MAKEABARCODE.ORG

QR Code Checker: Will It Expire?

Upload a photo of a QR code, or paste the link your phone shows when you scan it. We follow every hop the way a phone does and tell you plainly whether the code depends on a service that can switch it off.

Your QR code

A screenshot, a photo of the printed code, or the image file you were given.

or

Why some QR codes stop working

A QR code is ink. It can’t expire. What expires is a service sitting between the ink and your page.

Static code

what this page makes

📱 scan→yourcafe.com/menu

“Dynamic” code

most sign-up generators

📱 scan→qr-service.example/a8Xkon while the account is paid→yourcafe.com/menu

The short link is the catch

A dynamic code holds the service’s address, not yours. That lets you change the destination and count scans, but every printed copy now depends on that account staying open.

Shorter link, bigger squares

The more a code holds, the more squares it needs, and at the same printed size each square gets smaller. A short, clean address on your own website reads fastest.

Test before you print 500

Every code here is scanned back in your browser before you download it. Still, print one, and scan it with two different phones at the distance people will really stand.

Why QR codes stop working

The squares of a QR code can’t expire. When a code stops working, it is almost always because it was a dynamic code: instead of your web address, it holds a short link run by a QR service, which forwards each scan to your page. When a free trial ends or a subscription isn’t renewed, many services stop forwarding, and every menu, flyer and sign with that code starts showing an error or an “upgrade” page.

Owners usually find out from a customer. The story people tell is the same: a code from a free generator worked for a while, then an email asked for payment to turn it back on.

Fixing a code that depends on a service

  1. Check it here to find the page it currently forwards to.
  2. Make a static QR code for that address, ideally a page on your own website.
  3. Print it and replace the old codes, or sticker over them. Once the new code is in place, the old service no longer matters.

If you need to change the destination later, point the new code at a page on your own site and change that page instead. Read more in Do QR codes expire?