A QR code menu that guests are happy to use opens a fast, readable menu page on your own website, is printed large enough with a clear border around it, and sits beside paper menus for anyone who'd prefer them. Guests have mixed feelings about QR menus. In an Ipsos poll from July 2025, 58% of people who had used a QR code menu said they would like to go back to paper menus. So make the scan easy, and keep paper on hand.
This guide covers what guests say about QR menus, where the code should lead, static and dynamic codes, printing, checking for tampering and keeping paper menus.
What guests say about QR code menus
Ipsos asked Americans about QR code menus in 2022, 2023 and 2025. Its July 2025 wave was an online poll of 1,083 adults aged 18 and over, across the continental US, Alaska and Hawaii, interviewed in English on 15 and 16 July 2025 (Ipsos topline and methodology). In that wave, 65% said they had used a digital menu reached with a QR code, up from 42% in August 2022 and 57% in June 2023.
Ipsos then asked only the people who had used one how they felt about them. That was 645 people in the 2025 wave. The figures below are shares of that group only.
| People who had used a QR menu and agreed | Aug 2022 | Jun 2023 | Jul 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| I would like to go back to paper menus | 48% | 51% | 58% |
| I am glad that some restaurants have gone back to paper menus | Not asked | 60% | 71% |
| I hope the use of QR codes continues | 45% | 43% | 39% |
| I like the experience of using digital menus | 41% | 45% | 37% |
The base each year was people who said they had used a QR code menu: 483 in 2022, 588 in 2023 and 645 in 2025. Ipsos summarised the results in QR Code menus are growing even less popular.
The poll measures opinions, and it doesn't ask people why they feel the way they do. What you control is what a guest sees after the scan, how easy the code is to use, and whether there's another option at the table. The rest of this guide covers those three things.
Where your menu QR code should lead
Point the code at a menu page on your own website, at an address like yourrestaurant.com/menu. Whatever tool builds that page, the address is yours. As long as you keep a menu at that address, the code keeps working, even if you change your website builder, menu tool or QR code maker later.
An address on your own domain helps at the table in three more ways:
- When a guest's phone previews the link, they see your restaurant's name in it.
- You can print the same short address beside the code for guests who'd like to type it.
- It's the address you use everywhere else, from your site's navigation to your Google listing (how to add your menu to Google).
What the menu page should do
The page a guest lands on is the menu, so it has to work on a phone. It should load quickly on a phone signal, show real text at a size people can read, and be current. That means today's prices, and the dish the kitchen ran out of at 7:30 marked as sold out. Allergen and dietary details belong there too (menu allergen requirements).
If the code opens a PDF, guests pinch and zoom to read it on a small screen, and every price change means re-exporting and re-uploading the file. PDF menus and online menus compared goes through the trade-offs. A menu page with real text can also be read by search engines, which makes it eligible to appear in search, and restaurant menu SEO explains how that works.
Static and dynamic QR codes
Say you're printing 40 table tents this week. The kind of code on them decides what you can change later without printing them all again.
A static code holds the full web address itself, such as yourrestaurant.com/menu. A phone that scans it goes straight to that address, with no other service in between. To send guests somewhere else, you print a new code.
A dynamic code holds a short address run by the company that made the code. When a guest scans it, that company's service forwards them to the address you've set in your account. You can change that address later without reprinting.
| Static code | Dynamic code | |
|---|---|---|
| What's in the code | Your full web address | A short address run by the provider |
| To change where it goes | Print a new code | Change it in your provider account |
| What it relies on | Your own web page | Your web page and the provider's forwarding service |
| Suits | A menu page at an address that won't change | A destination you expect to change |
Questions to ask about a dynamic code
Because every scan passes through the provider's service, a dynamic code keeps working only while that service keeps forwarding it. Before you print, ask your provider:
- What happens to my printed codes if I stop paying, or move to a smaller plan?
- Can I change where each code points myself, at any time?
- Can I get a list of my codes and where each one points?
For table codes, a static code holding your own menu page's address is the simplest setup. The page changes whenever your menu does, so the code doesn't have to, as long as the address stays the same.
How to print a QR code menu that scans
DENSO WAVE developed the QR code and announced its release in 1994 (DENSO WAVE's history of the QR code). Its site, QRcode.com, explains two settings that affect how a printed code reads: the margin and the error correction level.
Leave a clear border around the code
DENSO WAVE says a QR code "requires a four-module wide margin at all sides of a symbol" (QRcode.com). A module is one of the small squares that make up the code. So the blank border around your code should be at least four of those squares wide, on every side.
Keep the table tent's border, logo, prices and decorations out of that margin. If a designer is laying out your tents, give them this rule along with the code.
Use error correction level M
Error correction lets a phone read a code even when part of it is dirty or damaged. QR codes have four levels: L, M, Q and H. DENSO WAVE says level M (15%) is the one most frequently selected, and that Q or H may be chosen where codes get dirty, giving factories as its example (QRcode.com).
If your QR code maker lets you choose, M is the usual starting point. For a code that will sit where sauce and spills land, you might choose Q.
Print it dark on light
This is our own advice. Print the code dark on a light background. If you want it in your brand colour, print one test copy and scan it with a few different phones before you print the batch. If you laminate, choose a matte finish, and scan a test copy under your dining room lights.
Size the code for the distance
A common rough guide is that a code scans from up to about ten times its own width. By that guide, a code 1 inch wide works from about 10 inches away, and a 3-inch code from about 30 inches. It's only a rough guide, so print one at your chosen size, put it where it will sit, and scan it from a guest's seat.
A code on the front door or in the window is read from further away, so it needs to be bigger. Test that one from the sidewalk or the parking lot.
Print the short address beside the code
Print your menu's address in plain text under or beside the code, such as yourrestaurant.com/menu. A guest whose camera won't scan the code can type the address. Every guest can also see where the code goes before they scan it.
Test every code before it goes out
Scan each finished code with at least one iPhone and one Android phone, at the table, in your evening lighting. Check that it opens the right menu for that location. Do it again whenever you reprint.
Check your table codes for tampering
The Federal Trade Commission warned in December 2023 that people had reported scammers covering QR codes on parking meters with QR codes of their own. It repeated the warning in September 2026, saying a fake code could take people to a fake site designed to steal their money, their personal information or both. Its advice to consumers is to inspect the web address a code opens before visiting it.
The FTC's examples are parking meters. A table tent is also a printed code in a public place, so make checking yours part of setting up for service:
- Look at each code when you set the tables, and feel for a sticker on top of it.
- If you find one, take that tent out of service and replace it. The FTC takes reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
- The short address printed beside the code gives guests something to compare with the link their phone shows.
Keep paper menus for guests who want them
In the Ipsos poll, 71% of people who had used a QR menu agreed they were glad some restaurants have gone back to paper menus. Some guests don't have a phone with them, some have a dead battery, and some find a small screen hard to read.
Keep a stack of paper menus at the host stand, and offer one when you seat a table. A host can say, "There's a QR code on the table, and I can bring you a paper menu if you'd like one." Keep a few large-print copies for guests who find small type hard to read.
Paper menus need reprinting when prices change, so date each printing and replace old copies. When something sells out during service, servers can let their paper-menu tables know.
QR codes for each location with MenuFramer
If your menu page runs MenuFramer, the page on your own site is the MenuFramer menu, so a plain code holding that page's address always shows your current menu. MenuFramer also gives each location its own QR code. That code works like the dynamic codes above: it holds a short address at menuframer.com, and MenuFramer forwards each scan to that location's current menu, so the code keeps working after you change the menu. Print QR codes for your tables shows how to download and print them, and Locations covers running more than one.
Frequently asked questions
How big should a QR code be on a table?
A common rough guide says a code scans from up to about ten times its own width, so a 2-inch code would reach about 20 inches. Treat that as a starting point, and test a printed copy from where guests will sit. Leave a blank border four modules wide around it, which DENSO WAVE specifies for every QR code.
Do QR codes expire?
The printed pattern itself doesn't change. A static code keeps working as long as the web address inside it works. A dynamic code keeps working as long as its provider keeps forwarding it, so ask your provider what happens if you stop paying.
Can I change my menu without reprinting the QR codes?
Yes, if the code points at your menu page. Change the page, and every printed code shows the new menu. A dynamic code also lets you change where the code points, through the provider's service.
Are QR code menus accessible?
That depends on the guest and on the page. A guest without a phone, or who finds a small screen hard to read, needs another way to see the menu, so keep paper menus, including a few in large print. On the page itself, use real text at a comfortable size.
Should I still have paper menus?
Yes. In Ipsos's July 2025 poll, 58% of people who had used a QR code menu said they would like to go back to paper menus, and 71% agreed they were glad some restaurants have gone back to paper. Keep paper at the host stand and offer it when you seat a table.
Sources
- QR Code menus are growing even less popular, Ipsos, checked October 2026
- Ipsos Poll on Consumer Behavior: public poll findings and methodology, July 2025, Ipsos, checked October 2026
- History of QR Code, DENSO WAVE, checked October 2026
- Point for determining the code area, DENSO WAVE, checked October 2026
- Error correction feature, DENSO WAVE, checked October 2026
- Scammers hide harmful links in QR codes to steal your information, Federal Trade Commission, checked October 2026
- See a QR code parked somewhere? Don't scan it…yet!, Federal Trade Commission, checked October 2026
