How to Make a QR Code Expire — and What Happens to the Print

"Can I make this code stop working on Friday?" has a short answer that depends entirely on which kind of code you printed.

A static code cannot expire

A static code is its destination — the URL is encoded in the pattern. Nothing sits in the middle, so there is nothing to switch off. It stops working only when the page it points at stops existing, and then what a visitor gets is whatever your server says: a 404, a domain-for-sale page, or the site's homepage. You do not control it, and you cannot schedule it.

People try to work around this by deleting the page. It does end the campaign, and it also produces the worst possible customer experience: a dead link on something you printed, with no explanation.

What expiry actually is on a dynamic code

A dynamic code encodes a short address you control, which answers "go here" on every scan. That middle step is where a date can live.

Set an expiry and, after it passes, the code still resolves. The scan still reaches us; we simply stop forwarding and show a page saying the code has expired. That distinction matters more than it sounds:

• The visitor gets an explanation instead of a browser error, which reads as deliberate rather than broken.
• You can lift the expiry later and the same printed code works again. Nothing was destroyed.
• You can point it somewhere else instead — next year's page, an archive, a "this offer ended, here's the current one" — which converts an expired campaign into traffic rather than a dead end.

That last option is usually the right one, and it is the reason to prefer moving the destination over expiring at all.

The scan cap: expiry measured in scans

The same idea, counted differently. Set a limit and the code stops forwarding once it has been scanned that many times — again with a page rather than an error.

Useful where the constraint is quantity rather than time: a limited offer honoured for the first two hundred people, a print run where you want to know when it is exhausted, a code you would rather burn out than leave open forever.

One caveat worth knowing: the cap counts scans, not people. Somebody scanning twice spends two. It is a blunt instrument, not a voucher system, and treating it as one will disappoint whoever is two hundred and first.

When to use it, and when not to

Worth it:

• A seasonal campaign where the destination will be wrong afterwards — a summer menu, an event that ends, a promotion with a deadline.
• Codes that leave your control. Something handed out at a conference, printed in a magazine, on packaging you will not see again.
• Compliance-shaped cases where an offer must demonstrably stop on a date.
• Temporary access — a code for guests during an event, a code on a document that should not remain live for years.

Not worth it:

• Anything on a permanent object. A machine plate, a room, a product that will be in use for years. Expiry there is a trap you set for your future self.
• Where a redirect would serve better. If there is any sensible next destination, send people to it. An expired code is a conversation ended; a moved one is a conversation continued.
• As a substitute for security. Expiry stops the code, not the page. Anyone who saved the destination URL can still open it.

Practical notes

• Expiry and the cap are Pro and Business features, alongside password protection. On the free plan a code runs until you pause or delete it.
• Free codes do not expire on their own. Worth saying because several services do time-limit free dynamic codes, which is the practice that gives the whole category a bad name — you print, they expire, you pay. Ours do not.
• Pausing is the manual version. Switch a code off and it shows the same kind of notice, with no date involved. Useful when you do not know when it should end.
• Set the date in the timezone you think in, then check what it says afterwards. "Ends Friday" that stops at 01:00 Friday because of a timezone is a support ticket you will get on Saturday.
• Decide the destination before the date arrives. The expiry page is a fallback, not a plan.

Quick answers

• Can a static QR code expire? No. It works until its destination stops existing, and then it just breaks.
• What does a visitor see after expiry? A page saying the code has expired — not a browser error.
• Can I undo it? Yes. Remove the expiry and the printed code works again.
• Can I limit by number of scans instead? Yes, and it counts scans rather than people.
• Do your free codes expire? No. Five dynamic codes, no time limit.
• Is expiry a security measure? No. It stops the code; anyone holding the destination URL still has it.