WiFi QR code generator

Type the network name and its key, and you get a code a guest scans to be offered the network — plus, if you want it, a printed guest card with the network on it. Free, no account, and the password never leaves the request that built the code.

What it does, and why it is here

A WiFi QR code is not a picture of your network. It is a short string in a defined format — WIFI:T:WPA;S:name;P:key;; — that phones recognise and turn into an offer to join. Writing it by hand is possible and goes wrong for one reason: the format uses punctuation as structure. A semicolon, a colon, a comma, a backslash or a quotation mark inside your name or your key has to be escaped, or the string breaks in the middle and the phone joins nothing, or the wrong thing.

That is exactly the case where a code fails after it has been printed and stuck on a wall — which is why this tool also tells you, before you print, what the phone will actually do with what you typed: whether it will offer to join, and where it will hesitate.

The everyday reason to want one is smaller and better: a guest key that is long and random is the right kind of key, and it is also the kind nobody can read off a fridge magnet. The code removes the reading, so the key can stay long.

What you fill in

• Network name (SSID) — exactly as it appears in the list of networks, capitals included. Phones match it literally; “Chez-Paul” and “chez-paul” are two networks.
• Password — typed here, used to build the code, and kept nowhere. It is never put in the page address either, which is why there is no share link that carries your key.
• Security — WPA/WPA2/WPA3, WEP, or open. Getting this wrong is the second most common reason a code scans and then fails to connect.
• The network does not broadcast its name — tick it for a hidden network, so the phone is told to look for it rather than expecting to see it.
• Size in pixels — larger for print.
• Make a guest card — a card carrying the network name and the code, to print or to send, with a second box deciding whether the key is written on it in plain text.
• Several networks, one per line — name,password,security, up to 20. The PDF comes back as one A6 card per line, yours first: a cottage with a network per floor, a small hotel, a coworking space.

What you get back

• Your WiFi code, downloadable as a PNG or an SVG — the SVG for anything a printer will handle, since it stays sharp at any size.
• What the phone will do — a verdict worked out from what you typed, for current iOS and Android behaviour, before the code goes on a wall. This is the check that a generator handing back only an image cannot give you.
• A guest card, when you asked for one — ready to print at A6 or to send as an image, with or without the key written out.
• A sheet of cards, when you pasted several networks — one A6 card per line, laid out to cut, drawn as text rather than as a stretched screenshot so the name is legible at arm’s length.

What it does not do

It cannot make a code for a network you are not the owner of the key to, because you have to type that key. And it does not work for the “captive portal” networks in hotels and airports, where joining is a web page with a login rather than a key — there is nothing for the format to carry.

It also does not put your password behind anything. A card with the key printed on it is a card anyone can photograph, and a code on a wall is a network anyone in the room can join: this is a convenience for guests, not an access control. If that matters, a guest network separate from your own is the answer, and every modern router has one.

Security types, and the characters that need escaping

The two fields that decide whether the code works at all.

And the punctuation: ; : , \ and " are structural in the WIFI format, so any of them inside your network name or key must be escaped with a backslash. The tool does that for you — it is the reason a hand-written code with a semicolon in the key silently connects to nothing.

Questions

Is it free? Do I need an account?

Free, no account, no limit.

Is my password stored, or sent anywhere?

It is sent once, over the encrypted connection, to build the code — then forgotten. Not stored, not logged, not indexed, and never written into the page address, which is why this tool offers no shareable link of your input.

Can I share a link that opens the form already filled in?

Not with the key in it, deliberately. A link carrying a password lands in browser history, in server logs and in whatever chat app forwarded it.

My code scans but the phone will not connect.

Three usual causes: the security type is wrong; the SSID does not match exactly, capitals included; or the network is hidden and the box was not ticked. The compatibility line in the answer catches most of these before printing.

Does it work for a hidden network?

Yes — tick the box. Without it the phone waits to see a network that never announces itself.

Can I use it for a hotel or airport login page?

No. Those are captive portals: joining means a web page, not a key, and the format has nothing to carry.

What size should I print it?

About 3 cm across is enough for a card on a table read at arm’s length; 8 to 10 cm for something on a wall across a room. The guest card is already laid out for the first case.

Can I add a logo in the middle?

Not here. It can be done in general with high error correction, but a WiFi code is scanned once by a guest standing up, and it should simply work.

Sources and further reading

• QR code — the symbol, its versions and error correction.
• Wi-Fi Protected Access — what WPA2 and WPA3 change, and why WEP is not an option.