QR Code Statistics 2026
Most QR code statistics pages repeat the same rows without saying where the numbers came from, when they were measured, or what unit they are in. This page works differently. Every IMQRScan figure states its unit and measurement window. Every third-party figure was checked on the publisher's own page before inclusion. Anything that could not be traced to a checkable origin has been removed, and the section near the end names the well-known figures we took out and explains why.
January 2024 to April 2026, across 22 or more countries.
How to read these numbers
Three different units appear in QR code statistics, and mixing them is the single most common error in published data. Each figure on this page says which one it uses.
Account-level
The share of accounts that did something at least once. Because one account creates several types of code, these figures overlap and do not sum to 100 percent. The QR type table below is account-level.
Code-level
The share of individual QR codes in a sample. A code-level share of QR types would sum to 100 percent, and would look very different from the account-level version, because a single account can create hundreds of one type and one of another.
Scan-level
The share of individual scan events. Scan volume concentrates heavily in a small number of codes, so a common code type can be a rare scan type. Device and regional figures below are scan-level.
If a statistics page does not tell you which unit it is using, its numbers cannot be compared with anything, including these.
QR code statistics, key questions answered
Direct answers to the most searched questions about QR code usage, each traceable to a section below or to a named third-party publisher.
What share of QR scans come from smartphones?
Over 98 percent. iOS accounts for 54 percent of scans and Android 44 percent, with desktop and tablet making up the remaining 2 percent. Scan-level, measured across 47 million scan events from January 2024 to April 2026. (IMQRScan)
Does the device split change by country?
Sharply. iOS reaches 68 percent of scans in the US, UK and Australia, while Android reaches 78 percent in India and Southeast Asia. The global average describes almost nobody's actual audience. (IMQRScan)
What is the most popular QR code type?
URL and website codes, created by 82 percent of IMQRScan accounts, then vCard Plus at 54 percent and WhatsApp at 48 percent. Account-level, so the figures overlap and do not sum to 100 percent. (IMQRScan)
Which QR types are growing fastest?
Google Review codes grew 280 percent in creation volume between 2024 and 2026, WhatsApp codes 210 percent, UPI payment codes 200 percent and multi-link codes 195 percent. Platform growth over the same period contributes to these figures. (IMQRScan)
Are businesses moving to dynamic QR codes?
Dynamic code creation grew 340 percent between 2024 and 2026. Dynamic codes cover 91 percent of marketing campaign use, 78 percent of print material and 71 percent of operational use. Static remains dominant for personal use at 88 percent. (IMQRScan)
How many people in the US scan QR codes?
The widely quoted 102.6 million figure is an eMarketer forecast published in 2023 projecting to 2026, not a measured count. It is routinely republished without that qualification. A measured figure: a survey of 1,000 US adults found 68 percent had used a QR code in the previous year. (TEAM LEWIS, 2024)
How big is the QR code market?
Above 13 billion US dollars in 2025. Note what that covers: payments infrastructure, labels and mobile marketing channels, not QR generator software. It is not the size of the market QR code platforms compete in. (Mordor Intelligence)
Why is there no scan rate table on this page?
Because a scan rate needs a count of people who saw the code and did not scan, and nothing records that. The 72 percent table card figure circulating across the industry cannot be produced from platform analytics. We removed ours. (See what we removed)
What people scan QR codes with
The headline finding here is not the global split, which is broadly what you would expect. It is how little the global split tells you about your own audience once you look at it by country.
Operating system share of scans, global
Derived from user agent at redirect. Source: IMQRScan platform data.
Dominant platform by region
Regional groupings reflect where IMQRScan records meaningful scan volume, not global QR usage.
| Segment | Dominant platform | Share of scans (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Global | iOS | 54 |
| Global | Android | 44 |
| Global | Desktop and other | 2 |
| US, UK, Australia | iOS | 68 |
| India, Southeast Asia | Android | 78 |
| Middle East | Android | 55 |
| Europe | iOS | 52 |
What this means in practice
Do not plan against the global average. A business operating only in India faces an audience that is roughly four fifths Android. A business operating only in the United States faces one that is roughly two thirds iOS. Applying a 54 to 44 global split to either would be misleading.
Test on Android before printing at volume. Low contrast designs and oversized centre logos fail more often on Android cameras than on iOS. If your audience skews Android, a design that scans perfectly on the designer's iPhone is not evidence of anything.
The 2 percent desktop share is real traffic. It is mostly people scanning a code shown on one screen using a second device or a webcam. Small, but if your destination page is broken on desktop that traffic disappears without any signal.
What user agent cannot tell us. We can identify the operating system that made the request. We cannot tell whether the scan came from a native camera app, an in-app browser, or a third-party scanner, so we publish no breakdown by scanning method.
Which QR code types businesses create
Read the unit carefully. These are shares of accounts that created at least one code of each type, so they overlap and sum well past 100 percent. A single account commonly creates a URL code, a vCard and a WiFi code. This is a different measurement from share of codes created, and the two are not interchangeable.
Share of accounts creating each QR code type
Figures overlap because accounts create multiple types. They are not shares of codes created. Source: IMQRScan platform data.
| QR code type | Share of accounts creating this type (%) |
|---|---|
| URL / Website | 82 |
| vCard Plus | 54 |
| 48 | |
| Google Review | 41 |
| Restaurant Menu | 38 |
| Multi-link | 31 |
| File / PDF | 26 |
| WiFi | 22 |
| Event | 18 |
| All other types | 14 |
Growth in creation volume, 2024 to 2026
Google Review codes grew 280 percent, the fastest of any type in the window. Asking a customer to search for a business on Google and leave a review has a low completion rate. A Google review QR code on a receipt or table card opens the review form in two taps, while the customer is still sitting there.
WhatsApp codes grew 210 percent, concentrated in markets across the Middle East, South Asia and Latin America where WhatsApp is the primary customer channel rather than a secondary one.
UPI payment codes grew 200 percent, almost entirely driven by South Asian markets where QR-based payment has become a default rather than an alternative.
Multi-link codes grew 195 percent. Businesses increasingly put several destinations behind one code rather than printing three codes side by side, which is a sign of QR marketing maturing rather than expanding.
These measure growth in creation volume on a platform that was also growing over the same period, so they reflect both category adoption and platform growth. They are not market-wide adoption rates.
Dynamic and static QR codes, by use case
The clearest split in the data is not which format is better. It is that the two formats are used for genuinely different jobs, and each dominates the job it suits.
Where static codes dominate
Free forever, fixed content, no expiryStatic QR codes suit permanent, low-maintenance uses where tracking is not needed. On IMQRScan they are unlimited, free forever, and never expire. They carry no analytics, because a static code resolves without ever touching our servers.
Where dynamic codes dominate
Editable after printing, scan analytics includedDynamic QR codes encode a redirect rather than the destination itself, so the destination can change after printing and every scan can be recorded. On IMQRScan they start at 2.99 US dollars per month.
| Use case | Format | Share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing campaigns | Dynamic | 91 |
| Print materials | Dynamic | 78 |
| Business operations | Dynamic | 71 |
| Personal use | Static | 88 |
| One-off campaigns | Static | 62 |
| Permanent signage | Static | 55 |
Dynamic creation grew 340 percent between 2024 and 2026. The driver is not analytics. It is that a printed static code pointing at a page that no longer exists cannot be fixed, and enough businesses have now been caught by that to change default behaviour.
We do not publish a dynamic versus static scan comparison. Dynamic codes do record more scans per code in our data, but the two groups are not comparable: dynamic codes come from paying customers running real campaigns, static codes largely from free users making one-off personal codes. That gap measures who creates each format, not what the formats do.
Industry figures, verified at source
Each figure below was checked on the publisher's own page before inclusion. The middle column exists because most of these numbers are routinely quoted as something other than what they actually measure.
| Figure | What it actually measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global QR code market above 13 billion US dollars in 2025 | The full QR ecosystem including payments infrastructure, labels and mobile marketing channels. Not the market for QR code generator software, which is a small fraction of it. | Mordor Intelligence, 2025 |
| 102.6 million US QR code scanners in 2026 | A forecast published by eMarketer in 2023 projecting forward to 2026. Not a measured count of 2026 activity, though it is very widely republished as one. | Statista, citing eMarketer 2023 |
| 68 percent of US adults used a QR code in the past year | Self-reported survey response from a sample of 1,000 US adults. A measured figure, but survey-based, US only, and subject to recall error. | TEAM LEWIS, 2024 |
| QR code invented in 1994 by Denso Wave | Developed in Japan to track automotive components through manufacturing. The specification is open and published as ISO/IEC 18004, which is why codes from any generator scan on any device. | Denso Wave |
If a well-known figure you expected to find is missing from this page, check the next section. It was probably removed deliberately.
Statistics we removed from this page, and why
Earlier versions of this page carried most of the figures below. They circulate widely across the QR code industry, and we republished them in good faith. On review, none can be derived from the data a QR code platform actually holds, so they have been removed rather than restated. We are naming them so that anyone who cited them from this page can see exactly what changed and why.
Scan rates by placement: 72 percent table cards, 38 percent packaging, 26 percent direct mail
A scan rate is scans divided by the number of people who saw the code. A platform can count scans, but nothing counts the people who walked past a table card without scanning. There is no denominator, so the figure cannot be produced. It appears on many QR statistics pages regardless, including ours until now.
A call to action label increases scans by 37 percent
Establishing this would require a controlled test where the same code runs in the same place with and without a label. We have not run that test. A descriptive label is still good practice, but we cannot put a number on it and neither, as far as we can find, can anyone publishing the figure.
Logo QR codes get 29 percent more scans than plain ones
The same problem. Codes with logos are made by businesses investing in design, which correlates with everything else they do well, including where they place the code. Attributing the difference to the logo itself needs an experiment nobody has published.
Over 80 percent of full-service restaurants use QR menus
We have no visibility into restaurants that are not our customers. This is a claim about a population we cannot observe, and we could not find a primary survey behind the number when we looked for one.
Dynamic QR codes get 36 times more scans than static
The ratio appears in our data but the comparison is invalid. Dynamic codes come from paying customers running campaigns with real audiences behind them. Static codes come largely from free users making one-off personal codes. The gap measures who creates each format, not what the formats do.
Over 2 billion QR code scans occur globally every day
We could not trace this to a primary source. Every version we found cites another statistics page, which cites another. No global QR scan counter exists, because scans resolve across payment networks, private systems and thousands of platforms that share no data with each other.
Over 90 percent of marketers use QR codes
Attributed in its common form to unnamed marketing surveys, with no identifiable study behind it. Removed until a primary source can be named.
Why publish this at all
Because a page of statistics is only as good as its worst figure. One number that falls apart under checking makes every other number on the page suspect, including the ones that are sound. Removing them publicly is more useful than quietly editing them out.
Definitions, methodology and limits
How the data is collected
IMQRScan figures come from aggregate server-side logs of two event types: code creation and scan redirect. A scan is recorded when a request resolves through an IMQRScan tracked short URL. Static codes resolve directly to their destination without touching our servers, which is why every scan-level figure on this page necessarily covers dynamic codes only. No personally identifiable information is collected, stored or published. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number and may not sum to exactly 100.
Definitions
Scan: one resolved request through a tracked short URL. Repeat scans from the same device are counted, so scan totals are not unique visitors. Account-level share: the proportion of accounts that did something at least once. These overlap and do not sum to 100 percent. Code-level share: the proportion of individual codes in a sample. Scan-level share: the proportion of individual scan events.
Known limitations
These figures describe activity on one platform, not the QR code market. Our customer base is not a representative sample of global QR usage, so type distribution and regional figures reflect who uses IMQRScan rather than who uses QR codes. Growth figures measure creation volume on a platform that was itself growing across the same period, so they capture both category adoption and platform growth and should not be read as market-wide adoption rates. Bot and preview traffic is filtered where identifiable but cannot be eliminated entirely. Country is derived from IP address and will misattribute traffic behind a VPN at an unknown rate. None of these limits are unique to us. They apply to every platform-derived QR dataset, whether or not the publisher states them.
Corrections and reuse
These figures are free to cite with attribution to IMQRScan and a link to this page. If you believe a figure here is wrong, write to support@imqrscan.com and we will check it and publish a correction if warranted. Data is reviewed quarterly and the last update date appears at the top of this page. Where a figure has been removed rather than corrected, it is listed in the removed figures section above rather than deleted silently.
Published and reviewed by the IMQRScan Editorial Team. Last reviewed August 2026.
QR code statistics, frequently asked questions
Sources and references
- IMQRScan platform analytics, January 2024 to April 2026. Internal aggregate data. Methodology and definitions
- Mordor Intelligence. "QR Code Market Size and Share Report, 2025 to 2030." mordorintelligence.com
- TEAM LEWIS Research. "Research Roundup: Consumer Perceptions of QR Codes," 2024. teamlewis.com
- Statista, citing an eMarketer 2023 forecast. "Number of smartphone users who scanned a QR code in the United States." statista.com
- Denso Wave Incorporated. "History of QR Code." denso-wave.com
- ISO/IEC 18004. Information technology, automatic identification and data capture techniques, QR Code bar code symbology specification.
QR Code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Incorporated.
The platform behind this data
Every IMQRScan figure on this page came out of our own production logs. Free static QR codes that never expire, dynamic codes with scan tracking from 2.99 US dollars per month, and QR generation that runs in your browser so your data never reaches our servers.
No credit card required. Free static QR codes never expire.