Image QR code scanner
Read a QR code with your camera or from a screenshot, and see what it actually contains before you act on it.
Drop a photo or screenshot of the code here, paste one with Ctrl+V, or
The picture is decoded in this tab. Nothing is uploaded.
Ready. Runs locally on your device.
Your files stay on your device. The tool works directly in your browser, using your device to process your files. Nothing is sent to our servers, and we never receive, store, or see your files or figures.
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Cite this page
Reembun. (2026, July 31). QR code scanner. https://reembun.com/qr-code-scanner
How to use it
Choose camera or image
Camera reads a code in front of you. Image or file reads a photo, a screenshot or a saved picture, including one pasted with Ctrl+V.
Point at the code
Fill the frame, hold square on and avoid glare. It reads automatically, with no shutter button to press.
Read before you tap
The exact contents are shown as text, and the type is named. A QR code hides where it goes, which is exactly what makes it useful for fraud.
Copy or open
Copy takes one result, Copy all takes every code found. Open link is offered only after you have seen the address.
What a QR code can hold
A QR code is not a link. It is a container for a string, and a handful of conventions decide how a phone interprets that string. This tool decodes those conventions rather than showing you the raw text:
| Convention | Written as | Shown as |
|---|---|---|
| Web address | https://… | The full destination, unopened |
| Wi-Fi network | WIFI:T:WPA;S:name;P:pass;; | Network, security type and password |
| Contact card | MECARD: or BEGIN:VCARD | Name, organisation, phone and email |
| Phone number | tel: | The number, with a call link |
| Text message | SMSTO: | The recipient and the message |
| Location | geo: | Coordinates, with a map link |
| Calendar event | BEGIN:VEVENT | Title, start and end |
| Anything else | Plain text | Exactly as written |
The exact contents are always available underneath, because the interpretation is a convenience and the raw string is the truth.
Why the destination is shown rather than opened
This is the one thing a QR scanner should do that most do not.
A QR code is opaque by design. Nobody can read one by looking at it, so the person holding it has no way to tell a restaurant menu from a credential harvesting page, and that is exactly what makes stickers placed over the codes on parking meters and payment terminals such an effective fraud. The scanning app that opens the link automatically has removed the only moment at which a human could have noticed.
So the address appears in full, in a box, with the open button next to it and nothing happening until you press it. Links that are not encrypted are flagged separately, because an http:// destination asking for a password or a card number is a straightforward warning sign.
Camera or image
Camera is what you want for a code on paper, a screen across the room, or a product in your hand. It scans continuously, several times a second, and stops as soon as it finds something.
Image is what you want for a code that is already on your device: a screenshot, a code in a PDF you have exported, a photo someone sent you. Paste it with Ctrl+V, drag it in, or browse. This path also works on a desktop with no camera at all.
Both use the same decoder, and both run entirely on your device.
When a code will not read
Error correction is the reason a QR code survives being creased, printed badly or partly covered by a coffee cup. Every code carries redundant data at one of four levels, and the highest recovers from about 30% of the symbol being unreadable.
That recovery is not unlimited, and it cannot help with these:
Not enough pixels. A code photographed from across a room has too few pixels per module for any amount of error correction to work with.
Glare. A code behind glass or on a glossy surface, photographed with a light source behind you, loses whole regions to reflection.
Contrast. A pale grey code on white, or a code printed on a dark photo background, may simply not have the contrast for the decoder to find the module boundaries.
Damage to the finder patterns. The three large squares in the corners are how the decoder locates and orients the code. Lose one and error correction cannot help, because the code was never found in the first place.
Making codes rather than reading them
If you need to produce one, the QR code generator builds links, Wi-Fi credentials, contact cards and plain text, and it also runs entirely in your browser.
Common questions
Does the camera video go anywhere?
No. The camera stream is attached to a video element in this tab and decoded frame by frame on your device. No frame is recorded, saved or transmitted, and the stream stops the moment you leave the page or press the button to turn it off. The browser's own camera indicator is the check you should rely on rather than our word for it.
Can I scan a QR code that is already on my screen?
Yes, and it is the reason the image tab exists. Take a screenshot and paste it with Ctrl+V, or drag the image file in. This is what you need when a code is displayed on the same phone you would otherwise have to point at itself.
Why does it show the link instead of opening it?
Because that is the entire security value of a scanner. A QR code is unreadable to a human, so it can carry a link to anywhere, and QR based fraud works precisely because people scan and tap in one motion. The address is shown in full, and opening it stays your decision.
It found nothing. What should I change?
Fill more of the frame with the code, hold the camera square to it rather than at an angle, and move so the light is not reflecting off the surface. A printed code needs about a fifth of the frame to decode reliably. If the code is damaged or partly covered, error correction can recover a surprising amount, but not an unlimited amount.
Can it read a Wi-Fi or payment code?
A Wi-Fi code is decoded into its fields, so you can see the network name, the security type and the password as separate values instead of one line of punctuation. Payment codes such as QRIS are shown as their exact contents. Nothing here initiates a payment, and no scanner in a browser should.
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