How to Create a WiFi QR Code
A Wi-Fi QR code holds the network name, the password and the security type. Phones read it natively and offer to connect. No app, no account, no service in the middle.
What you need
- The exact network name (SSID), including capitals — it is case-sensitive.
- The password, typed exactly as it is.
- The security type. WPA/WPA2 covers almost every modern router; WEP is ancient; choose Open only if the network truly has no password.
Pick the Wi-Fi tab in the generator, fill those in, and download. If your network is hidden, tick the hidden box — the code needs to say so or the phone will not find the network.
What is actually inside the code
A short line of text in a standard format that both iOS and Android understand: the network name, the password and the encryption type, separated by semicolons. The phone reads it, recognises the format, and offers to join. Nothing is sent to a server — the connection is made by your phone, directly to your router.
One thing to understand about the password
The password is written inside the code in plain text. Anyone who scans the card can join, and anyone who photographs the card can read it later with any QR reader. That is fine for a café, a waiting room or a spare room. It is not fine for the network your accounts are on.
The clean answer is a guest network. Most routers offer one: a separate name and password with no access to your computers, printers or files. Put the guest network on the card and keep the main one to yourself.
Where to put it
- A small stand on the reception desk or the bedside table.
- Printed on the back of the room card in a hotel or rental.
- Laminated on the wall near the table in a café.
- Printed as a 3D object, which is what the 3MF download here is for — it survives a table better than a laminated card.
If you change the Wi-Fi password, the code stops working. That is not a fault in the code; it is holding the old password, exactly as it was told to.