About calendar event QR codes
A calendar QR code contains an event — title, start and end time, location, and description. Scanning it offers to add that event to the phone’s calendar with everything filled in.
It belongs on posters, tickets, wedding invitations, and conference programmes: anywhere someone is looking at a date and thinking "I must remember that".
How to make one
- Enter the event name and the start time. Everything else is optional.
- Add an end time — without one, some calendars default to an all-day entry.
- Include the location so attendees can tap through to directions from the calendar.
- Scan the preview, check the entry looks right, then download.
What gets encoded
The code holds plain text in a format phones recognise. For this type it looks like this:
BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Product launch DTSTART:20260131T090000 DTEND:20260131T100000 LOCATION:The Barbican END:VEVENT
A bare VEVENT block, which is what scanners expect. Times are written as local "floating" time with no timezone, so the event lands at the stated clock time on the scanning phone.
Tips
- Times have no timezone attached, so an event at 09:00 shows as 09:00 on every phone. That is right for a physical event and wrong for an international video call.
- Keep the description brief; calendar text adds up quickly and makes the pattern denser.
- Print the date and time in plain text next to the code too. Not everyone scans.
- For a recurring series, link to a calendar subscription URL instead — a QR event is a single entry.
Frequently asked questions
Does it add the event automatically?
No. The phone shows the event details and asks whether to add it. Nothing is written to the calendar without the person agreeing.
How do timezones work?
The time is encoded without one, so it is interpreted as local time wherever it is scanned. For a venue event that is exactly what you want. For an online event across timezones, put the timezone in the title.
Do you see what I type here?
No. The code is generated entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter on this page is sent to our servers or stored anywhere.
Does this QR code expire?
No. The details are encoded directly into the pattern itself, so the code does not depend on this site or any account. It keeps working even if this site disappears, with no scan limit and no watermark.
Other QR code types
New to this? The QR code guide covers error correction, sizing for print, and the four reasons codes fail to scan.