QR code checker
Will your QR code stop working? Check whether it holds its content itself or goes through a service that can switch it off, and whether it still opens. Free, with no sign-up.
The image is read in your browser and never sent. Only a web address is checked, by our server, and it isn’t kept.
Phone won’t read the code at all? Why a QR code won’t scan, and how to fix it.
What the result means
Static: it holds its content
A static code holds what it opens: the website’s address, the Wi‑Fi network, the contact card. No QR code service stands in between, so none can switch it off. It works for as long as what it holds does: a website’s address works while that website is online.
Through a service: someone else holds the switch
A dynamic code holds a short address on a service’s domain, which sends visitors on to the real page. That lets the page change after printing and lets scans be counted. But it only works while the service keeps that address on. Many services switch codes off when a free trial ends or a subscription stops, and the printed code then opens the service’s own page instead.
What to do
- If it goes through a service and still works, find out what happens to your codes if you stop paying. The service’s terms or help pages say; if they don’t, ask in writing.
- If it has stopped working, only whoever controls the address it holds can turn it back on. For a service’s address, that’s the account it was made in: the service can tell you which one from the short address.
- If you can’t get it back, make a new code and reprint it, or put a sticker with the new code over the old one.
- Before printing a new one, choose a static code when what it opens won’t change. For a code you’ll want to edit, choose a service that says in writing what happens when you stop paying.
Read more: Do QR codes expire? What can stop one, and how to avoid it.
How olinqs does it
- Static QR codes are free, with no account, and nothing of ours stands between them and what they open.
- Editable links cost $10 once. They keep working if you never pay again; only you can pause one or give it an end date.
Questions
- Do QR codes expire?
- The code itself never does: it’s a printed pattern. What can stop is the address it holds, when that address belongs to a service that switches it off, or to a website that closes.
- Why does the check say a website turned it away?
- Some websites turn away automatic visits. The code may still open on a phone: scan it to be sure.
- Can it read any QR code?
- Most, from a clear, straight photo or a screenshot. If it can’t, crop the photo around the code, or scan it with your phone and paste the link it shows.