QR code scanner online: scan with your webcam or phone camera

How to scan a QR code with your webcam

1. Click Start camera and allow the camera permission when the browser asks. The page must be loaded over HTTPS, which it always is here.
2. Hold the code steady in the frame, 10 to 30 cm from the lens, until the result card appears. On a phone, Switch camera picks the rear camera, and Torch lights a code in a dark room where the device supports it.
3. Read the result: a link is shown with This is a link to {host} and an Open link button; Wi-Fi shows the network and password with Copy; a contact offers Download .vcf.
4. Click Stop camera when you are done. The camera light goes off and no frames are kept.

QR code scanner online: how it works

The scanner opens your camera with the browser’s standard getUserMedia interface and passes frames to a decoding loop in a background worker, where a WebAssembly build of the ZXing engine looks for a code. The moment one is found the loop pauses, the content is parsed and the result card appears. Frames exist only in memory on your device; there is no recording, no upload and no server involved. This page carries no ads, so nothing sits over the viewfinder.

Permission, HTTPS and cameras

Browsers expose a camera only to pages loaded over HTTPS and only after you allow it; the request appears when you click Start camera, and you can revoke it in the browser’s site settings at any time. Phones usually have several cameras; Switch camera moves to the rear one, which focuses closer and reads faster. Torch turns on the flash where the browser and device expose it, mainly recent Android phones. Laptop webcams are fixed-focus and face you, so hold the code 15 to 30 cm from the lens and keep it flat.

Getting a clean read

Fill about a third of the frame with the code, keep it square to the lens and avoid glare from a glossy screen or a laminated card. The engine tolerates rotation and some perspective, but not motion blur, so hold still for a second. If nothing happens after a few seconds, move the code slightly; autofocus often settles on the second attempt.

What the result card shows

The card is the same one the image reader uses. A web address is displayed as text with This is a link to {host} and an explicit Open link button, so nothing opens by itself. Wi-Fi codes show the network name, security type and password with Copy; contact cards offer Download .vcf; email, SMS, phone, location and calendar codes are parsed into fields; anything else is shown raw. Check the host before opening: a code can contain any link, and a printed code gives no clue about its target.

When the camera is not the right tool

For a code in a screenshot or a photo you already have, the QR code reader decodes the file directly with the same engine. If a code reads fine but its link is dead, the code itself is not the problem; why QR codes stop working explains what to check.

This code never expires

The scanner shows the exact text inside a code the moment it is in frame, and a static code carries that text permanently, so what it reads today it will read in ten years. This is a static QR code: the data is written into the pattern, so scanning it needs no server, no account and no subscription. There is nothing to renew and no redirect that can be switched off, which is why a code made here keeps working for as long as the printed copy exists. The trade-off is honest: a static code cannot be edited after printing and does not count scans. If you need either, encode a link to a page you control. Read how static and dynamic codes differ, and if a code you already have has stopped working, see why QR codes expire.

Frequently asked questions