Wi-Fi QR Code Generator — Let Guests Connect Without Typing a Password

What is actually in the code

A Wi-Fi QR code is not a connection. It is a short piece of text in a format phones agree to recognise, and it looks like this:

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

T is the security type, S the network name, P the password, and H:true is added for a hidden network. That is the whole specification. The consequence is worth being clear about: the password is stored in the code as readable text. Anyone who scans it, or who photographs the printed code and decodes it later, has your password. Encryption is not part of the format and no tool can add it.

Two characters cause almost every failure: a semicolon or a colon in the password. Those are the format's own delimiters, so they have to be escaped with a backslash. This page does that for you; a number of generators do not, which is why a code with a "weird" password sometimes produces a phone that tries to connect and fails with no useful message.

The guest network case

The reason to do this at all is usually a guest network: visitors, customers in a waiting room, contractors, family. Handing over a long random password verbally is unpleasant, and the alternative most places choose — a short memorable password — is the weaker option.

A code fixes the friction rather than the password, which means you can keep the password long. If your router supports a separate guest SSID, use it and put the code on that, so a scanned code never grants access to the network your printers, cameras and file shares are on. If it does not, consider whether a printed code on a wall is something you want pointing at your main network at all.

Why generating this locally is not a small detail

On most pages here the no-upload architecture is a matter of principle. On this one it is concrete: the form above asks for your Wi-Fi password, and an upload-based generator would mean sending that password to a stranger's server, in a request that also carries your IP address — which is a rough location. That is a genuinely bad trade for a convenience.

Here the code is built by JavaScript in this tab. You can confirm nothing is sent by opening your browser's network panel before you press generate; the proof of privacy page describes the procedure.

Printing it so it actually scans

• Size. About 3cm square is reliable for a code scanned from arm's length. Below roughly 2cm, phone cameras start to struggle in ordinary indoor light.
• Quiet zone. Leave a clear white margin all the way round, roughly the width of four of the code's own squares. Trimming tight to the black edge is the most common reason a printed code stops working.
• Contrast and finish. Black on white. Not a photo background, not a dark card with a light code — some readers handle inverted codes and some do not. If you laminate, use a matte pouch; gloss throws a highlight straight back into the camera under a ceiling light.
• Placement. At eye level, not on a table under a lamp, and not somewhere a person has to hold their phone at an angle to reach.
• Test before you print thirty. Scan the on-screen code with a phone that has never joined the network. A code that works on your own phone tells you nothing, because your phone already knows the network.

How phones behave when they scan it

iPhone reads Wi-Fi codes from the built-in Camera app on iOS 11 and later. Point, wait for the banner, tap it, confirm the join. No app is needed.

Android is less uniform. Recent versions read Wi-Fi codes from the camera or from Google Lens, and Android 10 and later can also generate a code for a network the phone is already on, under the saved network's Share option — which is often quicker than this page if you are standing next to the person. Older or heavily customised Android builds may only read the code from within the Wi-Fi settings screen rather than the camera.

Both platforms show the network name and ask before joining. Neither reveals the password to the person scanning through the normal interface — though as above, the password is in the code, and anything that can decode a code can read it.

Next steps