QR Code Scanner

QR codes are everywhere — on menus, posters, packaging, and screens — but you do not always have your phone's camera handy, or the code might be sitting inside a photo, a screenshot, or a document rather than in front of you in person. This tool reads a QR code from any uploaded image, decoding the link, text, or data hidden inside the pattern and showing it to you as plain, readable, copyable text.

To use it, upload or drop an image that contains a visible QR code and press Scan QR Code. The tool analyses the image, locates the code's distinctive square pattern, decodes it, and displays the result immediately — if it is a web link, you'll see the full URL; if it's plain text, contact details, or WiFi credentials, you'll see exactly what was encoded, ready to copy with a single click rather than having to type it out yourself.

This is genuinely useful whenever the code you need to read is not right in front of you to scan live — a QR code that appeared in a screenshot someone sent you, a code printed in a photo of a flyer or poster, a code embedded in a PDF or presentation slide, or one you photographed earlier and want to check again without pulling out the original source. Because it reads from any uploaded image rather than requiring a live camera, it works equally well on images taken minutes or months ago.

For the most reliable results, make sure the QR code is reasonably clear and unobstructed in the photo — the whole square pattern should be visible, in reasonable focus, and not distorted by an extreme angle or heavy glare, since the scanner relies on being able to clearly identify the pattern's corner markers to read it correctly. A straight-on, well-lit photo where the code fills a decent portion of the frame will scan far more reliably than a small, blurry, or heavily angled one.

If the image contains more than one QR code, the tool reads the first clearly detectable one it finds, so for images with multiple codes it's best to crop the photo down to just the single code you actually want to scan, to avoid any ambiguity about which one was decoded.

The scanning happens entirely inside your own browser using JavaScript — the image you upload is analysed locally on your device and is never sent to a server, so whatever the code links to or contains stays private to you throughout. The tool is free to use, requires no account, and has no limit on how many images you scan.

Using this QR code scanner in Chrome (or any browser)

This tool runs as a regular webpage, so it works in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge without installing anything — on a laptop, desktop, or phone. There's no extension to add; just open this page and upload the image.

Scanning a QR code on iPhone or Android

iPhone's Camera app and Android's Camera or Google Lens can both scan a QR code live by pointing at it, which is the fastest option when the code is right in front of you. This tool is for the other common situation: when the code is already sitting inside a photo, a screenshot, or a saved image rather than in front of your camera. Just upload it here the same way on either phone.

How do QR code scanners work?

A scanner locates the three distinctive squares in the code's corners to figure out its position and orientation, then reads the black-and-white grid pattern inside to reconstruct the original link or text. This tool does exactly that, analysing an uploaded image locally in your browser rather than requiring a live camera feed.