QR Code Scanner
Read a QR code from an image or your camera. Decoding happens in your browser, so no picture or video is uploaded.
The camera is off. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.
How to scan a QR code from an image
You do not need an app. A browser with camera access reads a code directly, and a saved picture can be decoded without any camera at all. That second case is the one a phone cannot handle.
- 1
Choose camera or image
Press Start camera to scan something in front of you, or switch to the image tab to read a code from a screenshot or photo already on your device.
- 2
Line up the code
Fill a good part of the frame with the code and hold steady. Detection happens automatically, so there is no shutter button to press.
- 3
Check what it says
The decoded text appears in full so you can read it before acting on it. Copy it, or open it directly if it turns out to be a link you trust.
When you need to scan
A camera and a browser is all it takes.
Codes on your own screen
A QR code picture scanner reads a code from a screenshot or email on the same device, where pointing a camera at it is impossible.
Scanning on a computer
A QR code scanner for PC needs no install here. Use the webcam, or drop in an image file.
Restaurant menus
Open a menu code without installing whatever app the sticker suggests.
Checking before you tap
See exactly where a poster or sticker code leads before you decide to visit it.
WiFi details
Read a guest network code to see the network name and password as plain text.
Tickets and passes
Confirm a booking code contains the reference you expect.
Codes sent by message
Save the image and decode it here instead of finding a second device to point at the screen.
Faded printed codes
Photograph a worn code and try the image tab, which often reads what a live camera cannot hold focus on.
Why scan in a browser instead of an app
Every phone sold in the last several years scans QR codes from the camera app with nothing installed. So the interesting question is not how to scan a code in front of you, it is what to do about the ones you cannot point a camera at.
The case a phone cannot solve
Someone sends you a code. It is on the screen you are holding. There is no second device in the room, and a phone cannot photograph itself.
That is where a QR code scanner from image earns its place. Save the picture, drop it in here, and the pattern is decoded from the file. No camera involved, no focus to get right, and it works on a screenshot of a screenshot.
Scanning on a desktop
Laptops have webcams but no built-in scanner, which is why a QR code scanner online exists at all. Point the webcam at a printed code, or upload the file if the code arrived digitally.
This runs in any desktop browser with nothing to install, so an online QR code scanner is often the fastest route on a machine you do not administer.
Do you need an app
Almost certainly not. Searches for a QR code scanner app, a QR code scanner app iPhone, a QR code scanner app for iOS, a QR code scanner app Android, an iPhone app QR code scanner or an Android app QR code scanner mostly predate the camera doing it natively.
On any current iPhone or Android device, open the camera and point it at the code. A QR code scanner Android users already have is sitting in the camera app. A notification appears. Nothing needs downloading, and a scanner QR code application from a store is usually just an advertising wrapper around a feature you already have. The same is true of the Google Lens QR code scanner. People search for a Google Lens QR code scanner app, but it is built into Google Photos and the Google app, so there is no separate scanner QR code Android download to find.
What none of that covers is a saved image on a desktop, which is exactly the gap this page fills.
Your camera feed stays local
The video never leaves your device. Frames are decoded in the page by the ZXing library, nothing is recorded, and no image is uploaded. The same applies to a file you scan.
The camera only starts when you press the button, and stops when you leave the page or press stop. This is a free QR code scanner with no account, and a QR code scanner online free of sign-up walls is the only sensible kind, because a scanner has no reason to know who you are.
Read the link before you open it
A QR code is unreadable to a human, which makes it a convenient way to disguise a destination. Stickers placed over legitimate codes on parking meters and restaurant tables are a real and growing scam.
The decoded text is shown here in full before anything happens. Read the address, check the domain is what you expect, and only then decide to open it.
Getting a clean read
Nearly every failed scan comes down to focus, framing or light.
- Fill the frame. A code that occupies a third to two thirds of the view reads far more reliably than a small one in the corner.
- Hold still for a moment. Phone and laptop cameras need a beat to focus, and a blurred pattern cannot be decoded.
- Include the white border. The quiet zone around the code is what tells the scanner where the pattern ends.
- Avoid glare. Tilt glossy paper or a screen slightly so reflections do not wash out part of the code.
- Use the rear camera on a phone, since it is usually much sharper than the front-facing one.
- If the code is already on your screen, use the image tab instead. It is quicker and never fails on focus.
Questions, answered
How scanning works and what to do when a code will not read.
Upload the image file instead of using the camera and the code is read straight from the picture. This is the case a phone cannot handle, meaning a QR code you were sent, saved or screenshotted instead of one in front of you.
Related tools
Other things you can do here without signing up.