How to use it
- On a phone, press Start camera, allow the camera and point it at the code; the back camera is used where there is one. Results appear as soon as a code is read.
- On a computer, or for a code in a screenshot, choose Image or screenshot and pick the file, drop it on the box, or paste it with Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac).
- Read the result. Links show the website they really go to before you open them; Wi-Fi codes show the network name and password; contact cards, email addresses, phone numbers, text messages and map locations are laid out plainly. Copy what you need.
Check the link before you open it
In December 2023 the US Federal Trade Commission warned in a consumer alert that scammers hide harmful links in QR codes, for example by sticking their own codes over the ones on parking meters or sending codes by email or text, and advised checking the web address a code leads to before opening it. This scanner never opens a link by itself. It shows the site’s name (with internationalised domain names in their raw “xn--” form, so a look-alike address cannot hide behind similar letters) and flags links that are not https.
What it reads
Decoding is done by zxing-cpp, an open-source barcode library, compiled to WebAssembly and served from this site, so camera frames and images never leave your device. It reads QR and Micro QR, Data Matrix, Aztec and PDF417, and the common straight-line barcodes: EAN-13 and EAN-8, UPC-A and UPC-E, Code 128, Code 39, Code 93, ITF, Codabar and DataBar. A UPC-A barcode is an EAN-13 with a leading zero, so the page shows both forms.
How well it reads, measured
On October 15, 2026 we made one code of each type with zxing-cpp’s own writer, then six harder versions of each, and uploaded all 70 images to the page in Chromium. Every clean code was read (10 of 10), and 46 of the 70 images in total:
| Code | Clean | Tilted 23° | One-third size | Blurred | Light on dark | 4% noise | Photo (JPEG) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QR code | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Micro QR | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Data Matrix | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Aztec | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| PDF417 | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | – |
| EAN-13 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | ✓ |
| UPC-A | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | – | ✓ |
| Code 128 | ✓ | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Code 39 | ✓ | – | – | – | – | ✓ | ✓ |
| ITF | ✓ | – | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ | – |
Square 2D codes (QR, Aztec, Data Matrix) survive tilting, blur and inversion best; long straight-line barcodes are the fussiest, especially when tilted, blurred or printed light on dark. If a code will not scan, hold the camera level with it, move closer so it fills the frame, and add light. A QR code shown to Chromium’s test camera was read from the live camera too, and the parser for Wi-Fi, contact, email, phone, text message and location codes passed every case we tried, including Wi-Fi names and passwords containing the escaped characters ; and :.
Sources
- zxing-cpp (Apache-2.0) and its WebAssembly build zxing-wasm 3.1.4 (MIT).
- US Federal Trade Commission consumer alert “Scammers hide harmful links in QR codes to steal your information” (December 2023), as reported by CNBC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Built by Derek Giordano · Part of Ultimate Design Tools