YOUTUBE

QR code for a YouTube video or channel

Paste the video or channel URL. YouTube has four address shapes and this checks yours rather than rebuilding it.

A YouTube QR code stores the address of a video, channel or playlist, which a phone opens in YouTube.

Add the content

YouTube URLA video, a channel, an @handle or a youtu.be short link. All four are accepted.

Style this code

Style this code — colour, shape, branding, frame and output

Colour & contrastThe ink, the paper behind it, and the three eyes. Every choice is contrast-checked as you make it.

Foreground

18.0:1 against the background — clears the 4.5:1 a camera wants margin on.

Background

Transparency0%

Eye colours

ShapeHow the squares are drawn. The three eyes are styled apart from the data, because a scanner finds the code by them.

Modules

Every shape here is decode-tested before it is offered. Shapes that lose the symbol — diamond, star, heart — are not on this list, however good they look.

Eye frame

Eye centre

BrandingYour mark on the code. Every picture here costs scanability — the notes say how much, and the preview is the truth.

Logo image

Upload a logo

PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 2MB. The modules beneath it are cleared and error correction rises to cover the hole.

Background picture

Upload a picture

Sits behind the modules, quiet zone included. A busy picture is the classic reason a decorated code stops scanning — check the preview with a phone before printing.

Foreground texture

Upload a texture

Washes over the ink itself, so it is capped well below full strength — at full strength there is no code left to scan.

Frame & captionA border and a line of text around the code — the "scan me" that tells a passer-by what it is for.

Frame style

A frame is drawn outside the quiet zone, never into it — the canvas grows instead, so the border cannot cost the code its margin.

OutputWhat comes out of the download buttons, and what the symbol actually carries.

Options

PNG size

Margin4 modulesError correctionEncoding

Automatic picks the smallest encoding that carries your text, and is right almost always. The other three exist for older scanners that expect one specific encoding; each refuses text it cannot carry rather than mangling it. Encodings we cannot convert to correctly are not offered at all.The margin never goes below 4 — ISO/IEC 18004's minimum; smaller is not a QR code. A logo raises error correction to at least Q. Encoding is chosen by the encoder per symbol and shown in the readout — a manual charset menu only makes codes bigger.

Embedded data

https://youtube.com/@exampleThe exact text the symbol carries — what any scanner will read out.

Save this design — free account, the code stays editable →

Your code

v329×29 modulesbyteEC-M30/44mask 0

4/4 4 of 4 checks passHow we measure

Print-ready PDF

A press file at the finished size: 3mm bleed, crop marks and a trim box a print shop’s checks read. The code is drawn black on white whatever the design above — how a colour prints is something only a test print can show.

Format

No account · no watermark · no scan limits

Four address shapes, none of them guessable

/watch?v=, /@handle, /channel/UC… and youtu.be/… are all YouTube and none can be derived from a channel name. The URL you paste is validated as being on YouTube and encoded unchanged.

youtu.be makes a smaller code

The short form is a genuine YouTube address, not a third-party shortener, so it costs no dependency and encodes to a lower symbol version. On a poster read from across a room, that is worth having.

A timestamp survives; a playlist position may not

A ?t= start time is part of the URL and encodes fine. A position within a playlist depends on the playlist not changing, which is not something a printed code can hold still.

YouTube QR codes

Video or channel?

Either — both are URLs. A video is the better choice on print, because it lands somewhere specific rather than on whatever was uploaded most recently.

Will it autoplay?

That is the app or browser’s decision, not the code’s. Assume it will not and print accordingly.

Can I use a shortener to make the code smaller?

youtu.be is YouTube’s own and is fine. A third-party shortener adds a service that can disappear, and a printed code cannot outlive its redirect.

Can it start the video at a particular moment?

Yes — a URL with a start time carries into the code and the player honours it. The payload grows by a few characters and nothing else changes.

Want to change it after it’s printed?

Make it a dynamic code: it carries a short link you can point somewhere new at any time, and it counts every scan. A free account includes 5 dynamic codes and needs no card — and a dynamic code keeps redirecting even if you never upgrade.

Make it dynamic, free How dynamic codes work