Web & Network / Generators

WiFi QR Code Generator

A WiFi QR code generator packs your network name, password and security type into one short string — WIFI:T:WPA;S:MyNetwork;P:secret;; — and draws it as a QR code a phone camera can read. Point an iPhone or an Android camera at it and the phone offers to join the network, so nobody has to read a mixed-case password off a whiteboard. This one escapes the characters that would otherwise break the format, draws the code locally, and hands you a PNG for screens or an SVG for print.

How to connect

iPhone · iOS 11+
Open the Camera app and point it at the code. Tap the Join Network banner.
Android · 10+
Open the camera or Google Lens and scan. Tap the network name to join.
Printing
Keep the white border. Print at least 3 × 3 cm, matte, dark modules on white.

Quiet zone is 4 modules, as the specification requires. Older phones without native support can use any QR reader app.

How to use

1
Type the network name
Enter the SSID exactly as the router broadcasts it, including capital letters and spaces — it is case sensitive. Chinese and emoji names work, but remember the 32-byte limit is counted in bytes, not characters.
2
Type the password
Enter the Wi-Fi password. Use Show to double-check characters that are easy to mistype. WPA passphrases are 8 to 63 characters; the tool warns you if what you typed cannot be a valid key.
3
Choose the security type
Pick WPA2 for a modern network, WPA for an old or mixed one, WEP only for legacy hardware, or Open if there is no password. Turn on Hidden network if the router does not broadcast its name.
4
Pick an error correction level
Leave it at M for a code shown on a screen. Choose H for anything printed or stuck on a wall: it makes the code slightly denser but lets it still scan when scratched, creased or partly covered.
5
Download and test it
Download the PNG for screens or the SVG for print, then scan it with your own phone before you share it. Testing takes five seconds and is the only way to know the password was typed correctly.

Key facts

WiFi payload formatA WiFi QR code holds the string WIFI:T:<auth>;S:<SSID>;P:<password>;H:<hidden>;; where T is WPA, WEP or nopass, and the payload ends with two semicolons. The H field is omitted for a visible network and P is omitted for an open one. WPA2 and WPA3-Personal networks are written as T:WPA, because that is the value phone parsers recognise.Source:ZXing WifiResultParser (de facto standard)
EscapingInside the S and P fields the five characters backslash, semicolon, comma, colon and double quote must each be escaped with a backslash. An unescaped delimiter makes the scanner stop reading at that character, which is the most common cause of a code that scans but joins with the wrong password.Source:ZXing WifiResultParser (de facto standard)
Platform supportiOS has scanned WiFi QR codes from the stock Camera app since iOS 11, and Android has done so natively since Android 10. Older Android versions need Google Lens or a QR reader app. Desktop cameras do not join networks from a code.Source:Apple and Android documentation
Error correction levelsQR codes carry Reed–Solomon error correction at four levels: L recovers about 7% of damaged codewords, M about 15%, Q about 25% and H about 30%. Higher levels make the code denser for the same content, which is the trade-off when printing small.Source:ISO/IEC 18004
Quiet zoneA QR code needs a margin of at least four modules on all four sides. Scanners locate the symbol by detecting that blank border, so cropping it away is a common reason an otherwise valid code fails to scan.Source:ISO/IEC 18004

Frequently asked questions

Does a WiFi QR code expose my password?

Yes — the password sits inside the code in plain text, and that is unavoidable: the phone has to read it to join. Treat a printed QR code exactly like a printed password. Anyone who can photograph it, or who stands in front of a poster in a shop window, gets on your network. The safe habits are the same ones you would apply to the password itself: put guests on a guest network that is isolated from your main LAN rather than on the network your own devices live on, and rotate that password every few months. Two things are worth being precise about. The code is not sent anywhere by this tool — it is drawn on your own machine, and you can verify that by opening the network panel while you type. And the danger is the printed artefact, not the file: a PNG on your laptop is no worse than the password already saved in your keychain, while a sticker in a public hallway is readable by everyone who walks past.

Does it support Chinese or other non-English network names?

Yes. The QR code is encoded in byte mode with UTF-8, so Chinese, Japanese, emoji and accented characters all survive the round trip — what a scanner reads back is byte-for-byte the name you typed. The limit people run into is not a character limit but a byte limit: an access point broadcasts at most 32 bytes of SSID, and a Chinese character costs three bytes in UTF-8, so a ten-character Chinese name is already at 30 bytes. The tool warns you past 32 bytes because such a network usually cannot exist, not because the code cannot hold it. Passwords follow the same rule in reverse: a WPA passphrase is 8 to 63 characters, and characters outside ASCII take more than one byte each. If a name or password with special characters fails to connect, check the escaping first — the five characters backslash, semicolon, comma, colon and double quote each need a backslash in front of them, because otherwise the scanner reads them as field separators and truncates the value.

How should I print a WiFi QR code?

Download the SVG rather than the PNG whenever it is going near a printer: it is vector, so it stays sharp at any size instead of turning into visible pixel blocks when scaled up. Then follow three rules that decide whether a printed code actually scans. Keep the quiet zone — the blank margin around the code, four modules wide here as the specification requires — because scanners find the code by detecting that quiet border, and cropping it off is the single most common reason a printed code is dead. Print at least 3 × 3 cm for something read from arm's length, and treat one tenth of the reading distance as the minimum side length for larger posters. And use matte paper or matte laminate: glossy surfaces reflect the room's lighting straight back into the camera's autofocus, and a code that scans perfectly on screen can fail entirely under a laminated shine. Dark modules on white is the reliable combination; inverted codes read on screens but go wrong on paper. Choose error correction level H for anything printed, so a scuff or a fingerprint costs you nothing.

Why does my phone scan the code but fail to connect?

Four causes account for almost every case, and they are worth checking in this order. First, unescaped special characters: if the password contains a semicolon, colon, comma, backslash or double quote and the generator did not escape it, the scanner stops reading at that character and tries to connect with a truncated password. Second, an all-digits password — Android follows the wpa_supplicant convention and reads an unquoted key that looks like hexadecimal as a hex key rather than as ASCII text, so 12345678 arrives as four bytes instead of eight characters; adding a letter or quoting the value fixes it. Third, the security type: WPA2 and WPA3 networks are written as T:WPA because that is what phone parsers recognise, so seeing WPA in the payload for a WPA2 network is correct, not a mistake. Fourth, WPA2-Enterprise with a username and certificate cannot be expressed in this format at all — it needs a configuration profile instead. If the network is hidden, make sure the hidden switch is on, otherwise the phone waits for a broadcast that never comes.

Can I make a code for a network with no password?

Yes — choose Open and the password field is disabled, because an open network has no key to carry. The payload becomes WIFI:T:nopass;S:CoffeeShop-Free;; with the P: field left out entirely rather than written as empty. That distinction matters: some scanners treat a present-but-empty password as a real credential and prompt for one, which defeats the point of the code. This is the right setting for a guest network in a café, a lobby or a meeting room, and it is the safest thing to put on a public poster precisely because there is nothing secret in it. It is also worth knowing what you are offering: an open network sends its traffic in the clear, so anyone in range can capture it. Use it for visitor access, not for anything you would not say out loud.

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