How to scan a QR code online
With your camera (phone or laptop)
- Press Scan with camera and choose Allow when the browser asks for the camera. On a phone the scanner asks for the rear camera; on a computer it uses the webcam, and you can switch cameras in the list that appears.
- Hold the code inside the frame. It doesn’t need to be straight — QR codes read at any angle — but it must be sharp, so move closer until it fills about a third of the picture, and add light if the room is dark.
- As soon as a code is read, the camera turns off and the result appears below. Press Scan with camera again for the next one.
From a picture or a screenshot
A QR code on your own screen — in an email, a chat, a PDF ticket or a web page — can’t be filmed by the same device. Take a screenshot instead (Windows: Win+Shift+S; Mac: Shift+Command+4; iPhone: side button + volume up; Android: power + volume down) and either press Scan an image, drop the file on the scanner, or paste it straight from the clipboard with Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac). Photos taken earlier work the same way.
For a QR code inside a PDF, screenshot the page or turn it into images with the PDF to JPG converter, then scan the image.
Do I need this, or does my phone already scan QR codes?
Honestly: most phones do. On an iPhone or iPad, open the Camera app and point it at the code, then tap the banner that appears; Apple also offers a Code Scanner control you can add to Control Center (Apple Support, “Scan a QR code with your iPhone or iPad”). On Android, the camera app of most phones reads QR codes, and Google Lens — in the Google app, the camera on many phones and Google Photos — scans them from the camera or from a screenshot in your gallery. The FBI goes further and advises against installing third-party QR scanner apps at all, because the built-in scanner is enough.
This page is for everything else: a laptop or desktop with a webcam, a QR code you received as an image or screenshot, a code you want to inspect closely before opening it, or a Wi-Fi code whose password you want to read and copy instead of joining at once. It runs in the browser, so there is nothing to install.
Is this QR code safe? How to check before you open it
A QR code is just text — usually a link — and nobody can tell where it leads by looking at the squares. Criminals exploit that (“quishing”). The U.S. Federal Trade Commission warns that scammers stick their own codes over real ones on parking meters, and send codes by email or text with invented reasons to scan: a failed package delivery, a problem with your account, a password you supposedly must change (FTC consumer alert, “Scammers hide harmful links in QR codes to steal your information”, December 6, 2023). The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center warned in a public service announcement of January 18, 2022 that criminals tamper with QR codes to steal payments.
That is why this scanner never opens anything by itself. It shows the link’s domain — the part that decides which site you reach — in large type, and flags the usual tricks:
- Look-alike domains with swapped or extra letters, or other alphabets: a Cyrillic “а” looks like a Latin “a”; the scanner shows such names in their technical form beginning with “xn--”.
- Disguised links like
https://www.yourbank.com@other-site.example/: everything before “@” is ignored, and the scanner names the site that really opens. - Link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl.com…) and bare IP addresses, which hide who is behind the link, and pages without encryption (http://).
Following the FTC and FBI advice: on posters, menus and meters, check for a sticker covering the original code. Don’t scan unexpected codes from emails or texts that push you to act fast — go to the company’s website or call a number you already know instead. Be wary of entering a login or card number on a site you reached through a QR code, and install apps only from your phone’s app store.
What the different QR codes contain
Besides links and plain text, QR codes use a few standard text formats that phones understand. The scanner recognizes them and lists their fields — these examples are parsed by the same code the scanner runs:
WIFI:T:WPA;S:Cafe\;Corner;P:espresso42;H:true;;
→ Network name (SSID): Cafe;Corner · Security: WPA/WPA2/WPA3 · Password: espresso42 · Hidden network: yes
MECARD:N:Owen,Sean;TEL:+12125551212;EMAIL:srowen@example.com;;
→ Name: Sean Owen · Phone: +12125551212 · Email: srowen@example.com
mailto:info@example.com?subject=Order%2012
→ To: info@example.com · Subject: Order 12
SMSTO:+12125551234:Running 10 min late
→ Phone: +12125551234 · Message: Running 10 min late
geo:40.7484,-73.9857
→ Latitude: 40.7484 · Longitude: -73.9857
- Wi-Fi codes start with
WIFI:, followed byT:(security: WPA, WEP, SAE for WPA3, or nopass),S:(network name),P:(password) andH:truefor a hidden network. A backslash protects the characters; , : \inside a name or password, soCafe\;Cornerin the first example is the network “Cafe;Corner”. The password is shown in plain text with a Copy button — handy on a laptop that can’t join by scanning. - Contacts come as a vCard (
BEGIN:VCARD…END:VCARD, one field per line such asFN:for the name,TEL:,EMAIL:,ORG:,ADR:) or as the shorter MeCard (MECARD:N:Last,First;TEL:…;;). - Email, phone and text message codes start with
mailto:,tel:andSMSTO:orsms:; locations withgeo:and the latitude and longitude.
Want to make one of these? The QR code generator creates them, also in your browser.
Privacy
Camera frames and images are decoded on your device. Where the browser has a built-in barcode detector (Chrome on Android and macOS, for example), the scanner uses it; elsewhere it loads the open-source jsQR decoder from this site. Either way no picture, video frame or decoded text is sent to a server, and the list of recent scans lives only in this tab — close it and the list is gone.
Frequently asked questions
Can I scan a QR code from a screenshot or a photo on my phone?
Yes. Press “Scan an image” and choose the screenshot or photo from your gallery; on a computer you can also drop the file here or paste it with Ctrl+V. On a PDF, take a screenshot of the page first.
How do I scan a QR code on my laptop?
Press “Scan with camera”, allow the webcam and hold the code up to it — a phone screen showing the code works too. If the webcam can’t focus that close, move the code a little further back, or save the code as an image and scan the file instead.
Is it safe to scan a QR code?
Scanning itself only reads text; the risk is the link inside it. This scanner never opens a link by itself: check the domain it shows, watch for look-alike spellings and shorteners, and don’t enter passwords or card numbers on a site reached through a code you weren’t expecting.
Why won’t my QR code scan?
Most failures come from blur, glare or a code that is too small in the picture. Move closer, add light, tilt the code to remove reflections, or crop the image around the code. Codes with a damaged corner square or very low contrast (light gray on white) may not be readable at all.
Does the scanner upload my images?
No. Decoding runs in your browser, the image never leaves your device, and nothing is stored on a server. The recent-scans list is kept only in the open tab.
Can it scan barcodes too?
This page reads QR codes only. Product barcodes (UPC, EAN) and other symbologies need a different scanner; to create barcodes, use the barcode generator.
Last updated: October 15, 2026