Let guests connect to your WiFi without typing the password.
Enter the network name and password. Download a code any phone camera can read. Stick it on the wall and stop reciting your password to every guest.
Where these earn their keep
Cafes and restaurants
One code on a table tent replaces the same conversation forty times a day. Guests connect while they wait for the coffee.
Airbnb and holiday lets
A code on the fridge means no midnight message asking for the password, and no reading out a password with an ambiguous l or I in it.
Offices and reception
Visitors and contractors get online without anyone finding the IT person. Print it for reception, print it again for the meeting rooms.
The details, for anyone who wants them
Is a WiFi QR code secure?
No. It stores the network name and password as plain text and verifies neither. Anyone who can photograph the code can decode the password, so put it on a guest network rather than the one your own devices sit on.
What is actually inside the code?
Not a link. A short line of text in a format phones have understood for years, like WIFI:T:WPA;S:CafeGuest;P:flatwhite2026;H:false;; where T is the security type, S the network name, P the password and H whether the network is hidden. The phone recognises the format and offers to join.
Which security type should I pick?
The network name is case sensitive, so type it exactly as the router broadcasts it. For security type, WPA covers WPA, WPA2 and WPA3. WEP only applies to routers old enough to replace. An open network uses nopass and ignores the password field.
Does it work with a hidden network?
Yes, as long as you set the hidden flag when you create it. Without that flag the phone searches for a network that is not broadcasting its name and gives up.
My password has special characters in it. Problem?
Semicolons, colons, commas, quotes and backslashes are part of the format's own syntax, so they have to be escaped inside the password. A generator that skips this quietly produces a code that decodes into nonsense. Paste your password in as it is and we handle it.
Does it work on both iPhone and Android?
iPhones since iOS 11 and Android phones since Android 10 read them in the stock camera app. Point, tap the banner, done. Older Android phones need a scanner app, which in practice means about one guest in fifty needs a hand.
Can I use one for a company or university network?
No. Networks where each person signs in with their own username and password, like eduroam or most corporate WiFi, cannot be encoded this way. The format only carries a single shared key.
Can my phone already do this?
Android can. Open WiFi settings, tap the connected network, and there is a share button with a QR code. That is handy for one guest standing next to you. It gives you a screenshot, not a file you can print at a useful size.
Will it still scan on a small table tent?
A long password makes a denser code, which needs more paper at the same readability. That catches people out on table tents where the space is fixed. Keep the margin around the code clear, choose matte over gloss so downlights do not throw glare back at the camera, and keep it off the fold. More on printing QR codes.
What happens when I change my WiFi password?
The code stops working, and there is nothing to update because nothing is stored on our side. Generate a new one and replace the printed copies the same day, so guests are not scanning a dead code.