How to create QR Code barcodes in Excel file
using QR Code Generator Excel add-in

Generate QR Codes in Microsoft Excel without barocde font, vba, macro. Free download.

Create QR Code into Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets using QR Code Barcode Add-In for Excel

In this Excel QR Code generator user guide, you will learn how to generate, print QR Code 2d barcode images in Microsoft Office Excel files.

QR Code encode ASCII and extended ASCII chars, Unicode text
Create QR Code with GS1 data message encoded using Barcode Excel add-in software
Easy to create, draw, print QR Code on specified area in Excel document
Quick to create list of QR Codes in Microsoft Excel document
Split one large data message into multiple QR Code barcodes in Structured Append mode
Support Microsoft Office Excel 365 on Windows, and also support MS Excel 2021, 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, 2007
Free download Excel add-in freeware. No font, control, Excel fomula, vba, macro programming required.

How to create QR Code barcodes in Office Excel?

Download QR Code Barcode Generator Excel Add-in
Install QR Code add-in to create QR Code barcodes in Excel files
Step by Step Tutorial

Create immediately QR Code, GS1 QR Code in Excel spreadsheets with QR Code add-in for Excel
Easy to install barcode add-in, without any barcode font, macro, vba, Excel formula function, Google API required
Free barcode addin software downloads. Complete demo source code included.
QR Code Industry standards are pre-configured in the generated barcodes
Easy to create bulk or multiple QR Codes from a list of Excel cells' data
It is not necessary for users to consider specifications of QR Code
Easy to make barcode article lists or catalogues in Excel
Simple to print high quality QR Code images with low-resolution printers
QR Code barcode fonts are unnecessary while generating barcodes
Completely supprt generating QR Code 2d barcodes into Microsoft Excel 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007 versions

[Video]: How to create QR Code barcodes in Microsoft Excel without font?

QR Code Barcode Add-In for Excel is developed for office users to embed QR Code barcode images into Excel workbooks, which is a reliable, efficient and convenient barcode generator for Microsoft Office Excel. And this barcode generator plugin is widely applied in many industries. You do not need download extra font, VBA, macro programming to create QR Codes in Microsoft Excel files.

QR Code Barcode Generator for Excel Add-in may easily add QR Code barcodes into Microsoft Excel 365/2019/2016/2013/2010/2007 files. Other linear (1D) & Matrix (2D) barcode Add-ins for Excel and Word are also provided by Onbarcode.com. Those barcodes are: Code 39, Code 128, EAN, UPC, GS1 128, Interleaved 2 of 5, Postal Codes, Data Matrix, PDF-417 etc.

How to generate QR Code barcode in MS Excel file? Free download barcode Excel add in.

It is really a simple task to generate QR Code barcodes in Excel document using OnBarcode Barcode Generator for Excel add-in.

Step 1: Download, install, open Excel barcode add-in

Download free QR Code Barcode Excel Add-In trial package.
Install the Barcode Generator for Excel Add-in software
Open an existing Excel document (or a new empty Excel workbook)
Go to Excel toolbar Add-ins > OnBarcode. Click Create Barcode command to open Barcode Settings pane on the right side of the Excel document.

Step 2: Create, print QR Code in Excel cell

Single click to to select a cell C4, where to create QR Code. The QR Code will encode the covered cell C4 value "QR Code".
In the "Barcode Settings" panel, apply the following settings, and click button Generate to create new QR Code on the selected Excel Cell.
1. Change Barcode Type value to "QR Code / GS1 QR Code"
2. Check Resize Covered Cell. The barcode add-in will automatically adjust the QR Code covered cell width and height.
You can change the value of the property "Data", click button "Update" to update the QR Code data.
If you need create QR Code encoding other cell values, you can input the target cell address in Data text box.
For example, =LINK(B4), it will generate QR Code on cell C4 with cell B4 value encoded.

You can aslo customize the QR Code dimension size related options in tab Barcode Size, and QR Code related options in tab 2D Barcode

Start to Install Excel QR Code Generator Add-in

Start using OnBarcode Excel QR Code Generator Add-in in your Excel document now with a free trial.

Start with installing free add-in:

Update QR Code with properties customized in Excel

You can customize an existing QR Code image using Excel Barcode Generator Add-in.

Choose an existing QR Code in Excel
Change the QR Code options in "Barcode Size" tab and "2D Barcode" tab in "Barcode Settings" pane
Click Update button to apply the QR Code properties custumization

Delete existing QR Code images in Excel

You have multiple methods to delete, remove existing QR Code images from Excel document using Excel Barcode freeware.

Select the QR Code image on Excel sheet, click Delete button on "Barcode Settings" pane. The barcode software will remove the QR Code image from the Excel document.
Select a QR Code image or multiple QR Codes on Excel, press keyboard delete or backspace to delete them.

How to create multiple QR Codes from list of cells in Excel?

If you want to generate bulk of QR Code images with list of cells' values encoded in Excel file, you can quickly do it using Excel Barcode add-in.

Prepare a sample Excel document

We have one Excel document with two columns. The column B contains list of URLs, and we need create list of QR Codes on column C in Excel sheet. Each QR Code will encode the cell value on column B in the same row.

Prepare and open an Excel file with list of cell data in Microsoft Excel application
Create a QR Code encoding one of the cell's value. If you do not know how to create a QR Code in Excel, see details here.

Generating bulk of QR Codes in Excel

Select the generated QR Code image. You will find the a text message on "Barcode Settings" pane. Copy from: Cell [C4] QRCode

It indicates you can start to duplicate one or multiple QR Codes, and the new QR Codes will have the same property settings as the QR Code on cell C4. And the new QR Codes will use other cells' values.

Select multiple cells in Excel. Here we will select three continuous cells from C5 to C7

Click Duplicate All button
Now multiple QR Code generated on the selected cells in Excel.

You will find more detailed tutorials about multiple barcode generation in Excel here:
How to create multiple barcode from list of cell values in Excel?

How to update QR Codes after data changed in Excel?

Update QR Codes automatically

If Excel Barcode Add-in is open and the Excel cells' values are updated, all modified cells linked QR Code images will be updated automatically by barcode generator add-in.

Update QR Codes manually

If Excel Barcode Add-in is closed and the Excel cells' values are modified, the QR Code images will not be updated automatically.

You need press Update All button on "Barcode Settings" pane to update all QR Code and barcode images on Excel sheet at one time.

QR Code Text & Binary Data Encoding

Encode ASCII printable chars

ASCII character set contains totally 128 characters. It includes the numbers from 0-9, the upper and lower case English letters from A to Z, and some special characters. Its character code value is from 0 to 127.

ASCII character code from 32 to 126 are printable characters, represent letters, digits, punctuation marks, and a few miscellaneous symbols.

It is really easy to encode ASCII printable chars in QR Code in Microsoft Excel file. Key in the chars in the Data text box in the barcode generator excel pane.

Or you can generate QR Code from linked Excel Cell data, which contains ASCII printable characters. View details about:
How to generate QR Code barcodes from linked Excel cell data in Excel file?

Encode Unicode Text

QR Code not only supports English and Japanese characters, it also supports Unicode text for other languages or character sets. Using OnBarcode Excel Barcode Generator, you can quickly encode Unicode into QR Code symbology and generate it on Excel document.

Change property Data mode to BYTE
Select the right byte encode from Encode for bytes. The default encode is using UTF-8
Key in Unicode text in the Data textbox or QR Code linked Cell data
Press button Update to re-generate the QR Code with Unicode encoded.

You can read more details about Unicode text encode in QR Code in Microsoft Excel here:
How to generate QR Code with Unicode text in Excel? Step by step user guide.

Encode QR Code with GS1 Business Message

QR Code supports encoding GS1 data message. You can easily generate standard GS1 QR Code barcodes from GS1 data message in Excel document. View details here:
How to generate GS1 QR Code barcodes in Microsoft Excel using Barcode Generator for Excel Add-in?

Encode Kanji (Japanese) text

QR Code is invented in 1994, by a Japanese company named Denso Wave. The QR Code data encoding modes of cause include Kanji encoding (13 bits per character) for Japanese characters.

To encode Kanji characters in Excel using Barcode Generator software, you need change Data mode to KANJI.

How to print QR Code with specified image width & height in Excel?

You can easily adjust the QR Code image width and height in "Barcode Settings" pane.

Click the QR Code image you need adjust image size.
Key in the image size in Image width and Image height textbox under "Barcode Size" tab.
Click button "Update" to re-print the QR Code with the new size.

Note: QR Code is a square barcode, so you need input the same values of "Image width" and "Image height".

You can find more details about barcode size settings, such as changing unit of measure, image margins, here:
How to generate barcodes with specified image size in Excel?

QR Code Basic Characteristics

QR Code Encodable Character Sets

QR Code supports the following character sets in Excel document:

Numeric data (digits 0 - 9)
Alphanumeric data (digits 0 - 9; upper case letters A -Z; nine other characters: space, $ % * + - . / : )
ASCII text. View details: ASCII table
Unicode text
Binary data (such as autdio, video, image data)

QR Code Data Mode

QR Code supports the following data modes to convert QR Code encoding characters into codewords.

Numeric data (digits 0 - 9)
Alphanumeric data (digits 0 - 9; upper case letters A -Z; nine other characters: space, $ % * + - . / : )
Byte data (default: ISO/IEC 8859-1; or other sets as otherwise defined)
Kanji characters. Kanji characters in QR Code can be compacted into 13 bits.

To help QR Code generator users easily select the right data mode, the OnBarcode barcode generator for Excel add-in provides a specialy mode "AUTO". Using the "AUTO" data mode, the barcode software will automatically choose the right data mode for you.

QR Code Maximum String size

QR Code maximum string characters per QR Code symbol with Version 40-L

Numeric data: 7,089 characters
Alphanumeric data: 4,296 characters
Byte data: 2,953 characters
Kanji data: 1,817 characters

If the encoding data length has exceeded the maximum data length, the Excel barcode generator will print an empty image with message "Invalid Barcode Settings"

QR Code Error Correction Mode

QR Code will apply the following four levels of Reed-Solomon error corrections (referred to as L, M, Q and H in increasing order of data recovery capacity) allowing recovery of the QR Code barcode data.

L: 7%
M: 15%
Q: 25%
H: 30%

You can easily select and apply one of the QR Code error correctio mode through Excel barcode property pane.

QR Code Versions

The QR Code specification includes forty sizes of versions, Version 1, Version 2, ..., Version 40.

Each version defines it own number of modules in QR Code. You can view the details at:
What is QR Code sizes and Versions?

You can apply the generated QR Code version through Barcode Generator Excel property pane. If your encoded QR Code data length is more than the maximum data capacity of your choose Version, the barcode generator software will automatically choose a right QR Code Version for you.

Customize QR Code with barcode property settings in Microsoft Excel document

Top

Basic Settings

Barcode Type: choose "QR Code / GS1 QR Code" to create
- QR Code (ISO Standard)
- GS1 QR Code
- Macro QR Code
Data: QR Code data to encode. The data here should be compatible with QR Code supported character sets.

QR Code Advanced Settings

Apply tilde (~): If it is checked, the QR Code generator Excel software allows using the tilde character "~" to specify special characters in the QR Code input data. For more information, please read the details here:
How to encode barcode with non-printable characters in Excel document?
Data mode: Used to convert encoded data into QR Code codewords.
- AUTO (recommended). Using auto data mode, the Excel barcode generator software will analyze the encoded QR Code data and choose the best data mode for you.
- ALPHANUMERIC to encode digits, upper/lower case letters and some special characters
- BYTE to encode byte array data. It is used to encode Unicode text in QR Code
- NUMERIC to encode digits data only.
- KANJI to encode Kanji character set.
Encode for bytes. This option is applicable when the "Data mode" is "BYTE". Most of the QR Code generator and scanner softwares or apps will use UTF-8 to encode byte array datas.
Error correction level: Four levels of Reed-Solomon error correction (referred to as L, M, Q and H in increasing order of capacity). View details here: How to choose QR Code error correction mode in Excel?
Version: There are forty sizes of QR Code barcode referred to as Version 1, Version 2 ... Version 40.
View details here: How to set QR Code Versions?
GS1 Compatible Barcode: To create QR Code with GS1 data message in Excel, you need check this option.
View details here: How to create GS1 QR Code barcodes in Microsoft Excel file?

Barcode Common Settings

QR Code barcode dimension width and height, view details here: Barcode dimension size options in Excel
QR Code bar module colors, you can apply QR Code bar and space modules color settings:
- Bar and space colors
- Transparent background image
view details here: How to apply barcodes bar and space color settings in Excel?

QR Code More Generation Operations

Generate QR Code with Specified Image Width and Height in Excel

Barcode generator software provides 10+ options to customize the QR Code image width and height. Please view the details at
How to generate barcode with specified image size (width, height) in Excel?

QR Code Generation in Word Mail Merge

We have a detailed step by step guides to create QR Code and 1d barcodes in Microsoft Word using Mail Merge fileds. View here:
How to mail merge with barcodes in word from Excel?

Common Asked Questions

What does QR Code stand for?

QR stands for "quick response". QR Code is a digital barcode storing data information in a pixelated grid. QR Code is one of the 2d barcodes which hold data information horizontally and vertically. Excel Barcode Generator add-in supports creating and printing QR Code (standard, GS1, Macro) in Microsoft Excel documents.

What is better than a QR Code?

There are some other 2d barcode formats, which have similar features like QR Code. Data Matrix is one of them. Data Matrix is popular in industrial settings, such as manufacturing and logistics. Excel Barcode Generator freeware supports both QR Code and Data Matrix 2d barcodes generation in Excel files.

What is the smallest size a QR Code can be printed?

QR Code ISO specification has not defined the minimum size for a QR Code. Most of the smart phone QR Code scanners require a minimum of 2 x 2 cm. In Excel barcode addin, you can apply the QR Code size setting through property Image Width in the "Barcode Settings" pane.

Do QR Codes work if they're not black and white?

You can create black and white QR Codes or multiple-colored QR Codes to demonstrate your brand image and aesthetic. OnBarcode Excel Barcode add-in allows you to generate and print colorful QR Codes in Excel. Customize the QR Code module and space colors by Color options Fore, and Back in "Barcode Setting" pane.

How much data can be stored in one QR Code?

A standard QR Code can store up 7089 numeric characters, 4296 alphanumeric, 2953 bytes, or 1817 Kanji characters with version 40 and low error correction level. Excel Barcode add-in provide complete options to apply options, such as QR Code version, error correction level, data mode in the "Barcode Settings" pane.

How to create QR Code barcodes in Excel file using QR Code Generator Excel add-in