the contact details or the WiFi login — is stored in the pattern itself, so the code works forever and never passes through a server when scanned. The trade-off is that a static code can't be edited: if the link or details change, you need a new code.

If the code is going on something printed in volume, or you want to count scans, create a dynamic QR code instead. It stores a short link you can re-point at any time.

A vCard QR code stores your contact details directly in the code, so scanning it adds you to the phone's contacts — but the details are fixed once printed. A digital business card is a live page behind a QR code: it can show a photo, links and buttons, and you can update it any time without reprinting.

A vCard code also gets denser as you add fields. A name, phone, email and company fit comfortably; a long address and several URLs make a code that needs to be printed larger to scan reliably.

A WiFi QR code stores the network name (SSID), the password and the security type in a short text format that phone cameras recognize, for example WIFI:T:WPA;S:network-name;P:password;;. When a guest scans it, the phone offers to join the network — no typing needed.

Choose WPA/WPA2/WPA3 for most networks, WEP only for old equipment, and None for open networks. Because the password sits in the code, put WiFi codes for guest networks where only guests can see them, and regenerate the code if you change the password.

Use Code 128 for anything internal — employee numbers, asset tags, tickets and shipping labels. It encodes letters, numbers and symbols (all 128 ASCII characters), and the free tool accepts up to 40 characters.

Use EAN-13 only for retail products that have a GS1-issued number. Enter 12 digits and the tool calculates the 13th, the check digit, automatically. For bulk labels from a spreadsheet, use the barcode generator in a CardDeck account.