Skip to content
Benchmo
Language: English

Business card QR code

People scan your card and save your details to their contacts without typing a thing.

Fill in the content to see your QR code.

Design
Style

Logo in the center

Processed on your device. Files are not uploaded.

Every field you fill in makes the code denser, and on a business card the code is small. A contact with just a name and a phone number makes a code 41 squares across. Fill in all eight fields with typical details and it grows to about 61, which at 2 cm wide leaves each square under a third of a millimeter. A contact for “Alex Example” with a phone number decodes back to exactly the vCard that was typed, so the question is not whether it works but how much you put in.

Which fields to fill in

  • First name and Last name, always. If both are empty, the contact is named after the company instead.
  • Phone, in international format (+1 555 000 0000), so it dials correctly from abroad too. It is saved as a mobile number.
  • Email, since most follow-ups happen there.
  • Company and Job title are useful after a conference, when someone is sorting through fifty new contacts. They are also the first to go out of date.
  • Website: type example.com and the code stores https://example.com, so it opens as a link.
  • Address is the longest field and the one we would skip, unless people actually come to your office. It goes in as one free line.

For most cards we would stop at name, phone, email and company: enough to be useful, short enough to print small.

Placing it on the card

The back of the card works better than the front, where the code competes with your name and logo. Next to it, a short line such as “Scan to save my number” tells people what they get. Print it dark on a light background, keep the white margin around it, and ask the print shop for the SVG version, which stays sharp at any size. Before ordering 500 cards, print one at real size and scan it with two different phones.

What the vCard text looks like

The code holds a vCard 3.0, the plain-text contact format that address books exchange. A name and phone produce lines like BEGIN:VCARD, N:Example;Alex;;;, FN:Alex Example, TEL;TYPE=CELL:+15550000000 and END:VCARD. Commas and semicolons in your company name or address are escaped with a backslash, so they do not split the field, and accented letters are stored as UTF-8. You can read the exact text under “Text inside the code” before you download.

The same code works on a conference badge, the last slide of a talk or an email signature. For a whole team, the bulk QR code generator makes one code per row of a spreadsheet, but it puts each cell in the code as it is and does not build contact cards. It suits a column of links, such as each person’s profile page.

Questions and answers

What happens when someone scans it?

The phone recognizes the vCard and shows a contact with your details, ready to add to the address book. Phone cameras read this standard contact format; it is the same one phones use to share a contact.

Can I update my details after the cards are printed?

No. The details are written into the code itself, which is why it works without any account or service behind it. A new number or job means a new code, so leave out details that change often.

Can I add a second phone number?

Not here. There is one Phone field, and the number is saved as a mobile. Put the number you actually answer; an office line can still be printed on the card.

What size should the QR code be on a business card?

Around 2 × 2 cm (0.8 inch) is the usual minimum for a light code with a name, phone and email. If you fill in every field, print it larger or drop the address: more data means smaller squares at the same size.

Can I put my logo in the middle?

Yes, under Design. The code switches to the highest error correction and becomes denser, so on a card that already holds many fields, give it a bit more room.