Do Google review QR codes expire?

Not if the code encodes your Google review link directly — that link is tied to your listing and stays valid. Codes made with a free tracking or dynamic QR service do expire, because they point at the service's domain rather than at Google, and that redirect stops working when the free tier ends or the company does.

What size should a review QR code be printed?

At least 2 x 2 cm for something held in the hand and 3 x 3 cm on a table. The general rule is that the code should be about a tenth of the distance it is scanned from, so a code read from a metre away wants to be about 10 cm across.

Can one QR code work for multiple branches?

No, and it should not. Each branch has its own Google listing and therefore its own review link and its own code. Sending all branches to one listing concentrates reviews on a location half your customers never visited, which is both unhelpful and a Google policy problem.

Why is my QR code not scanning?

In order of likelihood: the white margin was trimmed off, it was printed too small, it was printed light-on-dark, it is behind a glossy laminate that reflects, or it is somewhere too dim for a phone camera to focus. Test the physical print with two different phones before committing to a run.

Guides

How to make a Google review QR code (free)

You do not need to pay anyone for this. Here is the free way, start to finish, and an honest note on when it stops being enough.

Updated 21 September 2026

A Google review QR code is just your review link, drawn as a square. There is nothing proprietary in it, no subscription required, and any tool charging a monthly fee for the code alone is selling you a picture of a URL.

Step 1: get your review link

Sign in to your Google Business Profile, either at business.google.com or by searching your own business name while signed in as the owner. Find the option marked Ask for reviews, or Get more reviews. It gives you a short link that looks like g.page/r/ followed by a code, ending in /review.

That link opens the review box directly, with the star selector already on screen. If you cannot find it, there are two other routes — the full walkthrough is in how to find your Google review link.

Step 2: turn it into a QR code

Any free generator works. Google Chrome will do it with no third-party site at all: open your review link in Chrome on a computer, click the share icon in the address bar, and choose Create QR code. Download the PNG.

Step 3: print it so it actually gets scanned

Minimum size 2 x 2 cm for a code held in the hand, 3 x 3 cm for one on a table, larger for anything read from more than arm's length.
Dark code on a light background. Inverted codes fail on many older phone cameras.
Leave the white margin around the square. Trimming it to fit a design is the most common reason a printed code will not scan.
Always print a line of text with it. A bare square gets ignored; Scan to leave us a review on Google gets scanned. Say what happens next.
Test the printed copy, not the file, with both an Android and an iPhone before you print two hundred.

Where to put it

Ranked by how well they tend to work in a small restaurant or cafe: the bill folder, the counter where people wait for an order, the table tent, the back of the menu, the door. The first two win because they catch people during dead time. The door loses because people are leaving.

If your room is loud or dim, an NFC sticker beats a QR code — a tap needs no aiming and no light. The same link goes on it.

When the free version stops being enough

A bare QR code has two real limitations, and neither shows up in week one.

You cannot tell which code is working. Print four — counter, table, bill, receipt — and all you will ever know is the total number of reviews. You will never learn that the bill folder does eight times the work of the door.
It sends everyone to a public box. The customer whose order was wrong lands on the same review form as the customer who loved it, and you find out about the problem at the same moment as the internet does.

That second one is the reason tools like this one exist. Cumin Connect puts a rating screen between the scan and Google: the customer taps a star, then sees both a one-tap Google button and a private message box addressed to you. Everybody sees both — that is not optional, because showing Google only to the happy ones is a policy violation. What you get is per-code scan counts and a warning about the cold biryani that arrives by email in under a minute.

If you have fewer than about twenty covers a day, the free code is genuinely fine. Start there. The tracking only earns its keep once you have enough scans for the difference between placements to mean anything.

Common questions

Do Google review QR codes expire?: Not if the code encodes your Google review link directly — that link is tied to your listing and stays valid. Codes made with a free tracking or dynamic QR service do expire, because they point at the service's domain rather than at Google, and that redirect stops working when the free tier ends or the company does.
What size should a review QR code be printed?: At least 2 x 2 cm for something held in the hand and 3 x 3 cm on a table. The general rule is that the code should be about a tenth of the distance it is scanned from, so a code read from a metre away wants to be about 10 cm across.
Can one QR code work for multiple branches?: No, and it should not. Each branch has its own Google listing and therefore its own review link and its own code. Sending all branches to one listing concentrates reviews on a location half your customers never visited, which is both unhelpful and a Google policy problem.
Why is my QR code not scanning?: In order of likelihood: the white margin was trimmed off, it was printed too small, it was printed light-on-dark, it is behind a glossy laminate that reflects, or it is somewhere too dim for a phone camera to focus. Test the physical print with two different phones before committing to a run.