The short answer
A Wi-Fi QR code contains your network name, password and security type in a format phones understand. Someone points their camera at it, taps Join, and they are connected, without reading the password off a card. You can make one free in the HueQR generator: pick Wi-Fi, type the network details, download a PNG. No account is needed.
This is one of the few codes that should always be static. The content is the password itself, so there is nothing to redirect and nothing to track.
How to make one
In the free generator, under What it opens:
- Choose Wi-Fi.
- Type the network name exactly as it appears on your phone. Capital letters and spaces matter.
- Type the password. If the network has no password, choose No password.
- Pick the security type. Nearly every home and office network today is WPA. WEP is old and rare.
- If the network is hidden, tick Hidden so phones know to look for it.
- Download. PNG needs no account. SVG and PDF are free with an account.
Where to print it
Guest rooms, the fridge, a café counter, a meeting room, an Airbnb welcome card, the back of a restaurant menu. Anywhere people ask for the Wi-Fi. A small frame with the label Scan to join Wi-Fi makes it obvious what it is. Print it at 3 cm or larger so it scans from a seat.
Does it work on every phone?
iPhones running iOS 11 or later and Android phones from roughly 2018 onwards read Wi-Fi codes with the built-in camera. Older phones may show the raw text instead. Some Android models want the Google Lens button rather than a plain camera tap. If a guest gets text instead of a Join prompt, the password is still readable in it.
Security, plainly
The code is the password. Anyone who can photograph it can join, exactly as if they had read it off a card. Put it where your guests are and not in the window. For a business, consider a separate guest network with its own password, so the code never exposes the network your tills or computers use. When you change the password, print a new code; the old one stops working the moment the password does.
Should a Wi-Fi code ever be dynamic?
No. A dynamic code opens a web link first, and a phone cannot join a network from a web page. The Wi-Fi details have to be inside the code itself. Static is the right tool here, and it is free.
Questions
It is as safe as the password printed on a card. Anyone who can scan it can join. Keep it where your guests are, and use a separate guest network for a business.
Next step
Make a free Wi-Fi code
No account for PNG. Print it, stick it on the fridge, done.
Make a free Wi-Fi code