Do Printed QR Codes Expire? Who Owns the Redirect Behind Your Code

The QR code is an open ISO standard, designed by DENSO WAVE to keep working when it gets dirty or damaged^[1]. Depending on its error correction level, a code can lose roughly 7% to 30% of its data and still scan, and most codes use the 15% level^[2]. Nothing in that design involves time.

That resilience only covers the pattern, though. A pristine code that points to a dead page is still a dead end.

Domain names are rented by the year. When a registration lapses, ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy gives the owner a chance to get it back: registrars have to send at least two renewal reminders, the former owner must be allowed to renew after expiry, and gTLD registries hold deleted names for a 30-day Redemption Grace Period with DNS switched off^[3]. Once those windows close, the name is open to anyone.

And someone is usually waiting. A USENIX Security study found that about 10% of expired .com domains are re-registered on the same day they're deleted^[4].

Print is a snapshot, and the web moves on without it. When Pew Research Center went back to pages that existed between 2013 and 2023, a quarter of them were gone, including 38% of the pages from 2013. Even on government websites, 21% of pages had at least one broken link^[9].

38%

of pages from 2013 were gone a decade later

Pew Research Center [9]

8%

of pages from 2023 were gone within the same year

Pew Research Center [9]

21%

of government webpages had at least one broken link

Pew Research Center [9]

50%

of links in US Supreme Court opinions no longer led to the source

Harvard Law Review Forum [10]

Printed citations hold up no better. Harvard Law School researchers found that more than 70% of the links in three Harvard law journals, and half of those in US Supreme Court opinions, no longer led to the material originally cited^[10].

Nobody has run the same study on QR codes, but a code on a menu or a package is the same kind of fixed reference. Expect it to age the same way unless someone is looking after the address behind it.

Libraries, governments, and standards bodies have kept printed references alive for decades, and they all do it the same way. The printed address never changes, and someone is responsible for making sure it still leads somewhere.

Tim Berners-Lee made the case in “Cool URIs don't change”: a page should only vanish if the company behind its domain goes under. “Oh, and do think about your domain name,” he adds^[11]. Crossref, which issues the DOIs on academic papers, makes it a condition of membership that “your DOIs always resolve to a live landing page”^[12].

The US Government Publishing Office has run permanent links since 1998, and its staff update them whenever federal documents move^[13]. GOV.UK asks anyone withdrawing a page to set an “Alternative URL” so visitors are redirected rather than stranded^[14].

GS1, the organization behind retail barcodes, applies the same idea to QR codes on packaging. Its Digital Link gives a manufacturer “a permanent address that can then be redirected to whatever the manufacturer wants.” Without one, it warns, the code on the pack “will lead to a 404”^[15].

Each of these has an owner who plans to be around for decades. When your code runs through a vendor's domain, part of that ownership sits with the vendor, so it's worth knowing exactly what they've promised.

Policies vary more than you might expect. QR Code Generator says that when a free trial ends, “Dynamic QR Codes are deactivated and point to a service page rather than the original destination,” though static codes keep working and upgrading brings the dynamic ones back^[16]. Uniqode disables dynamic codes when a free trial ends and reactivates them on upgrade^[17]. Hovercode keeps your first three dynamic codes working after you cancel, and the rest “will become inactive but won't be deleted”^[19].

The contracts themselves tend to be quieter. Uniqode's terms let it delete account data within 30 days of termination^[18], and QR TIGER's keep data for up to a year after a plan expires^[20], but neither says what happens to a code that's already printed. That answer lives in help pages, which can change at any time.

We didn't find a single vendor that promises a lapsed dynamic code will keep redirecting, or a US rule that requires it. The closest thing is the FTC's guidance on “free” offers, which says the conditions should be stated “clearly and conspicuously at the outset of the offer”^[21]. In other words, if a free code is going to stop working, you should be told up front. Ask anyway.

Since we sell dynamic QR codes, here's how ours work. The full details are on our pricing page.

One limit is worth stating plainly. Every Kebo QR dynamic code redirects through a domain we own, and we don't yet let you use your own. For a print run meant to last years, that means relying on us staying in business. If that's not a risk you want, print a static code instead.

For most print, though, the bigger risk is the one from section 3: destinations move. A static code that points at a page that's gone stays broken, and the only fix is a reprint. A dynamic code is fixed in seconds from your dashboard, without touching a single printed copy. Keeping its domain registered is our job, not yours, and it's the domain this whole site runs on. Scan analytics on paid plans show you when a code goes quiet, and if you ever cancel, nothing is deleted: your codes pause and come back as soon as you upgrade. That's the trade we think most printed codes should make: a code you can repoint over one you can never change.

Run through these before you send anything to print.

A printed QR code doesn't expire. The address behind it can, and in every documented failure the cause was a domain that lapsed. Subscriptions are the gentler risk: a lapsed plan usually pauses a code, and paying again brings it back.

Every system that keeps printed links alive for decades works the same way, with a fixed address and someone responsible for it. Before you print, make sure you know who that someone is.