Scan a QR code on a computer
On a phone the camera already reads codes, so nobody needs a website for that. On a computer there is nothing: the code arrives in an e-mail, sits inside an invoice or hangs on somebody's page, and the only way out is to pick up the phone and scan your own monitor. Paste a screenshot here instead.
Paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V, drop an image here, or
The content of the code appears here
Looking for a code…
Scanned code
- 01
Get the code on your screen
The e-mail, the PDF, the page — whatever it is, take a screenshot of it. On Windows that is the Print Screen key or Win+Shift+S, on a Mac Cmd+Shift+4.
- 02
Paste it with Ctrl+V
Straight onto this page, no clicking into a field first. You can also drag the image file here or pick it from your disk.
- 03
Read what is inside
The content appears as text with a button that copies it and, if it is a link, a button that opens it — so you can see where it leads before you go there.
The picture never leaves your browser
It is read by the same engine that builds codes here, running inside this page. There is no upload, so there is no copy of your screenshot on anybody's server — including ours.
It reads what phone cameras give up on
Light code on a dark background, a code photographed at an angle, a scan with a coffee stain across it. Our reader takes 35 out of 36 difficult frames where the reader used by most software takes 33 — and the three it misses are the inverted ones.
Screenshots, photos and downloads all work
PNG, JPG, WebP, a screenshot straight from the clipboard, a photo from a phone sent over messenger. Anything a browser can display, we can read.
No account, no limit, nothing installed
Not an extension, not an app. One page that also works with the network unplugged, once it has loaded.
Questions people ask
Does my image go to your server?
No. The reading happens inside your browser, in a program we compiled for it. You can check it the way you would check any promise like this: open the network panel in developer tools and read a code — there is no upload. That is also why it keeps working with the connection turned off.
What can I read this way?
Any image file your browser can show: a screenshot from the clipboard, PNG, JPG, WebP, a photo taken with a phone. A code from a printed page works too if you hold it up to the webcam.
It says there is no code. What now?
Three things fix almost every case. Make sure the whole code is inside the picture, together with the white margin around it — a code cropped at the edge is unreadable by design. Take the screenshot at full size instead of zooming out. And if the code sits on a photograph or a busy background, crop it closer.
Can I read a code from a PDF?
Open the PDF, put the page on your screen and take a screenshot of it. We do not open PDF files directly, because that would mean uploading the document — and this page exists precisely so that nothing is uploaded.
Is it safe to scan a code someone sent me?
Reading it here is safer than pointing your phone at it, and that is a real difference: we show you the address as text before anything opens, so you can see where it leads. Codes that carry a link to a fake payment page are now a common trick, and the whole trick relies on a phone opening the address before the person reads it.