WhatsApp QR Code Generator — a poster-ready chat QR
This generator turns a click-to-chat link into a poster-ready QR code you can print on a receipt, a menu, a shop window or a delivery note. Someone scans it with their phone camera and lands in a conversation with your number, optionally with a message already typed. It is the physical-world version of an inbound-first strategy, and it is how a business converts foot traffic into WhatsApp conversations without buying a single phone number. Two practical notes. First, a QR that encodes a long pre-filled message becomes dense and hard to scan in poor light, so keep the pre-fill short or leave it out for anything printed small. Second, this generates a chat QR, which is a different thing from the pairing QR used to link a number to an API - that one is generated by your channel, refreshes every few seconds and must never be printed. If you are trying to connect a number to Wapito, use a pairing code instead; the page for that explains why codes are now the primary path.
Paste a wa.me link for a chat QR — the link generator builds one — or any other URL or text. Shorter text scans from further away.
The QR code appears here as you type.
How it works
The code is drawn in your browser from whatever text you paste, so it will happily encode any URL or any plain text, but the case it exists for is a wa.me link: paste the link, pick a size, and download the image. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and the image you download is the image you see. The three sizes cover the three real uses. The small one is fine for a screen or a card that will be scanned from a hand's length away. The middle one is for anything printed at page size. The large one is for a poster or a window, where the scanning phone may be a metre or two away and the camera needs big, clean modules to lock onto. Pick the size for the distance, not the size that looks neat on your monitor.
Density is the property that decides whether a code scans. Every extra character in the encoded text adds modules to the grid, and a grid with more modules printed at the same physical size has smaller squares, which blur together on a cheap printer or in low light. A bare link with just the number is compact and scans from almost anywhere. Add a forty-word pre-filled message and the same code at the same print size becomes a fine mesh that only a good camera in good light will read. If you want a pre-fill on a printed code, keep it to a few words, or move the message to the landing page behind a short redirect link and encode that instead. The error-correction level the generator uses tolerates a small amount of damage - a scuff, a fold, a logo overlaid on the centre - but it cannot rescue a code that was too dense to begin with.
Print with a quiet zone: a clear margin around the code at least as wide as a few of its modules, on a plain background, in dark ink on a light surface rather than the other way round. Test the printed result with a couple of different phones before you order a thousand of anything, because a code that scans from a laptop screen can fail on paper. And remember that the link inside the code is permanent in a way a web page is not. A poster that points at a number you later stop using keeps sending people to the wrong place for as long as it hangs there, so if there is any chance the number will change, encode a redirect you control and repoint it later. The number behind the code is one you link to Wapito through the pairing flow, which is the endpoint shown below.
Do it with the API
This tool is the browser-side version of one API call.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same QR I scan to connect my number?
No, and the difference matters. A pairing QR is a short-lived handshake generated by your channel that refreshes every few seconds; printing one would be pointless and unsafe. This tool makes a chat QR, which encodes a public link to start a conversation with you and never expires.
What size should I print it?
Large enough that a phone can focus on it from where people will actually stand. A table-top code can be small; a shop-window code being scanned from the pavement needs to be much larger. Keep a clear margin around the code and avoid printing it on a busy photograph.
Can I track how many people scan it?
Not from the QR itself, but you can encode a link that goes through a redirect you control and count the hits there, or use a distinct pre-filled message per location so the first inbound message tells you where it came from. The second approach needs no extra infrastructure at all.
Related
Try it on your own number
Create a channel, link a WhatsApp number by QR or pairing code, and call the API in a couple of minutes. The Sandbox plan is free and needs no card.