WiFi QR Code Generator with Printable Card

The code holds one line of text in a format ZXing introduced for "Wi-Fi network config (Android, iOS 11+)", which phone cameras now read natively. The Wi-Fi Alliance later standardized the same WIFI: format in its WPA3 specification:

WIFI:T:WPA;S:Cafe Guest;P:coffee-and-cake-2026;;

The phone reads the fields, asks the person to confirm, and joins. Nothing is sent to any server: the network details are in the pattern itself, so the code works offline and never expires.

Choose WPA/WPA2/WPA3, which writes T:WPA. The WPA3 specification says that when the type is present, "its value is set to WPA and it indicates password-based authentication is used". A WPA3 phone then uses WPA3 (SAE), and an older phone uses WPA2, on the same code.

Some generators write T:SAE for WPA3 networks. That value is not in the specification, and not every phone accepts it. If your router runs WPA3 only and you want phones to refuse a WPA2 fallback, turn on WPA3 only: it adds R:1, the specification's Transition Disable flag, which devices that do not understand it simply skip.

WEP is only for very old routers; it is easy to crack, so switch to WPA2 or WPA3 if you can. None is for open networks such as a café with a sign-in page.

The format uses ; to separate fields and : after each letter, so those characters must be escaped inside a value. Following ZXing, the generator puts a backslash before \, ;, ,, " and ::

Name:     Bob's Wi-Fi; 5G
Password: p@ss:word,1
Encoded:  WIFI:T:WPA;S:Bob's Wi-Fi\; 5G;P:p@ss\:word\,1;;

The WPA3 specification describes percent-encoding instead, but Android's scanner does not decode it, while every current reader handles backslashes. The tool also checks the details people get wrong: an SSID can be at most 32 bytes, and a WPA2 password is 8 to 63 plain ASCII characters. A name made only of 0–9 and A–F can be read as hex by some Android scanners, so the generator offers to wrap it in quotes, as ZXing suggests.

The code is as safe as the password written on it, no more. The password is stored as plain text in the pattern, and any scanner app shows it. Treat a printed code like a printed password:

• Use a guest network for visitors, so the code never gives access to your own devices.
• Change the password when you want to cut off old guests. The old code stops working at once; make a new one.
• Keep it indoors if the network is private, where people outside cannot photograph it.

This generator runs in your browser: the name and password are never uploaded, logged or saved, and the page works offline once loaded.

Guests look for three things: what to do, which network, and a fallback. The printable card covers all three. It reads "Scan to join" above the code, prints the network name under it, and can print the password for laptops and older phones that cannot scan.

Print the card at least the size of a postcard for a wall or a table tent, with the code in the center and the quiet zone (the white border) intact. Matte paper avoids glare from overhead lights. Before you laminate a stack of them, scan one with both an iPhone and an Android phone, standing as far away as your guests will.