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Generator · vCard QR code

vCard QR code generator

A contact card that fits on a business card. Scanning fills in the New Contact screen — name, number, email, company — so nobody has to type your details into a phone at a noisy conference.

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • No expiry
  • Commercial use
Short answer

A vCard QR code encodes contact details in the vCard 3.0 format. When scanned, the phone recognises the format and offers to save a new contact with the fields already filled in. It works offline and does not depend on any app or service.

Contents
Format choice

vCard 3.0, not MeCard or vCard 4.0

Three formats compete here and only one is reliably safe on both platforms.

FormatSupportVerdict
vCard 3.0iOS and Android, universallyUse this — it is what the generator produces
vCard 4.0Patchy on older AndroidNewer standard, worse real-world results
MeCardGood on Android, weaker on iOSMore compact, less compatible

The compactness argument for MeCard matters less than it used to. A full vCard with name, title, company, mobile, email and website lands around 180 bytes, which is a version 9 code at level M — perfectly printable at 25 mm.

Keep it small

Every field you add makes the grid denser

Business cards are small, and a dense code on a small card is a code that does not scan. Add fields in this order and stop when you have what you need:

  1. Name and mobile number — the two that matter.
  2. Email address.
  3. Company and job title.
  4. Website.
  5. Postal address — the biggest single addition, often 40+ bytes. Skip it unless people genuinely post you things.

Watch the byte counter in the readout as you type. Under 200 bytes keeps you in comfortable territory for a card-sized print at 20–25 mm.

On a business card

Placement that survives a real print run

  • 20 mm minimum on a standard 85 × 55 mm card. Below that, module size drops under 0.4 mm and scan failures climb.
  • Keep the quiet zone. Four empty modules on every side. Bleeding a code to the card edge is the single most common print mistake.
  • Dark on light. Inverted codes — light modules on a dark background — fail on a meaningful share of older scanners. If your card is black, put the code in a light patch.
  • Matte, not gloss. Gloss lamination throws camera flash straight back into the lens.
  • Vector, not raster. Send your printer the SVG. A 300 dpi PNG scaled up will show soft edges that confuse the decoder.
Questions

Frequently asked

Does a vCard QR code work on iPhone and Android?
Yes. vCard 3.0 is recognised natively by both. The phone shows a contact preview and an option to save it.
How much can I put in one contact code?
Technically thousands of bytes, but practically you want to stay under about 300 so the printed grid stays coarse enough to scan from a business card.
Can I include a photo in the vCard?
You can in the format, but you should not. An embedded photo is tens of kilobytes and produces a code far too dense to print. Link to a profile page instead.
What happens if I change jobs?
The printed code keeps the old details, because they are encoded in the pattern. If your details change often, encode a link to a contact page you control instead.
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Last reviewed 24 August 2026 · Checked by the QR Code Builder team