Here are 5 free QR code generation APIs. Using these APIs, you can add ability to generate QR codes in your applications or websites. These websites give you a API URL that you can call from your applications with the relevant parameters to get the QR code. Mainly in the URL, you have to provide the size of the QR code, data or URL to embed, foreground color, background color, label text, QR code title and certain other parameters. However, in some of them you can only provide the data to be used for QR code. You either use the browser to make the API calls or use the other tools like cURL, etc for the same.
If you are developing an application in which you need to add the ability to generate QR codes, then you can use an API for that. The advantage of the API will be that you will not have to write a long code for QR generation. It will hardly take a couple of lines to generate a QR code through API calls. In the following list, I will take about 5 such services that you can use. Some of these service run without creating any account and in some of them you will need the API key to make the calls.
5 Free QR Code Generation APIs:
QR Code Generator API
QR Code Generator is one of the best free QR code generation API that you can use. It is a very flexible API that you can use without creating an account. It supports a lot of parameters to generate QR code and in many formats. You can use the API URL in the browser to get the output. In API request URL you can add a lot of parameters like color, background color, size, format, etc but only the data parameter is mandatory. To see the whole API documentation, click on the above link.
As I have already said above that you can use this API without creating an account. So cut to the chase, let’s see how to use this API. I will list two examples to generate QR code through this API. The first example is a basic one and the other is a bit advanced.
The basic example (with just data): https://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?&data=Example
An advanced example (with additional parameters): https://api.qrserver.com/v1/create-qr-code/?size=150x150&data=Example&bgcolor=f00&color=00f
You can analyze the difference between the above URLs. The only difference is the list of parameters. You just have to copy paste any of the URL in your browser and change the parameters accordingly. I have marked some of the parameters with red color. And these are not the only parameters; you can see others as well on the documentation page.
QRtag
QRtag is a simple API that lets you generate QR codes by adding URLs. Here you can’t add the text or numeric data to be encoded into a QR code and works quite differently. This API is meant for embedding QR codes on your websites. In the “img” HTML tag, you can add the image URL through the API and that image will be visible on your website. Also, it generates the simple QR code without any customization like background color, foreground color, etc. The QR code that it generates lives up to 24 hours. After that, it will be deleted from the server so download it in the meantime.
Using this API is very simple. You just have to create an API URL in the following syntax that I will mention and simply add it in the img tag of the HTML. Or, you can also paste the API URL directly in browser to see the corresponding QR code.
Example API call: https://www.qrtag.net/api/qr.png?url=https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com
In the API URL, only the “url” parameter is the required in order to generate the QR code. You can specify the target URL and then paste this API URL in your browser to see the QR code. And if you want, then you can embed that on your websites by adding the above URL in “img” tag. You can see the screenshot above.
QR4
QR4 is another free website that you can try to generate QR code through its API. It supports generation of QR code along with some parameters. With this, you can opt to generate a QR code by embedding text or a URL. And you can call the API from your browser as well. Just like some of the above mentioned QR code generation APIs, you can easily use it to generate a custom QR code by specifying different parameters, like its color, background color, output file type, and some others. However, for this API, you will need a API key to generate QR code and for that you will have to sign up for a free account.
You can register on the website using the above link. On the same page, you can see the API documentation that you can analyze and follow the guidelines when you are about to use it. After registering for the API key, it will email that to you. After that, you can start using it. The API URL to call is:
Example: http://www.qr4.nl/Gen.aspx?key="YourAPIKey"&type=text&cont=ilovefreesoftware
In the above URL only the type and cont are the mandatory parameters. In the type field, you specify the type of data that you want to encode in the QR code. Currently this websites supports email, vcard, text, SMS, WiFi, etc. As you open the URL in the browser, you will see the QR code and you can download it.
QRickit QR Code API
QRickit QR Code API is yet another free QR code API that you can try and use. This API is simple and doesn’t require a API key to generate a QR code. This API lets you generate a custom QR code by specifying some parameters like size, background color, foreground color, footer text, header text, error correction, target QR code format, etc. Like the other APIs, you can call it from your browser and get the output. It just take a few seconds to generate the QR code and save it.
As there is no sign up or registration required, you can start using this API right away. For more details about this API, you can see the documentation page and see how it works. Below is the syntax of the API URL that you have to construct in order to generate a QR code.
API URL: http://qrickit.com/api/qr.php?d=ILoveFreeSoftware&bgdcolor=FF0430&fgdcolor=FFFFFF
You can see the various parameters that you can supply in the API call. The “d” parameters is for data and you can define almost anything here that you want to embed in the final QR code. After entering this URL in the address bar of your browser, you can see the output immediately.
Neutrino API
Neutrino API is the last QR generator API in my list that you can use easily. It is basically a collection of tools that you can use with the help of API calls. And in the list of those tools, there is QR code generator API as well. However, this API is very limited than any other API in this list. It allows you to make only 10 calls per day to generate QR code. It returns a PNG image and there are options in it to customize the QR code. You can opt to generate the QR code of different size, different foreground color, background color, etc. This API lacks a detailed documentation, so I will list two methods to use this API; one for generating a simple QR code and another for custom QR code.
To generate the QR code through Neutrino API, you will need an API key. And then you will be able to generate QR codes. You can follow the above link and sign up and get the API key.
Example API call: https://neutrinoapi.com/qr-code?user-id=YourUserID&api-key=YourAPIKey="text to encode in QR code"
Advanced API call: https://neutrinoapi.com/qr-code?user-id=YourUserID&api-key=YourAPIKey&content="text to encode in QR code"&fg-color=800000&bg-color=F00000
You can paste the any of the URLs in the address bar of the browser and get the corresponding QR code. You can save that image and then do whatever you want. The parameters that I have marked with red color are useful to generate QR code. However, user-id, api-key, and content are the mandatory parameters.
Wrapping things up…
These are the best free QR code generation APIs that you can try to generate QR codes with ease. You can use any API from the above list and then use in your applications or website. Most of these websites are very good and even let you generate a custom QR code by defining certain parameters. In my opinion, QR Code Generator API, QRickit QR Code API, and QR4 are the best free QR code generation APIs in my list. You can use others if you think they can fulfill your needs.
