Do QR codes expire
No. The printed pattern cannot expire: it is a picture a phone decodes offline, and it stays readable for as long as the print stays legible. What can expire is the account behind a dynamic code · a trial, a scan cap, a subscription. A static code depends on no account at all.
Asked before a print run, this is a planning question. Asked after, it usually means a printed code just went dark. Either way the honest answer has two halves: nothing in the printed pattern can expire, and everything the pattern points at can. Which half applies to your code is decided by the address inside it.
The pattern has no clock
A QR code is a picture. The camera reads the black and white modules and decodes them into text, offline, with no server involved in the reading. There is no date field in the pattern unless whoever made it wrote one into the text, and no phone or scanning app treats a code as too old to read. Physically, a printed code lasts as long as the print stays legible: fading, scratches and glare end scans. Calendars do not.
So when a code "expires", the pattern did not change. Something behind it did · and whether that can happen to your code depends on what kind of address it carries.
Static codes: nothing to switch off
A static code carries its destination in the pattern itself: decode it and you see the page you meant. There is no service between the scan and the destination, so there is no plan, trial or account whose state could turn the code off. A static code made with any generator, free or paid, has no expiry to trigger · that includes ours and every competitor's, because there is nothing for the maker to withhold.
What can still die is the destination: the page moves, the site is rebuilt, the domain lapses. The code still says what it always said; the thing it names stopped answering. And the trade that buys this independence: a static code cannot be edited after printing. A new destination means a new pattern and a reprint.
Dynamic codes: expiry is an account state
A dynamic code encodes a short address on the QR platform's own domain, and every scan asks that platform where to forward the phone. That hop is what makes the destination editable after printing. It also means the printed code is only as alive as the account behind it, and in this category expiry is not decay · it is a pricing mechanism, written into plan tables and terms:
| Behaviour | Vendor | Where stated |
|---|---|---|
| "Dynamic QR Codes are deactivated after your trial period expires" | Uniqode | help centre |
| "Your dynamic QR Codes will only expire if your Uniqode account is canceled" | Uniqode | help centre |
| "All dynamic QR codes will become invalid" when a subscription ends | QR TIGER | help centre |
| "Your Dynamic QR Code will stop working once the free trial ends" | Scanova | pricing FAQ |
| A free code stops redirecting for good at its 500th scan · "Once the scan limit for your free plan is reached, the QR code will stop redirecting to its destination" | QR TIGER | help centre |
| Codes are paused at the monthly scan cap and scans see a "not available" page · they reactivate automatically next billing cycle, the gentlest version of the mechanism | QRCodeChimp | help centre |
| The cap throttles only analytics: "This will not impact the function of the code itself" · the fairest fine print in the lane, and it is in the fine print | Flowcode | help centre |
| Free-plan codes carry ads, and cancelling a subscription puts them back into printed codes: "all your codes will work, just ads will be shown again" | ME-QR | FAQ |
| On downgrade, excess codes "will be archived and re-directed to flowcode.com or another location of our choosing" · the terms, not the help centre, are the binding document | Flowcode | terms of use |
| Delete a code or the account and "the short URLs associated with your QR codes will be recycled and may be claimed by other QRCodeChimp users" · a printed code can later resolve to a stranger's destination | QRCodeChimp | terms §5 |
None of this is hidden. It is published in each vendor's own help pages and terms, linked above · just not in the article that told you QR codes don't expire. Before printing a code that points at any vendor's domain, find two things in writing: what happens when you stop paying, and what a scan can show besides your destination.
Check what your code depends on
Paste a photo of the code into our free decoder, which reads out the exact address inside the pattern without visiting it. If the address is the destination you meant, the code is static: no expiry exists, and only that destination needs to stay alive. If it is a short address on a domain you do not recognise, the code is dynamic, and the account behind that domain · yours or a vendor's · is the thing to keep healthy.
Our own expiry numbers
Since this page will be read as a comparison, here is our expiry story, stated with the same bluntness. A taproute code has no subscription behind it: it costs 1 credit to create, once, and 1 credit per scan, prepaid, so there is no renewal date whose passing could switch it off. What can run out is credit: credits are valid for 18 months, any top-up rolls your entire balance forward another 18 months, and we warn 30 days before anything lapses. At a zero balance, scans keep resolving for 14 days or 5% of your last top-up, whichever runs out first; past that, a scanner sees a paused page that says whose code it is · never an ad, never a 404, never someone else's destination. The code is not deleted or recycled, and topping up resumes it instantly: same URL, same printed code. The account itself is kept alive by the thing you printed · a code that is still being scanned keeps it alive, whether or not you ever sign in. The anti-trap pledge that holds us to this is public.
Questions
Do QR codes expire on their own?
No. The pattern is a picture with no date inside it, and a phone decodes it offline, the way it reads printed words. A printed code stays readable for as long as the print stays legible. What can stop is the thing the pattern points at, not the pattern.
Do free QR codes expire?
A free static code has no expiry to trigger, whichever generator made it · there is no service behind it to switch off. A dynamic code from a free trial is different: several platforms deactivate dynamic codes when the trial ends, and one switches a code off for good at its 500th scan.
How long does a printed QR code physically last?
As long as it stays legible. QR patterns carry built-in error correction, and at the highest level a scanner can recover a symbol with about 30% of it damaged. Sun-fading, glare, scratches and printing too small end a code's physical life · the passage of time does not.
Can an expired QR code be reactivated?
Only from inside the account of the vendor whose domain is in the code. If you can still sign in, whatever ended · a lapsed trial, a hit scan cap · can usually be reversed there, and every printed copy follows instantly. If the account or the vendor is gone, the run needs a reprint.
Do taproute codes expire?
A taproute code has no expiry date and no subscription behind it. What can run out is prepaid credit: credits are valid 18 months, and any top-up rolls your entire balance forward another 18 months. After a published grace window a scanner sees a paused page, never an ad, and topping up resumes it instantly.