A WiFi QR code holds your network name, password and security type in one pattern. Point a phone camera at it and the phone offers to join — nobody spells out a 16-character password at the counter, and nobody gets it wrong.
It is the fastest way to share guest WiFi in a café, an office reception, a rental flat or a living room. The code is built here in your browser, so the password is never uploaded, and it keeps working for as long as the password stays the same.
How to make a QR code for your WiFi
Find the exact network name
Copy the name (SSID) as your phone shows it in the WiFi list. It is case-sensitive: "Cafe_Guest" and "cafe_guest" are two different networks to a phone.
Enter the password and security type
Type the password exactly and pick WPA/WPA2 unless your router is very old (WEP) or the network is open. The security type has to match, or the phone will try the right password the wrong way.
Tick "Hidden network" only if it is hidden
If the network does not broadcast its name, the code must say so, or phones will look for it and not find it. Leave it off for ordinary networks.
Test it, then download
Scan the preview with your own phone before you print. Download PNG for a printed card or SVG if a designer is placing it on a sign — SVG stays sharp at any size.
Scanning a WiFi QR code on iPhone and Android
On an iPhone, open the Camera app and hold it over the code; a "Join network" banner appears at the top. Android phones from the last several years do the same from the camera or Google Lens, and many can also read the code from a photo in the gallery.
No app is needed on either side. If a phone shows the code as text instead of offering to join, it is almost always an old device or a camera app that only reads links — the code itself is fine.
Guests on a laptop
Laptops rarely have a scanner. Print the network name and password in small type under the code so laptop users can still type it in.
Enterprise networks
Networks that ask for a username as well as a password (WPA2-Enterprise, eduroam) cannot be joined from a QR code on most phones. Make the code for a guest network instead.
A guest WiFi QR code for cafés, rentals and offices
Put the code on the network guests are meant to use, not the one your till, cameras or printers run on. Most routers can create a separate guest network in a minute, and it keeps visitors off the devices that run your business.
For holiday rentals, a code in the welcome folder answers the most common first question before anyone messages you. In an office, one at reception saves the front desk from reading the password aloud twenty times a day.
What the WiFi QR code contains
The code is plain text in a standard format every modern phone understands: the security type (T), the network name (S), the password (P) and, if needed, a hidden flag (H). Special characters such as a semicolon or colon are escaped with a backslash, which is why a password with punctuation still works.
Anyone who scans it can read the password, so treat the printed code like the password itself.
WIFI:T:WPA;S:Cafe_Guest;P:espresso\;2026;H:false;;Where to put it and how big to print it
Place it where people are when they ask: on the table card, at the till, inside the rental's welcome folder, or by the office entrance. A phone reads a code comfortably from about ten times its own width, so a 3 cm code works on a table and a 10 cm code works on a wall across a small room.
Print on matte paper if you can — a glossy laminate reflects ceiling lights straight into the camera.
Print it at least 25 mm (2.5 cm) wide
Mistakes that stop a WiFi QR code from working
A typo in the password
The phone will scan the code, try the wrong password and fail quietly. Copy the password rather than retyping it, and scan the preview before printing.
Changing the router password later
The password is inside the pattern, so the old code stops working the day the password changes. If you rotate it, print on something cheap to replace.
Choosing the wrong security type
WEP selected for a WPA2 network (or the other way round) produces a code that looks right and never connects. Check the router or your phone's network details.
Sharing the private network
A code on the wall is as good as the password on the wall. Use a guest network for anything public.
Static or dynamic for WiFi?
A WiFi code has to be static. The phone joins the network using the details written into the pattern itself, so there is no link in between that could be changed later.
That also means it never expires and can never be switched off by us — it works for as long as your network name and password stay the same. If you change the password every month, plan for a new code each time: a printed table card is easy to swap, an engraved sign is not.
How dynamic QR codes workWays people use WiFi QR codes
- A café prints the code on every table tent next to the menu.
- A holiday rental puts it on the first page of the welcome book.
- An office frames one at reception for visitors' guest network.
- A family sticks one on the fridge so visiting relatives can connect.