A QR code is a type of matrix barcode.
Barcodes and QR codes are optical labels that are machine-readable and link to information about items or products.
They’re ubiquitous today. You see them everywhere, from restaurant menus to packaging labels.
In this post, we’ll look at how to create fully-functional QR codes in Google Sheets.
QR Codes In Google Sheets
To create QR codes in Google Sheets, we call the Google Charts API to generate a QR code. Then we display those QR codes in Google Sheets with the IMAGE function.
Let’s see an example.
Assuming we have some information in cell A1, the first step is to encode the data for the API with the ENCODEURL function:
=ENCODEURL(A1)The encoding ensures the data can be used in the query string of the URL when we call the API. For example, we can’t have spaces in URLs, so the ENCODEURL function will replace spaces with a special code (in this case %20).
Anyway, provided you have the ENCODEURL function present, it will take care of that for you.
Next, we prepend the Google Chart API request for QR Codes, which will create the QR code:
="https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=300x300&cht=qr&chl="&ENCODEURL(A1)Notice how we specify we want to create a QR code with the parameter: “cht=qr”
If you click on the URL generated by this formula, it will open the QR code in a new tab of your browser. So now we need to display the QR code in the Sheet.
To do this, we wrap the formula with the IMAGE function:
=IMAGE("https://chart.googleapis.com/chart?chs=250x250&cht=qr&chl="&ENCODEURL(A1))Boom!
There it is! Our QR code in a Google Sheet!
We can now scan this QR code with our phone camera or a QR reader to quickly access that data:
QR Codes Template
Click here to open a view-only copy >>
Feel free to make a copy: File > Make a copy…
If you can’t access the template, it might be because of your organization’s Google Workspace settings.
In this case, right-click the link to open it in an Incognito window to view it.
See Also
Create Barcodes In Google Sheets In 2 Easy Steps
My friend, Amit Agarwal, has written a tutorial on how to create dynamic QR codes for collecting UPI payments, using custom functions in Google Sheets.
Is it possible to see how many scans the QR codes receive with the chart api?
Thanks for sharing, this is a great article. I was planning on utilizing this in my UTM tracking worksheet where we occasionally use QR codes in offline settings – posters, product literature, etc. The only issue I’m having is getting the QR codes out of the Google Sheet because I am unable to copy and past the image of the code. Any thoughts? I’m sure I could do a screen grab, but wasn’t sure if there was a more elegant way to do it.
This feature would be much more useful if it were accessible in Google docs. For a printed Google docs pamphlet, instruction book or just any old book , to be able to utilise a hyperlink by scanning a generated QR code on the page would be great.
Have you tried inserting the sheet into your doc?
This is a fantastic little formula and clear instructions on how to use it. You saved my project when the QR cod add-on choked after 200 lines and I needed 1000 QR codes for school photos. Thank you!
You’re welcome! That’s great to hear. Cheers!
What a useful thing to be able to do right within Google Sheets without any add-ons. Thank you for explaining this!
Amazing way to easily create code Ben
Any ideas for download qr code with high quality?