About OpenQR
OpenQR is a free, open-source QR code generator, built and maintained in the open. It exists because of a simple irritation: watermarks, paywalls and sign-up walls stacked in front of a thirty-year-old open standard that costs nothing to use.
Why OpenQR exists
A QR code is just text encoded as a square of dots (ISO/IEC 18004). There is no good reason to charge for, watermark, or track a string of text. OpenQR is built on three principles:
- Free. No watermarks, no size caps, no account: the core generator is free for everyone, forever.
- Open source. The generator is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, so you can read every line, verify what it does, or self-host it.
- Privacy-first. Static QR codes are generated entirely in your browser, so the content you encode never touches a server.
Who writes the OpenQR guides
The guides, comparisons and API docs on openqr.uk are written by the people who build and ship the product, not an outsourced content desk. The advice comes from working directly with the QR specification, error correction, real-world print and scanning quirks, and the trade-offs between static and dynamic codes day to day.
Where a claim is checkable, it is grounded in the published standard or in OpenQR's own open code rather than asserted. If something here is wrong or out of date, the source is public: open an issue and it gets fixed. And the roadmap is not a secret either: request a feature and it lands on the same pile the maintainers work from.
What might cost money
Only the parts that genuinely need a server running around the clock, and only past a generous free allowance: dynamic QR codes beyond the free plan's 1 (one printed code whose destination you can edit later), and scan-analytics history beyond the last 7 days. The API and MCP server are free for everyone. Those upgrades are the Pro plan, opt-in at £9/mo or £90/yr, and everything you can do on the homepage stays free.