Wi-Fi QR Code Generator

What a Wi-Fi QR code does for your guests

Sharing a Wi-Fi password by hand goes wrong more often than it should. The password printed on the back of a router is usually a long string of random letters and digits, guests confuse a lowercase l with a capital I or a zero with the letter O, and every failed attempt means another trip to the counter or another message to the host. A Wi-Fi QR code takes the typing out of it. The guest points the phone camera at the code, the phone recognizes the network details and offers to join, and one tap later they are online.

The code contains nothing more than a short line of text in a format that phones have agreed on. For a café network it might read WIFI:T:WPA;S:CornerCafe-Guest;P:espresso-time;;, where T is the type of security, S the network name and P the password. A semicolon or colon inside your password gets a backslash in front of it so the phone reads it as part of the password, and the generator writes all of this from the form for you.

Because the details sit in the pattern itself, the code needs no internet connection to be read and doesn't expire, but it also can't be edited after printing, which the QR code generator page explains in more depth. It changes nothing on your router either. It only hands over what a guest would otherwise type, so the network behaves exactly as it did before.

Filling in the network details correctly

The network name, also called the SSID, has to match the name your router broadcasts exactly, including capital letters, spaces and dashes, so copy it from the Wi-Fi list on a connected phone or from the router's settings page rather than typing it from memory. Many routers broadcast two names, one for the 2.4 GHz band and one for the 5 GHz band, often with "5G" at the end. A code holds a single network, so pick the one you want guests on, keeping in mind that the 2.4 GHz network usually reaches further through walls.

The password is case-sensitive, so to the router "Sunflower" and "sunflower" are two different passwords. Copy it from the router's settings when you can, and look out for a space at the end, which is easy to pick up when copying and invisible on screen. A password for the usual WPA security is between 8 and 63 characters long, and the form warns you when yours falls outside that range, which usually means a character went missing. Commas, semicolons and quotation marks cause no trouble, because the generator adds the backslashes the format needs.

For the security setting, the first option covers WPA, WPA2 and the mixed WPA2 and WPA3 mode that most routers use, so it is the right one for practically every router in use today. If your router is set to WPA3 only, test the code on an Android phone as well, because some of them expect a different setting for those networks. Choose WEP only if your router still relies on that outdated and easily broken standard, in which case updating the router's security is worth more than any sticker. Choose No password for an open network, and tick Hidden network if your router doesn't broadcast its name, so the phone knows it has to look for a network that won't appear in its list.

Keeping your main network private

A Wi-Fi code is a password written in a form that machines read easily. Any scanning app shows the full text inside it, password included, and a photo of the sticker taken by a passing visitor works just as well as the sticker itself. Treat a printed code like the password written on a card on the wall: fine for a network you mean to share, and a bad idea for any other.

Many routers can run a separate guest network next to your main one, with its own name and password. Devices on it get internet access but are usually kept apart from the computers, printers and shared folders on your main network, which is exactly what you want for customers and holiday guests. Turn it on in the router's settings and put that network in the code. A code for your main network, if you make one at all, belongs somewhere private, never on a café table or the front door of a rental.

Changing the password or the network name makes every code printed with the old details useless, because each sticker still carries the old password and the router will refuse it. If you change the guest password now and then, for example between seasons in a holiday rental, keep the sticker design so a new sheet takes only minutes, and take down the old stickers at the same time. Since the password stays in your browser while you make the code, the only people who know it are the ones who have seen the printed sticker, unless you save the label design to an account in the label editor, which stores the code with it.

Where a Wi-Fi code is most useful

Cafés and restaurants usually put a small sticker on each table or a sign near the counter, so customers can get online without asking the staff. A table sticker is scanned from about arm's length, and since a Wi-Fi code holds only a few dozen characters, its pattern stays simple and readable at a modest size. The frame option adds a caption such as "Free Wi-Fi" around the code, which tells people what the code will do before they reach for their phone.

In holiday rentals and guest rooms, a framed sign by the door or a page in the welcome folder works well, because guests often arrive late and want to get online before they unpack. Offices, clinics and waiting rooms use the same idea at the reception desk or on a meeting room wall, so visitors can connect without anyone spelling out the password. Wherever the code goes, write the network name and password underneath in plain text as well, because laptops and some other devices can't scan a code and still need the details typed in.

The Print on labels button sends the finished code to the free label editor, on a square or round sticker sheet for a home printer or on a thermal printer label, where you can add the network name and password as text and print as many stickers as you need. If you'd rather start from a finished layout, the Wi-Fi QR code label page has a ready-made sticker design. A sign that people scan from a few steps away needs a much larger code than a table sticker, and the size guidance on the QR code generator page helps you pick one.

Testing the code before you print

The scan check under the preview confirms that your code holds exactly what you entered, but it can't know whether what you entered is right. A misspelled network name or a wrong capital letter in the password produces a perfectly readable code that simply doesn't connect. The real test is to join the network with it on a phone that has never been on that network, or on one where you have removed the saved network first, since a phone that already knows the network may simply stay connected.

Test with both an iPhone and an Android phone if you can, since each reads the code with its own camera app. Print one sticker first and scan it where it will be used, at the real distance and in the real light, because a glossy sticker under bright ceiling lamps can catch a reflection that a test at your desk never shows. When both phones join, print the rest, and note which password the stickers carry so that whoever next changes the router knows to replace them.