State of the QR: The 2026 QRCodeKIT Trends Report

The QR code is no longer a campaign gadget. Drawing on data going back to 2010, from a platform trusted by 1M+ companies and scanned more than 1.2 billion times, our first trends report shows it is becoming the permanent address of physical things.

Why we looked back to 2010

QRCodeKIT launched in 2009 as uQR.me, the first dynamic QR code generator. Since then, 1M+ companies have created codes on the platform, and those codes have been scanned more than 1.2 billion times. That gives us something few platforms have: a long view.

Most QR code reports look at the codes created in the last six or twelve months: how many, in which industries, in which colors. That misses most of the story. In September 2026, accounts created in the first half of the year generated just 2% of all scans on QRCodeKIT. The typical scan landed on an account created in early 2021.

So we asked a different question: what happens to a QR code after it is printed? How long does it keep working, what does it lead to, and how is that changing across markets and industries?

To find out, we analyzed an anonymized sample of more than 205,000 accounts. Together they hold 2.1 million QR codes and over 760 million lifetime scans, nearly two thirds of all the scans QRCodeKIT has ever recorded, across 220 countries and territories. Between September 1 and 25, 2026 alone, those codes were scanned 17.8 million times: more than 700,000 scans a day.

Five trends stood out.

Trend 1: Printed QR codes are built to last

About 1 in 10 accounts created between 2010 and 2015 was still receiving scans in September 2026. Some of those codes have been on walls, packages and business cards for 16 years.

The more surprising finding is the shape of the curve. For accounts aged 8 to 16 years, the share still receiving scans stays remarkably flat, between roughly 9% and 15% for every yearly cohort. Age stops mattering. Codes that make it through their first years settle into a stable plateau and simply keep working.

We call it the survivor plateau. It changes how a printed QR code should be seen: less like an ad, more like a street address.

The plateau is much higher for codes that businesses invested in. QR codes backed by a paid plan are nearly four times as likely to still be scanned 8 to 16 years later as codes made on free plans.

Our projection: if the plateau holds, about 1 in 10 accounts creating QR codes in 2026 will still be receiving scans in 2040. For a brand, that means a code printed on packaging today can still be working long after the product is discontinued, and every one of those scans will land wherever the code points in 2040.

Trend 2: QR codes outlive the links they point to

A printed code is a long-term commitment. The web is not. According to Pew Research Center, 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 were no longer accessible ten years later, and about 1 in 5 pages from 2021 had disappeared within two years.

Our data shows the other side of that equation. Accounts that are at least five years old generated 11.3 million of the 17.8 million scans recorded between September 1 and 25, 2026: almost two thirds of all traffic. One scan in twenty came from accounts more than ten years old.

The median scan landed on an account created in February 2021. Accounts created in the first half of 2026 contributed just 2%. In other words, most QR code scans today come from codes set up years ago, and a QR code's real life begins long after the campaign that launched it.

Every one of those scans depends on a destination that still works now, long after the code was printed and long after the average webpage would have disappeared.

This is where the value of a dynamic QR code really sits. Menus change, prices change, products get new versions, websites get rebuilt, companies rebrand. A static code freezes one URL forever. A dynamic code lets the business move the destination while the printed code stays exactly where it is.

Dynamic does not have to mean constant tinkering. What matters is the ability to make the decisive update at the right moment: a new season, a new regulation, a new website. The code stays in place for years; the content keeps pace with the business.

Our projection: most scans of the codes printed this year will happen after their original landing page has changed at least once. For static codes, every one of those scans becomes a dead end.

Trend 3: Compliance moves on-pack, and the PDF becomes a living landing

The share of accounts using QR codes to open a document has quadrupled. Among accounts created in 2010 to 2013, about 5% used them; among those created in 2025 and 2026, 1 in 5 does. Manuals, certificates, safety sheets, ingredient lists and technical specs are moving from the box to the code.

In some markets the document is already the main job of the QR code. In Saudi Arabia, 64% of new accounts use a document QR code; in Colombia, 37%; in Italy, 28%; in Spain, 23%. In the United States, it is 10%.

The codes are also organized differently. About 80% of all QR codes in our data live in fleets of more than 100 codes, managed by roughly 1% of accounts. That is the profile of product catalogs, packaging lines and technical documentation, not of one-off flyers.

From static file to dynamic, standards-based landing

A PDF behind a QR code solves today's disclosure problem, but it is a dead end. It cannot tell a consumer from an inspector, it goes stale the moment a regulation changes, and it cannot be read by machines.

Regulation is about to raise the bar. Under the EU Batteries Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542), the first mandatory Digital Product Passport applies from 18 February 2027 to EV batteries, light means of transport batteries and industrial batteries above 2 kWh, accessible through a QR code. Under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), textiles, furniture, tyres, steel and aluminium are among the first product groups to follow. At the till, GS1's Sunrise 2027 target asks US retailers to have scanners that read 2D barcodes by the end of 2027, and GS1 is driving the same transition globally.

GS1 Digital Link is emerging as the format that connects these worlds: one QR code that carries the product's identity (its GTIN, and optionally batch and serial number) inside a web address. The same code can work at the till, resolve to different content for consumers, retailers, recyclers or authorities, and be updated for the entire life of the product. The document does not disappear; it becomes one layer of a dynamic, structured landing.

This is the direction of QRCodeKIT's GS1 Digital Link QR codes and our Digital Product Passport guide: turning the static file of the last decade into the living product page of the next one.

Our projection: by 2030, most QR codes printed on regulated products in Europe will be GS1 Digital Link codes rather than plain links to a file.

Trend 4: The next wave of QR adoption is local

The QR code's growth is shifting away from its traditional strongholds. South Asia went from about 1% of accounts created in 2010 to 2013 to nearly 8% of those created in 2025. Africa went from under 1% to more than 4%. India and Brazil each now account for about six times their 2010–2013 share of new accounts.

These new markets do not simply copy the Western playbook. Where a QR code leads depends heavily on where it is scanned.

Three QR cultures emerge. In North America and Western Europe, the code is a shortcut to a website. In Latin America, South Asia and much of Africa and the Gulf, it opens a conversation: a Brazilian business is about 14 times more likely than an American one to point its code to WhatsApp. In Saudi Arabia and much of Latin America, it is a way to hand over a document.

The common thread is that the QR code adapts to the dominant way people get things done online in each market, whether that is the browser, the chat app or the file.

Our projection: chat is the fastest-growing destination. WhatsApp went from virtually zero among accounts created in 2014–2019 to about 1 in 20 in 2020–2024 and 1 in 10 today. If current patterns hold, by 2030 roughly 1 in 7 new QR accounts will point a code to a chat, while the website's share keeps falling from the nearly 3 in 4 it held in 2014–2019.

Trend 5: Pandemic habits became permanent infrastructure

In 2020, QR codes went from novelty to necessity almost overnight. Among accounts created that year, nearly 1 in 5 used a QR menu, and contact-tracing forms appeared on doors everywhere. Six years later, those codes have not gone away.

94% of accounts that launched QR menus in 2020 and 2021 still receive scans today. Among 2020 accounts, menu users are 3.5 times as likely to still be scanned as everyone else (91% vs 26%). And they are busy: these accounts are under 2% of our base, yet they generated 3.6 million scans between September 1 and 25, 2026, about 1 in 5 of all scans. Across every year, accounts using QR menus are 3.5% of our sample but drive 37% of all scans, more than ten times their share. The paper menu did not come back for them. The QR code simply became the menu.

The contact-tracing codes tell an even more interesting story. More than 1 in 4 organizations that deployed COVID check-in codes are still receiving scans in 2026, long after any legal requirement ended: about 900,000 in September alone. Together, those accounts have generated more than 60 million scans. The most likely explanation is that many of these forms did not die with the pandemic: they were repurposed as all-purpose check-in tools for visitor registration, event sign-ups, guest books and workplace access.

The lesson reaches beyond hospitality. Once people learn to scan for something, the behavior sticks, and the code that serves it becomes part of the building.

Our projection: the next behavior to follow the same path is on-pack scanning. As regulation pushes codes onto products, consumers will learn to scan packaging the way they learned to scan tables in 2020, and the habit will outlast the rule that started it.

Bonus: QR codes by the numbers

• 5.5 years: age of the account behind the median QR scan in September 2026.
• 2%: share of September scans generated by accounts created in the first half of 2026.
• 262,656: scans recorded by the single busiest QR code in our data between September 1 and 25, 2026. That is about 10,500 scans a day, or one every eight seconds.
• 1% → 90%: the most-scanned 1% of accounts generate about 9 in 10 scans. QR engagement follows a steep power law, like the web itself.
• 82%: share of new QR accounts created Monday to Friday, against 71% if sign-ups were spread evenly across the week. The QR code is first and foremost a work tool.
• September: the busiest month of the year for starting to create QR codes, with about 70% more sign-ups than December. Back-to-business season is QR season.
• 220: countries and territories where QR codes in our data are created.

What it means for businesses

• Treat every printed code as a 10-year asset. Choose a provider and a setup you trust to still be running in 2036, and avoid static codes on anything that will stay in circulation.
• Plan for the destination to change. Your website, prices and regulations will change long before your packaging, signage or equipment does. A dynamic code is the insurance policy.
• Get ahead of on-pack compliance. If you sell physical products in Europe, start moving from "QR to PDF" to GS1 Digital Link now, before the Digital Product Passport deadlines reach your category.
• Localize the destination, not just the language. In Brazil, India or Nigeria, a chat may convert better than a homepage. In Saudi Arabia or Colombia, customers may expect a document.
• Manage codes as a fleet. Once you run more than a handful of codes, naming, ownership, analytics and bulk updates matter more than design. Color and logo are day-one decisions; the destination is a ten-year one.

FAQ

About the data

This report is based on an anonymized, aggregated sample of more than 205,000 QRCodeKIT accounts, holding 2.1 million QR codes and over 760 million of the 1.2 billion scans QRCodeKIT has recorded since 2009. It covers accounts created between 2010 and September 2026 in 220 countries and territories. Accounts that moved between our legacy and current platforms are counted once. Data was extracted on September 25, 2026.

An account is counted as "still scanned" if its QR codes recorded at least one scan between September 1 and 25, 2026. Year groups refer to the year the account was created; the survival curve covers accounts created from 2010 to 2018. The median scan is the point at which accounts created up to that date account for half of all September 2026 scans. Destination types refer to the QR code content currently active on each account, as a share of accounts with active content. Country refers to the account's registered location; country breakdowns for 2025–26 cover accounts with a known country, mainly those created up to February 2026. Figures are rounded.

Statements marked "Our projection" are forward-looking estimates based on current patterns and on the external sources cited. They are not measurements.

QRCodeKIT launched in 2009 as uQR.me, the first dynamic QR code generator. It is trusted by 1M+ companies, whose codes have been scanned more than 1.2 billion times.

How to cite this report: QRCodeKIT, State of the QR: The 2026 QRCodeKIT Trends Report, October 2026, https://qrcodekit.com/news/qr-code-trends/

Sources

• Pew Research Center, When Online Content Disappears (May 2024)
• Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1781, Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation