Make a WiFi QR Code So Guests Can Join Without Typing (Free)

Reading a 20-character WiFi password out loud is a small, recurring misery. A QR code ends it permanently.

Phones have understood a standard WiFi QR format for years. Scan one with the camera and it offers to join the network — no typing, no spelling out whether that character is a capital I or a lowercase L. It is a plain piece of text in a defined format, which means any generator that accepts text can make one.

The format

The text to encode looks like this:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:MyNetworkName;P:MyPassword;;

T is the security type — WPA covers WPA, WPA2 and WPA3, and you use nopass for an open network. S is the network name exactly as it appears, capitals included. P is the password. The two semicolons at the end are part of the format, not a typo.

Escape these characters

If your network name or password contains a semicolon, comma, colon, backslash or double quote, put a backslash before it. A password of pa;ss becomes P:pa;ss. Getting this wrong is the single most common reason a WiFi code scans but fails to connect.

Generate and test it

Paste the whole WIFI: string into the generator, set a size — 512px prints well on a small card — and download the PNG, or the SVG if you are sending it to a printer. Then test it with a phone that is not already on the network, which is the only test that actually proves anything.

A word on where you stick it

Anyone who can see the code can join, so a café counter or a guest room is fine and a front window facing the street is not. If you have a guest network separate from your main one, encode that one. Your password is only ever in your own browser — the generator runs locally and sends nothing to a server.

Make your WiFi code now — free

Paste the WIFI: string, download, print. No account needed.