QR Code Scanner

Check where a code leads before you open it

The whole risk of a QR code is that you cannot read it before you scan it. A link in an email can be inspected by hovering; a printed square cannot. By the time your phone has opened the page, you are already there.

This scanner shows the destination as text and stops. Nothing opens automatically, and the link is never followed on your behalf. If the address is not what you expected, you close the tab and nothing has happened.

It also flags the specific tricks used to disguise a destination: domains written with characters that look identical to familiar ones, credentials that hide the real host, shortened links whose final target is invisible, and unencrypted connections.

What it reads

Links, plain text, WiFi credentials, contact cards, email and SMS messages, phone numbers, locations and calendar events. Each is broken into readable fields rather than shown as a raw string — a WiFi code becomes a network name and a password, not WIFI:T:WPA;S:...

The raw content is always available too, exactly as encoded. Nothing is normalised or rewritten, because the point of a scanner is to show you what is actually there.

Nothing is uploaded

The image is read with your browser’s own file API and decoded locally. There is no server involved, so there is nothing to receive your photo, your WiFi password or the link you scanned.

The camera, when you choose to use it, is never opened on page load — only when you press the button. It stops the moment a code is found or you leave the page.

Frequently asked questions

Is it safe to scan a QR code?

A QR code cannot install anything, run anything or read your data. It contains text. Nearly every real attack ends the same way: a web page asking you to type a password. Reading the destination first — which is what this page does — defeats most of them.

Can I scan a QR code from a screenshot?

Yes, and that is the most common use. Upload the screenshot and it is decoded the same way as a photo. This is useful when the code arrives inside an email or a document you are reading on the same device you would scan with.

Why can it not read my image?

Usually glare, low contrast, or too little of the frame taken up by the code. Crop closer, avoid reflections, and make sure the whole code including its blank margin is visible. A partially cropped code cannot be decoded at all.

Does it work offline?

Once the page has loaded, yes. Decoding is computation, not a lookup. You can disconnect entirely and keep scanning.

Do you store what I scan?

No. There is nowhere to store it — the decoding happens in your browser and the result never travels. You can verify this by watching the network tab in your developer tools while you scan.