vCard QR Code Generator
Turn your contact details into a QR code anyone can scan to save you to their phone — name, phone, email, company, all in one tap. Ideal for business cards, conference badges, and email signatures.
Your files never leave your device. No upload. No sign-up.
A vCard QR code encodes your contact information as a standards-compliant VCARD 3.0 block (BEGIN:VCARD … END:VCARD). When someone scans it with any modern smartphone camera, the OS offers a one-tap ‘Add Contact’ prompt that saves your name, phone, email and company directly into their address book. Great for business cards, event badges and email signatures — and because the QR is static, nothing points back to a tracking server.
How the vCard QR code actually works
vCard is an IETF standard (RFC 6350 for vCard 4.0; version 3.0 is what most phones parse from QR codes). Each line of the payload declares a field: FN for full name, TEL;TYPE=CELL for a phone, EMAIL for email, ORG for a company. Because everything is embedded in the QR, no lookup is performed at scan time — the phone processes the vCard body locally and prompts the user to save it. Apple's Camera app supports vCard QRs natively from iOS 11; Android supports it in the Google Camera and Samsung Camera from around 2019.
Common mistakes and limitations of vCard QR codes
Static vCards are frozen at print time: if your phone number or email changes, you need to regenerate the QR. Photos, addresses, notes and social handles are supported by the vCard spec but produce larger, denser QR codes that scan more slowly on cheap camera phones — this generator focuses on the four most-scanned fields. Very long vCards (over ~500 characters) may need higher error correction to remain scannable at business-card size. If you need updateable contact details, point a URL QR at a page on your own site instead.
vCard QR code FAQ
- Will my contact info be sent to a server?
- No. The vCard QR is generated entirely in your browser — your details never touch our servers.
- How do people use the QR?
- They point their phone camera at it and the phone offers a one-tap ‘Add Contact’ prompt. Works on iOS 11+ and modern Android without any app install.
- Can I update the contact later?
- Static QR codes can't change once printed. If you need updateable info, use a URL QR pointing to a contact page on a domain you control.
- What fields can I include?
- This generator focuses on name, phone, email and company — the four fields that actually get scanned in practice. vCard 3.0 also supports address, URL, photo and notes if you extend the payload.
- Will the QR scan reliably on a business card?
- Yes, if you keep the payload short and print at least 2 cm across. Very long vCards produce dense QRs that struggle at smaller sizes.
- Do I need an app for scanning?
- No. Apple Camera, Google Camera, Samsung Camera and every mainstream third-party scanner read vCard QRs natively.
- Is the phone number tap-to-call after saving?
- Yes. Once the vCard is saved, tapping the phone number in the contact card places the call, just like any other saved contact.
- What if my company has special characters?
- Colons, semicolons and commas are escaped automatically. Emoji and non-ASCII characters work as long as the receiving phone supports UTF-8, which every modern phone does.
vCard QR field reference
| Field | vCard line | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | FN:<value> | Required for the save prompt |
| Phone | TEL;TYPE=CELL:<value> | Include country code |
| EMAIL:<value> | Standard mailto address | |
| Company | ORG:<value> | Optional |
The QR encodes an entire VCARD 3.0 block — no server lookup happens at scan time.
Last updated:
References: RFC 6350 (vCard 4.0), RFC 2426 (vCard 3.0), Apple iOS Camera QR support notes.