A QR code is a container for a short piece of text. Everything it can do, joining Wi-Fi, saving a contact, opening a website, starting a text message, comes down to what that text says and how the phone reads it. So the most useful set of examples isn’t a gallery of pretty codes. It’s what is actually inside them.

Below are the kinds of code people make most, each with the exact text it carries (the same text our generator writes), what happens when someone scans it, and where it belongs. The second half covers examples by placement: menus, labels, cards, tickets and the rest, with a link to the full guide for each.

Part one: what the code contains

1. A plain link (static)

https://example.com/spring-menu

The address itself is the whole code. The phone shows the address and opens it in the browser. Nothing sits in between, so it works for as long as the address does, with no account and no service behind it. The cost: you can’t change where it goes once it’s printed, and you don’t get scan counts.

Use it for: anything permanent, pointing at an address you control and will keep.

2. A link you can change later (dynamic)

https://createqrcodes.net/track/<code id>

A dynamic code doesn’t contain your address. It contains a short link to the QR service, which counts the scan and forwards the person to whatever destination you’ve set today. Change the destination in your dashboard and every printed copy follows. That’s why dynamic codes suit anything printed in volume or kept for a while: menus, packaging, posters, signs.

The trade-off is real, and true of every provider: the code works only as long as the service behind it does. Static vs dynamic QR codes covers when each is right.

3. Wi-Fi network

WIFI:T:WPA;S:Corner Cafe Guest;P:espresso2024;H:false;;

Read it left to right: T is the security type (WPA, WEP, or nopass for an open network), S is the network name, P the password, H whether the network is hidden. Point a phone camera at it and the phone offers to join the network. Nobody has to type the password.

Special characters need escaping. A semicolon, comma, colon, quote or backslash in the name or password must have a backslash before it, or the phone splits the text in the wrong place and the join fails. A good generator does this for you; a hand-typed code often doesn’t.
The password is in the code in plain text. Anyone who can photograph the code has the password. For a guest network that’s the point. For your office network it isn’t.
It works with no internet at all. The phone reads the text directly, so there is no link to go stale.
Change the password and you need a new code. The password is inside the printed code, so a Wi-Fi code can’t be dynamic.

The guest Wi-Fi template is a starting design for a table card or a sign by the door.

4. Contact card (vCard)

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Rivera;Sam;;;
FN:Sam Rivera
ORG:Rivera Design
TITLE:Studio lead
TEL;TYPE=CELL:+15555550123
EMAIL:sam@example.com
URL:https://example.com
END:VCARD

The phone offers to save a new contact with every field filled in. It’s the classic business-card code, and it works offline. Two things to know:

More fields make a denser code. Every character adds to what the code has to hold, so a contact card with an address and a note prints as a busier pattern than a short link. On a small card, that pattern needs more space to scan reliably.
It can’t be edited after printing. Change jobs or numbers and every printed card is out of date. If that matters, link to a contact page instead and keep the page current. How to make a digital business card with a QR code walks through both, and what goes on the back of the card covers the layout.

Commas and semicolons inside a field (“VP, Sales; EMEA”) also need escaping, or the contact app splits the title into separate fields.

5. Email

mailto:orders@example.com?subject=Catering%20enquiry&body=Date%3A%20

The phone opens a new email with the address, the subject and the start of the message already filled in. The person still has to press send, which is the point: nothing is sent without them. Subject and body are URL-encoded, which is why spaces become %20.

Use it for: enquiries where you want the message to arrive labelled, like catering requests, returns or a feedback address on a receipt.

6. Phone call

tel:+15555550123

The phone offers to call the number. Write it with the country code so it works for anyone, wherever their phone is registered.

7. Text message

SMSTO:+15555550123:STOP DELIVERY 4417

The phone opens a new text message to the number with the message already written. Again the person sends it, not the code. It’s a quick way to let someone opt in, check in or report something with a reference number already in the message.

8. Plain text

Locker 12 · Combination is with the front desk

The code holds the words and nothing else. What a phone does with them varies: most show the text, and some offer to search the web for it. Useful for labels, puzzles and scavenger hunts, where the message is the whole point and there is no page to open.

Reading the examples

Two patterns run through all eight.

Only the link codes go through a service. Wi-Fi, contact, email, call, text and plain-text codes are read straight off the code by the phone. They need no internet connection to be understood and nothing can break behind them, but they also can’t be changed or counted. A link code is the only kind that can be dynamic.
Shorter text makes a simpler code. A code holding 25 characters prints as a bolder pattern than one holding 250, which matters most when the code is small. If a contact card or a long address makes the code too busy, a short link to a page is the usual fix. QR code design that still scans covers the limits.

Part two: examples by where the code goes

The contents above are the building blocks. Where the code is printed decides which one to use and what the page behind it needs. Each of these has its own full guide.

9. Restaurant tables and menus

A dynamic link to a menu page, not a PDF, so the menu can change daily without reprinting the table cards. A second code for guest Wi-Fi is often the one people scan first. See QR codes for restaurants.

10. Product labels and packaging

A link to the page for that exact product: ingredients, instructions, care, refills or registration, depending on what the buyer needs after the sale. See QR codes on product labels, and for devices that are kept for years, QR codes on electronics.

11. Events, tickets and invitations

A link to the schedule, the map or the RSVP, printed where people are when they need it. See QR codes at events and trade shows and QR codes for parties and invitations.

12. Asking for something: reviews, feedback, donations

A link straight to the one action, placed at the moment the person is most willing: the review form at the end of the visit, the donation page beside the cause. See QR codes for reviews and feedback and QR codes for donations.

Other placements with their own guides: equipment and asset tags, rental equipment, lost-pet collars, social profiles, print marketing and slides and livestreams.

What every good example has in common

A line of text next to it saying what it does. “Scan to join the Wi-Fi” gets scanned; a bare square mostly doesn’t. What to put next to a QR code has the wording.
A destination built for a phone. The code is the easy part. Where a QR code should point is the part that decides whether the scan was worth it.
A test scan of the real printed thing, with more than one phone, before the full run.

Making your own

The CreateQRCodes generator makes every content type in part one: links, Wi-Fi, contact cards, email, calls, text messages and plain text. It writes the escaping in Wi-Fi and contact codes for you. The free plan includes one static code, Pro includes unlimited static codes and 25 dynamic ones, and Business includes unlimited dynamic codes. Pricing has the full list.

QR Code Examples: What 12 Real Codes Contain