Every "free" QR code has a price. This one just tells you upfront.

It's not free.
That's the whole point.

$25. One time. Never again. Every "100% free QR code" you'll find in Google is free right up until you need to edit it — then it's $19–$49 a month, forever, or your printed materials go dark. This one costs $25, once, and that's the entire pricing page.

Get your QR code — $25 See the receipts

ONE-TIME PAYMENT  ·  NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED  ·  IN YOUR INBOX IN ABOUT A MINUTE

Why this needs to exist

The industry's business model is your printed materials breaking.

A QR code that lets you edit the destination later has to phone home to a server every time someone scans it — which means whoever hosts it can turn it off. Most of the industry has built its pricing around that single fact: give away a free trial, wait for you to print a few thousand flyers, menus, or invitations, then cut the connection unless you pay every month, forever. It isn't a pricing model. It's a bait-and-switch, and printed materials are the leverage.

1.3 / 5

One of the largest dynamic-QR platforms carries a 1.3 TrustScore across 9,304 public reviews — overwhelmingly people describing codes that went dark when a trial or subscription lapsed.

Trustpilot public TrustScore, checked 5 September 2026. We won't print the company's name, so we can't link straight to it either — search "QR code generator" on trustpilot.com and read the top result yourself.
$300+

What it costs to reprint 100 wedding invitations when the QR code on them stops resolving. This isn't a complaint we're repeating — it's the published rate: digital printing runs $1–$3 a card, and a 100-guest digital suite lands at $300–$500 before shipping. A dead code means paying it twice.

Basis: per-card and per-suite printing rates in Paperlust's 2026 wedding invitation printing cost guide.
~$4,300

An illustrative figure, but one with the arithmetic shown rather than a scare number: a 5,000-unit run of custom printed folding-carton packaging costs roughly $0.86 a unit all-in, on top of about $300 in one-time plates and dies. Print a QR code onto that run and lose it, and reproducing the run is the same ~$4,300 again. Larger runs and installed signage only go up.

Basis: the worked 5,000-unit costing in PackMojo's custom packaging cost guide. This replaces an unsourced $5,000–$40,000 range we could not stand behind.
"…enrolled millions of consumers in subscriptions without their consent, and knowingly made it difficult for consumers to cancel." — the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, announcing a $2.5 billion settlement over subscription enrolment and cancellation, September 2025. Not a QR company — but the identical mechanic, with a price finally put on it. An anonymous forum quote used to sit here; we cut it because we couldn't trace it to a real post.

How the trap actually works

This is the playbook. Nearly every "free" QR app runs it.

The pattern is almost always identical, and it's built to be discovered too late — after you've already printed the code on something. Step one is free and fast on purpose, so you never think to check what step two costs.

A REAL, CURRENTLY-OPERATING "FREE" QR APP — PRICING AS PUBLISHED, NOT HYPOTHETICAL
Create a QR code, choose from 12 types (menu, WiFi, vCard, social media, PDF, and more) $0.00
"Limited access" trial, just to edit or activate the code you already made $1.45
"Full access" trial, same purpose, slightly higher price $1.95
Both trials silently auto-renew, every 4 weeks, forever, until you catch it $49.00
Pay for a full year upfront instead and the rate "drops" to $19.00 /mo
Not Free QR — one code, all 12 types, unlimited scans $25.00
Your first destination change $0.00
Every change after that, only when you ask for one $5.00
Our total, if you change it four times, forever $45.00

Our edit fee is on that receipt on purpose. A page arguing that this industry hides costs does not get to hide its own, so here is the whole number: $25 once, then $5 per destination change after the first — charged only in the moment you submit one, never on a stored card, never on a schedule. Change your code four times over its life and you have spent $45, total, forever.

Now price the other column honestly. $49 every four weeks is thirteen charges a year — $637. Prepaying a full year to get the "discount" is $228, and then $228 again the year after that, and again. Our $45 is less than three months of the cheapest plan on that receipt, and it is the last money we ever ask you for. Those trial prices aren't a rounded-up worst case either — they're one real pricing page, still live, for a "free" generator that turns up on the first page when you search for one.

On the payment page you'll pick your code type from a dropdown and type where it should point. Pay, and the files are in your inbox about a minute later.

Get your QR code — $25

What you get

Every type they offer. None of the monthly bill.

All 12 types, same as the "free" generatorsURL, PDF, image, video, vCard, WiFi, social media, menu, app store link, coupon, business page, or email/SMS — you pick the type and enter the destination at checkout, and the system generates the code from it automatically.
Delivered in PNG, SVG, and print-ready PDFIn your inbox in about a minute, automatically — sized correctly for print, not just screens. The three files you receive: a 1200px PNG, a vector SVG, and a 4-inch print-ready PDF, each of the same QR code.
Editable destination, any time, foreverFirst change is free. After that, $5 per change — only if you ask for one, never automatic.
Unlimited scansNo monthly cap, no throttling, no "upgrade to keep scanning" wall.
A running scan countShown on your private edit page — the same link you use to change the destination. No dashboard, no login, no account.
One payment. Ever.Nothing recurs. There is no second charge to forget about.

The honest answer to the obvious question

What happens if Not Free QR someday doesn't?

Every company selling a "lifetime" QR code eventually faces this question, and most just go quiet about it. Ours is written down, before you've paid us anything: if we ever have to wind this service down, every customer gets at least twelve months' notice, and the complete map of every code and where it points gets published publicly before the lights go out — so that you, or any other provider you choose, can rehost the redirects and keep the printed codes working without us.

What we deliberately don't promise is to migrate you to a competitor and pay for it. A one-person business cannot honour that, and a promise nobody can keep is the exact thing this page exists to complain about. What we can promise is that the one asset you'd actually need in order to survive us — the mapping between the code on your printed materials and its destination — is not locked inside a database only we can read.

That export isn't a plan for someday; it's a route that exists today. /export returns every code and its destination as JSON, and it contains no email addresses and no edit tokens by design — only what a replacement host would need to take over. It's access-controlled while we're operating, for reasons that should be obvious, and publishing it openly is precisely what "winding down" would mean.

Your printed materials should never be the ones that find out first.

QR code linking to notfreeqrcode.com/r/demo /r/demo

Don't take our word for it

Scan this. Right now, with your phone.

It's a real code of exactly the kind we sell, running through the same redirect every paid code runs through. It resolves to notfreeqrcode.com/r/demo — which you can also just tap, if you're reading this on the phone already.

Look at what the code actually encodes: our domain and a short reference, not your destination. That indirection is the whole product. It's why the printed thing never has to change when the destination does — and it's also, honestly, why every dynamic QR code on earth depends on somebody keeping a server up. What happens to ours is written down further along this page.

Get one

$25USD

One code · one payment · no recurring charge

Next is Stripe's payment page, where you pick your code type from a dropdown and type where it should point. Then it's in your inbox in about a minute.

Get your QR code →

Not working the way you expected in the first 30 days? Full refund, no argument.
Need more than one? Email hello@notfreeqrcode.com for a bulk rate on 10 or more.

Before you ask

A few things worth knowing

Is this actually a subscription in disguise?

No. You pay $25 one time. There is no plan, no tier, and nothing set up to charge your card again. If you ever see a second charge from us, it's a mistake — email us and it's reversed the same day.

What's the difference between this and a free QR generator?

A free "static" QR code that never needs to change is genuinely fine — you don't need us for that. This exists for the moment you need to edit the destination later, or want a real guarantee it won't get deactivated. Most free tools quietly convert you to that "dynamic" version and start billing you the moment you ask to change anything — see the receipt above.

Are those prices in "the receipts" section made up?

No. They're copied from a real, currently-published pricing page belonging to an actual "free" QR code app — we just don't think it's our place to make this page about one company's name. This isn't one bad actor; it's the standard model across most of the industry. Search "free QR code generator" yourself and price out the first few results — you'll find close to the same numbers.

How fast will I actually get my code?

About a minute, and nothing is queued. The moment Stripe confirms your payment it fires a webhook at our fulfillment script, which generates the PNG, SVG, and print-ready PDF, writes your code's destination into the redirect store, and emails you the files — all inside that one request. No person is involved at any point, so it works the same at 3am on a Sunday as it does on a Tuesday afternoon. If it ever takes more than a few minutes, something has broken; email us and we'll fix it.

Can I change the destination link later?

Yes, any time, using the private edit link in your delivery email — no login, updates within a minute. Your first change is free. Every one after that is $5, and you're only ever charged if you submit a change yourself. Nothing renews, nothing's automatic.

What exactly do I fill in on the payment page?

Two fields. A dropdown for the code type, and a single line for the destination. For a link, paste the URL. For the types that have several parts, separate them with a vertical bar: WiFi wants SSID | password, and a business card wants Name | Title | Phone | Email. That line is capped at 255 characters, which is Stripe's limit rather than ours. And if you fumble it, your first correction is free anyway.

Do you need my account, my password, anything like that?

No login required to buy one. Just an email address to send the files to.