QR Code Size Calculator
Enter your scan distance and how the code will be produced. You will get the minimum size in millimetres, inches and pixels, along with the quiet zone you need to leave around it.
How far the phone will be from the code. A table tent is about 30 cm, a wall poster 150 cm.
Standard office printing on plain paper.
Longer links need more modules, which makes the code denser and pushes the minimum size up.
M, 15% recoverable. Higher levels survive damage but add modules.
Minimum size
30 mm
1.18 in, 355 px at 300 DPI
Scan distance is the limiting factor here.
- QR version
- 2 (25 x 25 modules)
- With quiet zone
- 33 modules across
- Module size at that width
- 0.91 mm
- Quiet zone border
- 3.6 mm each side
- Needed for distance
- 30 mm
- Needed for print
- 13.2 mm
Treat this as a safe minimum, not an absolute floor. Print larger where you can, and test a real print with the oldest phone you can find before committing to a run.
How the size is worked out
Two things decide the minimum, and whichever is larger wins.
1. Scan distance
A QR code scans from roughly ten times its own width, a rule that goes back to Denso Wave, who invented the format. Divide your scan distance by ten and you have the minimum width. A code read from 1 metre needs to be about 10 cm across.
2. What the process can hold
A QR code is a grid of modules. Every production method has a point below which modules bleed into each other and the code stops scanning. Multiply the number of modules across, quiet zone included, by the smallest module that method can hold, and you get the other minimum.
Common sizes as a starting point
| Where it goes | Typical distance | Minimum width |
|---|---|---|
| Business card | 20 cm | 20 mm |
| Table tent or menu | 30 cm | 30 mm |
| Product packaging | 25 cm | 25 mm |
| Wall poster | 150 cm | 150 mm |
| Shop window | 200 cm | 200 mm |
| Billboard | 10 m or more | 1 m or more |
These assume a short link and standard print. Use the calculator above for your own numbers.
Before you print a run
- Test the actual print, not the screen. Ink spread is the thing screens cannot show you.
- Use the oldest phone you can find. New cameras forgive a lot that older ones will not.
- Keep strong contrast. Dark code on a light background. Inverted and low-contrast codes fail far more often.
- Shorten the link. Fewer characters means fewer modules, which means a code that survives being printed small.
Printing something you cannot reprint?
A dynamic QR code keeps the printed pattern short and simple, and lets you change where it points afterwards. Useful when the destination will outlive the print run.