Scan a QR code online - no camera needed
Drop an image, paste a screenshot or upload a photo. The code is decoded right here in your browser and the picture never leaves your device.
Drop an image here, or choose a file
PNG, JPG, WEBP, GIF, BMP or SVG - up to 25 MB
How to scan a QR code from a picture
The whole flow is shorter than reading about it. For what happens on the other side of a scan, this walkthrough traces a scan end to end.
Get the code as a picture
A screenshot, a photo from your camera roll, an image saved from a chat or an email attachment. If the code lives in a PDF or a slide, screenshot that part of the screen.
Drop, paste or pick
Drag the file into the box above, click it to browse, or just press Ctrl+V after taking a screenshot. All three land in the same place.
Read what came out
The result arrives as a typed card: a link shows its full address before you open it, a Wi-Fi code shows the network and password, a contact card lists its fields.
When the camera app is the wrong tool
Phone cameras handle the poster on the wall. These five situations are what they leave behind.
The code is on the screen you are working at
A QR in a webinar slide, an invoice PDF or a documentation page - and you need it to open on this computer, in this browser, where your session and passwords live. Pointing a phone at the monitor opens it on the wrong device. Screenshot, paste, done.
Someone sent the code as an image
Tickets, boarding passes, payment codes and event invites travel through messengers as pictures. Saving the image and scanning it here skips the second-device dance entirely.
The camera app gives up on it
Low light, glare on laminate, a crumpled label, a code smaller than a postage stamp. A still photo can be retried at several sizes - this scanner does exactly that, and reads codes a live viewfinder skips.
You do not trust the sticker
A code pasted over another code on a parking meter deserves inspection, not an instant open. Photograph it, read the destination here as text, and decide with the full address in front of you.
Proofing your own file before print
You exported a QR for a poster and want certainty the artwork still scans and points at the right page. Drop the print file's preview here - cheaper than finding out from the printed batch.
Check the link before you open it
A QR code is a link you cannot read with your eyes - which is exactly what makes it useful to scammers. Fake parking tickets, tampered restaurant stickers and phishing flyers all rely on one thing: the victim scanning with a camera that opens the destination instantly.
This scanner breaks that step. It decodes the code into text and stops, so the address sits in front of you before any page loads. Our guide to QR code safety goes deeper into how these scams are built.
What to look at in the revealed address
The domain, read right to left
The part just before the first slash is who you are visiting. paypal.com.verify-account.info is not PayPal - the real owner there is verify-account.info.
A shortener is a blindfold
bit.ly and friends hide the destination behind a second hop. Legitimate, but also the favorite wrapper of every QR scam. Extra caution, not automatic trust.
Urgency in the payload
Fine amounts, account locks, prize deadlines. Pressure to act fast is a scam's core mechanic in any medium, QR included.
Found a code pointing somewhere malicious? Report it - especially if the code was made with our generator.
Eight things a QR code can carry
The scanner recognizes the format and shows a card built for it, not a wall of raw text.
Website link
Full URL, shown before it opens
Wi-Fi access
Network name, security, password
Contact card
vCard and MeCard fields
Address, subject and message
Phone number
With a click-to-call action
Text message
Number and prefilled SMS
Map point
Coordinates, opens in maps
Plain text
Anything else, shown verbatim
Your image stays on your device
Most online scanners upload your picture to a server to decode it. This one does not - the decoder ships to your browser instead.
Nothing is uploaded
The decoding library runs inside your browser tab. The image is read from memory on your machine and is never sent to us or to anyone else.
Nothing is stored
There is no scan history on our side because the scan never reaches our side. Close the tab and no trace of the image or the result exists anywhere but your clipboard.
Nothing to wait for
No upload also means no upload time. A screenshot decodes in a fraction of a second, and a large photo takes about as long as opening it.
Scanning questions, answered
How do I scan a QR code that is inside a PDF or a document?
Do you see or keep the images I scan?
Why did my image come back with no code found?
Can it read barcodes too?
Can I scan with my camera on this page?
Is it safe to scan a QR code from an unknown source?
There are several QR codes in my picture - which one gets read?
What does it cost?
Reading codes is half the story
The other half is making your own: styled, tested and with scan statistics behind it. The generator is as free as the scanner.
Free forever.
No account needed.