QR Code Scanner

Scanning on a Desktop or a Laptop

Most advice about QR codes assumes you are holding a phone. On a desktop you are not, and the phone advice is useless: there is no camera app to open and nothing to point at anything. A webcam and a browser is the whole answer, which is what this page is.

Two things make the difference on a laptop. Webcams are fixed focus, so a code held too close blurs and a code held a hand's width further back reads immediately. And they are lower resolution than a phone, so the code needs to fill more of the frame than you would expect. If the code is on your own screen rather than on paper, do not point the webcam at the screen at all. Take a screenshot and read the image directly, which skips the camera and every reflection problem with it.

When the Camera Will Not Start

This one is worth explaining properly, because the browser tells the page exactly what went wrong and almost no scanner passes that on. A blocked permission and a camera held by a video call are different problems with different fixes, and "camera not available" covers both while helping with neither.

1. 1The scanner says the browser blocked the cameraPermission was refused, or the prompt was dismissed, or the camera was blocked for this site at some point in the past. Browsers remember a refusal and stop asking.Click the padlock or the camera icon at the left of the address bar, set the camera to Allow for this site, then press start again. On iOS, Settings, Safari, Camera also has a global setting that overrides the per-site one.
2. 2The camera light comes on somewhere else, and here it failsThe browser reported that the camera exists but the system would not hand it over. On Windows and macOS a camera belongs to one program at a time.Close video calls, camera apps, and any other browser tab that has the camera open. A meeting window minimised in the background still holds the camera.
3. 3There is no camera to useThe browser found no video input at all. Common on a desktop with no webcam plugged in, and on a work machine where the camera is disabled in firmware or by policy.If the code is already a file, a screenshot or a photo, read it from the image instead. That needs no camera and no permission.
4. 4The wrong camera turns onThe rear camera is asked for and the browser gives whichever camera it prefers. On a laptop with a built-in camera and a plugged-in webcam, the built-in one usually wins.Use the camera picker above the video. It only appears once permission has been granted, because browsers withhold camera names until then.
5. 5The camera runs but no code is ever foundThe camera is working and the decoder is reading frames. Nothing in the picture decodes as a QR code.Fill more of the frame with the code, hold it square on rather than at an angle, and give it a second to settle. A code on a glossy screen often reflects a window or a ceiling light straight back at the lens, so tilt the screen rather than the camera.
6. 6It works on a phone and not on a laptopLaptop webcams are usually fixed focus and lower resolution, and they are pointing at a face rather than at an object held up close.Hold the code about a hand's width further away than feels right, so the fixed focus can resolve it, and make sure the code is lit from the front rather than backlit.

It Shows You the Link. It Does Not Open It.

A phone camera scans a code and offers to go there, usually with the address truncated to fit a notification. That is how a sticker slapped over the code on a parking meter ends up taking somebody's card details. The scan was never the dangerous part. Following it blind was.

This scanner puts the full text on screen, and where it is a web link it puts the host on a line of its own. Nothing is clickable and nothing opens by itself. It cannot tell you whether a domain is trustworthy and it does not pretend to. What it can do is show you the domain while you still have a choice.

What This Scanner Does Not Do

• This reads QR codes. Barcodes, Data Matrix and Aztec codes are different symbologies and are not supported.
• One code at a time. If several are in view, the first one located is the one reported.
• There is no torch, no zoom and no autofocus control. The browser gives a page the camera stream and not the buttons on it.
• Nothing is recorded. There is no photo, no video and no upload, and the scan list lives in this tab until you close it.
• The camera needs a secure connection, which is a browser rule rather than ours. On a plain HTTP address no web page can ask for a camera at all.

If the code is already a file, a screenshot or a photo somebody sent you, the image reader is the better tool and needs no camera at all. Going the other way, the generator decode-tests every code it makes before the download unlocks, using the same decoder that reads your camera here.

• Scan a QR code from an imageRead the code inside a screenshot or photo, see the link before you open it, and measure whether it will still scan.
• QR code generatorMake a plain QR code for a link or text, with colour and error-correction controls.
• Link to QR codeTurn a link into a code with no account, and see what Bitly, Canva and Chrome leave you owning instead.

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  Comparisons

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  Printing

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  Reference

  Offline QR Code Generators for Every Device

  What each platform already ships, the measured cost of each payload type, and how to check an offline claim yourself.

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