Business card QR code generator
A code that saves your name, phone and email straight into someone's contacts. Made in your browser, so your details are never sent to us.
How do I make a QR code for a business card?
To make a QR code for a business card, enter your name, organisation, phone and email, and the code appears immediately. Download it as SVG for the printer or PNG for a screen. When somebody points a camera at it, their phone offers to save you as a contact with every field already filled in, on iPhone and Android alike, with no app to install.
This code is made in your browser. Nothing you type here is sent to Klip, and none of it appears in any address or server log.
Website and address
Both are optional, and both make the code bigger. A long address is the usual reason a card will not scan at business-card size.
Every field you fill adds modules to the code, and a code with more modules needs more millimetres to stay readable. If you are printing at business-card size, put the website and address on the card as text and leave them out of the code.
Enter a name or an organisation to see the code.
Every field adds modules. Name, phone and email scan at business-card size; adding a long postal address is the usual reason a card will not read.
Measured below: 25mm for name and phone, 33mm once you add a company. A card is only 55mm tall. The size calculator covers distance.
Take the SVG to the printer, not the PNG. Resolution stops mattering, and a rasterised code at card size is the other common failure.
A contact code cannot be re-pointed. A link code can, which is the argument for putting a page on the card instead.
How big does a business card QR code have to be?
A business card QR code has to be larger than most people expect. A contact code carrying a name, phone, email and company measures about33mm square including its quiet zone, on a card that is only55mm tall, so it takes well over half the height. Every field you add makes it bigger, because the data goes inside the pattern.
| What the code holds | Modules | Smallest it prints |
|---|---|---|
| Name and phone | 61 | 25mm |
| Plus email | 73 | 30mm |
| Plus company and job title | 81 | 33mm |
| Plus website and address | 93 | 38mm |
Measured when this page was built, from the same code the tool above runs. Modules include the four-module quiet zone on each side, which is part of the symbol and not a margin you can trim. The millimetres assume0.4mm per module, the floor below which ink spread starts closing the gaps on ordinary card stock.
The practical consequence is a choice rather than a setting. Put the website and the postal address on the card as text, where they cost nothing, and keep the code to the fields a phone actually needs to create a contact. Or accept that the code is a design element on the back of the card rather than a detail on the front.
Why this one runs in your browser
Every other generator on this site sends its payload to our API, which renders the image. That is the right design for a link: the destination is a public URL, the image is cacheable at the edge, and the same renderer produces the files customers print.
A contact card is not a public URL. It carries a named person's phone number, email address and often a postal address, which is personal data under Kenya's Data Protection Act and the GDPR. Sending it to us as a query parameter would put it in our request logs, in the edge cache key, in your browser history and in anything between you and us, and our privacy policy would have to say we collect it. So this tool encodes on your device and transmits nothing. The cost is a little JavaScript on this page, on a site that otherwise ships almost none.
What is actually inside a contact QR code
A vCard: a few lines of plain text in a format every phone has read for years. A name, an organisation, a phone number, an email address, and whatever else you filled in. There is no encryption, no account and no server in the middle, which is why it keeps working forever and why anyone who photographs the code has every detail in it.
That last part is the thing worth deciding before you print a thousand. A business card is already handed to strangers, so a code that holds the same details the card prints is not giving anything away. A code holding your home address is a different object, and the button above shows you the exact text before you commit to it.
When a link beats a contact card
If your number, your title or your company changes, the printed code is wrong and the only fix is a reprint. A short link on the card points at a page you control, and the page can carry the contact details, the portfolio, the booking form and the WhatsApp line at once. Change the page, and every card already in a wallet is still correct.
The case for the contact code is that it works with no network, needs no page to be maintained, and saves the contact in one tap. The business-card guide covers the choice properly, including the size the card actually allows and the design mistakes that turn a code into filler.
Questions
The things people ask before they commit something to paper.
Is this free?
Yes, and there is no signup. The code is made on your device, it has no expiry, and there is no limit on how many you make or how many times it is scanned. Nothing about it stops working later, because nothing about it depends on us once you have downloaded the file.
Are my contact details sent to your server?
No. This is one of two tools here that do the work in your browser rather than through our API. A contact card carries a named person's phone number and email address, and sending that to us as a web address would put it in our request logs, in the edge cache and in your browser history. It never leaves your device.
What happens when someone scans it?
Their phone offers to save a new contact, already filled in. iPhone and Android both read the vCard format from the camera app with no separate scanner. They still have to tap to save it, which is the behaviour you want: nothing is added to anyone's phone without them agreeing.
Can I change my number later without reprinting?
No, and no generator can. A contact QR encodes the details themselves, so a new number means a new code. If your details change often, put a short link on the card that points at a page you control, and re-point the page instead. That is the difference between a static payload and a dynamic link.
How small can I print it on a business card?
Bigger than most people expect. A contact code carrying a name, phone, email and company works out at 33mm square including its quiet zone, on a card that is only 55mm tall, so it takes well over half the height. Name and phone alone come down to 25mm. Leaving the website and postal address out of the code is the cheapest way to shrink it, and the table on this page shows what each field costs.
Why does it say a name or an organisation is required?
Because a vCard with neither has nothing to file the contact under, and phones handle that inconsistently: some show a blank entry, some refuse it. One of the two is enough, so a business with no single named contact can use the organisation alone.