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Plain QR Codes

Wi-Fi QR code generator

Guests scan once and they're online — no reading a long password off a card. The network name and password are encoded on your device and never sent to us.

Must match the network name exactly, capital letters included.

WPA covers WPA2 and WPA3 networks — phones handle the difference themselves.

Typed here, encoded here. It is never sent to us.

Tick this only if the network does not broadcast its name.

Your QR code appears here as you type.

SVG stays sharp at any size — use it for anything printed.

Customize appearance

Higher levels survive more damage but make a denser code.

Only affects PNG and JPEG. SVG scales to any size.

4 modules

The clear border around the code. Four is the specified minimum; going lower makes it harder to find.

Logo

Your image is processed on this device and never uploaded. Adding a logo switches error correction to its highest setting so there is enough redundancy to cover.

How to scan it

Both major phone platforms handle Wi-Fi codes with the built-in camera — no app required.

iPhone and iPad

Open the Camera app and point it at the code. A notification banner drops down offering to join the network; tap it, then tap Join. If nothing appears, check that Camera is allowed to scan QR codes in Settings → Camera.

Android

Open the Camera app and point it at the code, then tap the prompt that appears. On some phones this lives in the camera’s Google Lens mode instead. Android can also share a network you are already on: Settings → Network & internet → the network → Share, which generates a code for you.

A worked example

Suppose the café network is called Cafe Guest with the password flat-white-2026, secured with WPA2. Entering those produces this payload inside the code:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:Cafe Guest;P:flat-white-2026;;

Two details in there are worth knowing about, because they are the usual cause of codes that scan but don’t connect. Characters like ;, ,, : and \ are structural in that format, so a password containing them has to be escaped — this tool does it automatically. And a name made only of the letters A–F and digits, like Cafe or Beef, can be misread as a hexadecimal value, so it gets wrapped in quotes to force a literal reading. Both are handled for you; they are mentioned here because a hand-written payload usually gets them wrong.

Where to put it

  • Guest networks, not your main one. Most routers can run a separate guest network. Sharing that keeps visitors off the devices on your primary network, and means a photographed code doesn’t expose the password you use everywhere.
  • Size it for the distance. A card on a table can be small; a code on a wall people scan from across the room cannot. The size guide has a calculator.
  • Reprint when the password changes. The code encodes the password directly, so rotating it means generating a new code. That is the trade for it working without any service behind it.

Common questions

Does the QR code contain my actual Wi-Fi password?

Yes. A Wi-Fi QR code holds the network name and password as readable text — anyone who scans it, or who photographs it and decodes it later, gets the password. That is fine for a guest network on a café wall and a poor idea for your home network on a public-facing sign. The password is encoded on your device and never sent to us, but the code itself is not a secret.

Why won't my Wi-Fi QR code connect?

Almost always the network name doesn't match exactly. SSIDs are case-sensitive and often contain trailing spaces or characters that are easy to mistype. Copy it from your router's admin page or your phone's network list rather than typing it from memory. The other common cause is a 5 GHz-only network being scanned by a device that can only see 2.4 GHz.

Should I pick WPA, WPA2 or WPA3?

Choose WPA — it covers WPA2 and WPA3 networks. The QR format has no separate WPA3 value in common use, and phones negotiate the actual security level with the router themselves. Only pick WEP if your hardware genuinely offers nothing else.

What is a hidden network?

A network that doesn't broadcast its name, so it never appears in the list of nearby Wi-Fi. If yours is hidden you must tick the box, because the phone needs to be told to go looking for a network it cannot see. Ticking it for a normal network can stop the connection from working.

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