QR codes

Every short link comes with a QR code. The code contains the short link, so each scan goes through useClick, is counted in the link's analytics, and follows the link's settings such as geo-targeting or expiration.

Before you start

• QR codes are included on every plan, including Free.
• If the code will be printed, put the link on your custom domain and choose its back-half first. The code encodes the exact short URL, so changing the domain or back-half later breaks printed codes.

Open a link's QR code

The QR code dialog opens from several places:

• The QR icon on a link's row in Short links, or Show QR code in the row's ··· menu.
• The QR code button on the link's analytics page.
• The QR code button in the Your short link is ready dialog right after you create a link.

The create-link dialog also shows a live QR preview of the short link while you type.

Customize and download

1. Under Colour, pick Ink, Purple, Petrol or Amber, or use the rainbow swatch to choose any custom color. The background is always white.
2. Under Size, choose S (256 × 256 px), M (512 × 512 px) or L (1024 × 1024 px). The size applies to the PNG, the SVG and the copied image.
3. Download or copy it:
   • Download PNG for documents, slides and social posts.
   • SVG for print, since it scales to any size without blurring.
   • Copy image to paste it straight into another app. If your browser does not allow copying images, download it instead.

Files are named after the back-half, for example qr-code-spring-sale.png.

Track QR code scans

• A scan is a normal click on the short link and appears in the link's analytics: time, country, device and so on.
• Camera apps do not send a referrer, so scans usually show up as Direct in Traffic sources.
• To see QR scans separately from other clicks, create a dedicated short link just for the QR code, for example spring-sale-flyer. Add a UTM tag such as utm_medium=qr if you also want to see it in your website's analytics tool. See UTM builder.

Good to know

• Dark colors on the white background scan most reliably. Test a printed code with a couple of phones before a large print run.
• On paid plans you can change where a link points with Edit link (Destination URL) without changing its QR code, because the code only contains the short link.
• If the link expires, reaches its click limit or is deleted, scanning the code no longer leads to the destination.
• Public stats pages have a QR code button too, so people you share stats with can grab the code. See Public dashboards.

Related guides

• Create your first short link
• Custom domains: branded short links for print
• Link analytics
• Link expiration