Testing the platform, a proof of concept, or a personal side project.
BuyPricing that matches usage
Every feature on every tier. Nothing to renew, ever.
1 credit = 1 scan · smart or composed pages 2, both 3 · Credits valid 18 months. Any top-up rolls everything forward.
Zero paywalls
Every feature is unlocked on every tier. No locked tools, no enterprise-only gatekeeping.
Prepaid, no surprises
You pay once and the credits last 18 months. No hidden monthly subscription, no automatic overage charges, no auto-renewal.
Credits match usage
1 credit = 1 dynamic scan. Credits are valid for 18 months, and any top-up rolls the whole balance forward.
Pro features everywhere
GS1 Digital Links, the REST API, MCP and unmetered static QR codes are included on every plan. A white-label custom domain is available on every pack, and included free from Growth up.
For individuals, freelancers, and short-term campaigns.
The sweet spot for active small campaigns, freelancers and pop-up events.
BuyGrowing businesses that need reliable, continuous routing.
BuyEvery new account starts with 30 free credits to try it, no card required. They are a 7-day trial, not a free tier: enough to put a code on a table and watch it work. Past that, everything runs on credits.
See the full comparison and all the fine print
What never costs credits
- Editing codes: destinations, rules and design, as often as you like
- A white-label custom domain: included from Growth up, two on Scale and Volume
- REST API + MCP server access, on every plan
- The Canva app: placing your codes in designs at print resolution · branded styling with any pack
- Team members and workspaces
- Static QR codes, styled and unmetered
- GS1 Digital Link resolution, conformance and serial verification
- Re-exporting a serialized run you already issued
What costs credits
- A scan on a dynamic code 1 credit always
- A scan on a smart page (contextual blocks) 2 credits a published exception
- Making a page smart, per page 200 credits once
- A scan on a section page (your own layout) 2 credits a published exception · smart + sections bills 3
- Unlocking sections on a page, per page 400 credits once
- A scan on an Experience template (a premium, fully composed page) 2 credits the section rate · not a third exception
- Unlocking an Experience template, per page, at first publish 800 credits once · drafting is free · includes the section unlock
- Creating a dynamic code (each GS1 serial is one) 1 credit
- A GS1 catalogue item (per product, once) 200 credits once · your first one is granted, once per workspace
- Changing a custom routing rule (adding, editing or removing one) 5 credits
- Claiming a printed code (we watch it daily from then on) 50 credits once
- Checking a printed GS1 code against your catalogue (reading it is free) 5 credits
- A custom-code block added to a page 1 credit
- AI art QR generation (2 variants) 400 credits
- AI page chat, per answered message 50 credits
- Each lead captured by a page form (never refused, even at zero) 5 credits
- Each extra custom domain, one time 40,000 credits once
That's the whole list: no per-code fees, no subscriptions. The extras are flat credit prices, the same on every pack (the extra-domain slot is the one cash item), shown on your billing page and revised only with 30 days' notice.
Printing on packaging?
A GS1 catalogue item is a flat credit price on the card above · this is what it comes to across a real run. Drag it to your own catalogue and scan volume.
Your run
1.0 per unit.
Each scan is 1 credit, and scans are the meter. Minting a serial is 1 credit, once. The product master a run hangs off is 200 credits, once per SKU, not per unit and not per year. Nothing here renews.
The arithmetic
- 1,000,000 × scan
- 1,000,000
- 1,000,000 × mint
- 1,000,000
- 1 × product master
- 200
- credits
- 2,000,200
1 × Volume·2 × Scale·1 × Pro·1 × Basic
$1,515
bought once, for the year. Credits are valid 18 months, and the packs leave 1,800 credits of headroom.
Serials are derived, not stored, so re-deriving a batch you already issued is free. The resolver, the conformance run and the print specs are on the GS1 page.
A small business that wants its own branded domain lands on a $168–420/yr tier at the incumbents, billed whether anyone scans or not. The same year on taproute is one $149 Growth pack: 100,000 scans, a custom domain included, and you pay only for the scans that actually happen. At serialized volume the comparison simply ends: the $799 Volume pack covers 1.3 million scans, or as many serialized GS1 codes from the same balance, while code-metered platforms cap you at 3 to 50 codes at any price.
What the model means for a code already in the field · what happens at a zero balance, and what never happens · is dynamic QR codes without a subscription.
The longer version, including where this model stops winning, is an alternative to subscription QR platforms.
Questions, answered
Do credits expire?
Purchased credits are valid for 18 months, and any new pack, even the $15 one, rolls your entire balance forward another 18 months. We email you 30 days before anything expires. The 30 free credits you get at signup are a trial and run out after 7 days.
Why 18 months and not forever?
Because a credit is our promise to serve a scan at whatever it costs us to serve it, and those costs move. Pricing a promise we would have to honour a decade from now would mean charging you more today. Eighteen months is the horizon we can price honestly, and any purchase rolls your whole balance forward · so if you buy at all regularly you never lose a credit.
What happens when my balance hits zero?
On a paid account you get a grace period, and we email you before and during it: your codes keep redirecting for up to 14 days or 5% of your last pack’s scans, whichever runs out first. After that they pause until you top up. Your codes and data are not deleted; they resume the moment you buy credits. (An account only closes after six months with no sign-ins, no scans and no unexpired credits · four emails first, and signing in cancels it.) On a trial account there is no grace window: when the 30 credits are gone, codes pause until you buy a pack.
How much does a custom domain cost?
Every pack can hold one: a domain is a matter of credits here, not of tier. You connect a domain you already own with one CNAME record and we run the SSL and routing, no white-label fee. The same feature is rented back to you at $420–2,000 per domain per year elsewhere, every year, forever. One domain is included free with every pack from Growth ($149) up, and Scale and Volume include two. On any other pack, or beyond your free allowance, a domain is a one-time 40,000-credit slot, up to your pack’s cap (Starter · Basic · Pro 1, Growth 3, Scale 10, Volume 25; more than 25 is quoted). One time, not every year: you buy the domain once and keep it for as long as your account is active. A slot you can’t cover pauses; it is never billed behind your back.
How much do AI art and page chat cost?
A flat number of credits, the same on every pack: AI art is 400 credits for two variants, page chat is 50 credits per answered message, and a custom-code block is 1 credit. Nothing to look up per plan. We set those flat prices so that even our cheapest credits (the Volume pack) cover what the AI supplier charges us, with headroom for their prices to rise, so we never run one of these at a loss. Scans stay 1 credit = 1 scan, with two published exceptions: a smart page and a section page (below · including our Experience templates) each add 1 credit to a scan, so either bills 2 and a page that is both bills 3.
What is a smart page, and what does it cost?
A smart page is a hosted page whose blocks choose their audience: show this button only in Israel, that menu only before noon, the App Store link only on iPhones, the Hebrew text only to Hebrew speakers. The rules run at the edge on the scan itself, cookie-free, so there is nothing to consent-manage and nothing tracked. Link-in-bio platforms sell static lists; this is a page that answers each visitor differently. It costs a one-time 200 credits per page to unlock, and smart scans bill 2 credits instead of 1, printed on the same rate card as everything else. Section pages (composing your own layout from sections and columns) work the same way: a one-time 400-credit unlock per page, and their scans also add 1 credit. Our Experience templates are section pages with a larger one-time unlock, charged when you first publish the page · picking and drafting one is free, and its scans bill the same section rate, on the rate card above.
Why does creating a code cost a credit?
A dynamic code is a live thing: we screen its destination against Google Web Risk when you make it, then re-check it every day for as long as it exists, and keep it resolving at the edge. One credit is a fraction of a cent · the point is that it keeps the system honest, not that it makes us money. Every GS1 serial is a dynamic code too, so a 100,000-unit serialized run costs 100,000 credits (about $61 on the Volume pack), while the platforms you are comparing us to cap you at 3 to 50 codes at any price. Editing a code is always free, and re-exporting a serialized run you already issued costs nothing.
I run a restaurant. What does a menu code actually cost me?
Real numbers: a neighbourhood place whose menu scans 2,000 times a month spends 24,000 credits a year, so one $79 Pro pack covers the year with credits left over, hosted menu page included, edits free, dietary tags and photos included. That is the honest middle of the market. The honest edge of it: if a single code does 20,000+ scans a month, a flat-rate menu subscription beats us on raw price, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What it will not beat is what happens after you stop paying it: our printed table tents keep their address forever, pause at worst, and resume on any top-up, while a lapsed menu subscription takes the QR on every laminated menu down with it.
Is there a subscription I need to cancel?
No. There is no subscription, no auto-renewal, and no card on file unless you choose to buy again. Prepaid credits are the entire model.