Reading a Wi-Fi password aloud — "capital S, then dollar, no, the other dollar" — is a small, universal irritation. A Wi-Fi QR code removes it: the guest points a camera, taps once, and is connected.

How it works

A Wi-Fi QR code is not magic and it is not a link. It contains a short line of plain text in a format phones understand:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:MyNetwork;P:MyPassword;;

  • T — security type: WPA (covers WPA2 and WPA3), WEP, or nopass for an open network
  • S — the network name, exactly as it appears, case-sensitive
  • P — the password
  • H — add H:true if the network is hidden

Both Android and iOS have recognised this format for years. The camera app reads it and offers to join the network.

Making one

  1. Open the QR code generator and choose Wi-Fi
  2. Enter the network name exactly — Home_5G and home_5g are different networks
  3. Enter the password and pick the security type (WPA covers almost everything modern)
  4. Download as PNG for printing, or SVG if you want to resize it without blurring

The code is generated inside your browser. Your Wi-Fi password never leaves your device, which matters rather a lot for this particular use — a generator that sends your password to a server is a bad idea regardless of what its privacy policy says.

Where to put it

  • Homes: printed on a card by the door or on the fridge, so guests never ask
  • Cafés and restaurants: on the table tent or the back of the menu
  • Offices: in the reception area, pointing at the guest network — never the internal one
  • Rentals and guest houses: in the welcome folder, saving a message at eleven at night
  • Events: on the badge or the programme

Practical notes on printing

Size. Roughly 2 × 2 cm printed is the minimum for reliable scanning at arm's length. If it will be read from across a room, scale up — a rough guide is one centimetre of code for every ten centimetres of distance.

Contrast. Dark code on a light background. Inverted codes fail on many scanners, and low-contrast pastel combinations fail on most.

Quiet zone. Leave clear white space around the code, roughly the width of four modules. Text or a border crowding the edge breaks the scan.

Error correction. Higher levels let the code survive smudges and scratches, at the cost of a denser pattern. For a card that will be handled daily, choose a higher level; for a clean printed sheet, medium is fine.

Test before printing a hundred. Scan it with an Android phone and an iPhone. It takes a minute and it has saved many people a reprint.

Security, honestly

A QR code does not hide your password. Anyone who scans it gets the network credentials, exactly as if you had read them aloud — and someone can photograph the code from across a room and read it later.

What to do about that depends on the setting:

  • At home, it is fine. Anyone in your hallway could have asked anyway.
  • In a business, put the code on the guest network only. Guest networks isolate clients from each other and from your internal machines, which is the whole point of having one.
  • In a shop window or anywhere public, do not print the code for a network you care about. Use a guest network with a password you rotate.

Other things worth a QR code

The same generator handles several formats that save more typing than a URL does:

  • UPI payment — amount and note pre-filled, so the payer only confirms
  • Contact card (vCard) — name, phone, email saved in one tap, useful on a business card
  • SMS or WhatsApp — opens a chat with your message already written
  • Location — opens map coordinates, better than an address for a venue that is hard to find
  • Plain text — a serial number, a wing and flat number, a machine ID

One caution that applies to all of them: a printed QR code cannot be changed. If the underlying detail might change — a phone number, a URL, a Wi-Fi password you rotate — either accept that you will reprint, or point the code at something stable like a short link you control.