QR Code Menu for Your Cafe or Restaurant: Make One Free in 10 Minutes That Never Expires

A new menu goes up on Monday. By Wednesday the printed cards are wrong, because the supplier put the price of salmon up and the oat milk now costs extra. Reprinting a stack of table cards costs money and a day; the alternative is a square sticker on each table that opens the menu on the customer's phone, and a menu you can change at 7 am before the first coffee is poured.

That is what a QR code menu is for: a restaurant menu or cafe menu that lives on a page and opens from a code. The good news is that the code itself should cost nothing and never expire. The bad news is that most "free QR code menu" sites give you a dynamic code on a trial, and the trial ends after the stickers are printed. This guide shows the version that keeps working: a static code that points at a menu page you control, made free on Jobbit from one short form, with the hosting choices, the legal bits for England and the print sizes that scan on a wobbly table in low light.

Make the menu code on Jobbit in one message

The Jobbit QR code tool is a short form, not a blank box. You paste the link your menu lives at, pick where the code will go and the style, and the page shows you the exact message it is about to send to the agent. Sign up with an email address (no card) and the job runs; the files land in a chat you keep.

1. Paste the menu link. The address of your menu page, your Google Drive PDF or your ordering page. If you do not have one yet, the section below covers the four ways to host a menu.
2. Choose "Menu or table card". The agent then sizes the quiet zone and the print advice for a card read at arm's length.
3. Pick the style. Black on white scans best. "With my logo" leaves room in the centre and raises the error correction so the logo does not break the code. "My brand colour" keeps the contrast high enough to scan.
4. Read the message, then press the button. This is the whole trick of an AI agent: one plain sentence in, a finished file out. Next time you can type it yourself.

What comes back is a static code. It encodes your menu address directly, so there is no redirect service in the middle that can stop working or start charging. When the menu changes, you change the page, not the code.

Where to host the menu: 4 options compared

The code is the easy part. The decision that matters is where the menu lives, because that decides how quickly you can change a price and how the menu looks on a phone at a table.

Two rules cover most menu QR code set-ups. If you have a website you can edit, put the menu on a page there, because the link is yours and will not change. If you do not, ask the agent to build a one-page menu site: on the free plan it runs as a preview, and the Jobbit Go plan at £7 a month keeps it live on your own domain with 2,000 credits for the edits. Either way, the QR code points at the page, and the page is where the changes happen.

The rules a menu has to follow in England (and the ones that do not apply)

QR menus are still menus, so the same food information rules apply. Two come up constantly, and one is widely misunderstood.

Allergens. Food sold loose or served in a restaurant must come with information on the 14 allergens (celery, cereals containing gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya and sulphites). The Food Standards Agency's best practice guidance, updated in February 2025, says the information can be given in writing or verbally, as long as a sign tells customers where to ask, and recommends written information backed by a conversation. A QR menu is a good place for the written part: a line under each dish or an allergen matrix page, as long as staff can still answer the question at the table.

Calories. The Calorie Labelling (Out of Home Sector) (England) Regulations 2021 took effect on 6 April 2022 and apply to businesses with 250 or more employees on the first day of their financial year. They cover menus on websites and apps as well as paper. A single cafe or a small chain is below the threshold and does not have to show calories; a franchise outlet of a large brand usually does, because the count is for the business as a whole.

Natasha's Law does not apply to your menu. The prepacked for direct sale rules from 1 October 2021 cover food packed on the premises before the customer orders it, such as a wrapped sandwich in a chiller. Food made to order from a menu is covered by the allergen rules above instead.

Print sizes that scan first time

Most QR failures at a table are print failures, not code failures. A code that works on a laptop screen can fail on a laminated card under a spotlight.

• Size. The QR Planet guidance used across the industry is a 10 to 1 ratio between scanning distance and code width: a code read from 20 cm should be at least 2 cm wide, and a short link keeps the pattern coarse enough to read. For a table card, print the code 3 cm wide or more and the problem goes away.
• Quiet zone. Leave white space around the code of at least four modules (the small squares), or roughly 4 mm on a 3 cm code. Designers who crop it tight are the most common cause of "it will not scan".
• Contrast. Dark code on a light background. Never a light code on a dark card, never on a photo, and never gloss laminate under a downlight if you can avoid it. Matt laminate scans better.
• Error correction. The levels run L, M, Q and H, recovering roughly 7%, 15%, 25% and 30% of a damaged code according to Denso Wave, the inventor. Use H if a logo sits in the middle or the card will get wiped daily; the code gets a little denser, which is why you keep the link short.
• One code per card. Two codes side by side confuse phones. Put the menu code on the card and the review or Wi-Fi code on the counter.

The agent does the scan check for you: it reads its own code back and confirms it opens the right address before it hands over the files. Still, scan the printed proof with two phones before you order 50.

Phones scan codes without an app

Nobody needs to download anything. The iPhone Camera app has read QR codes since iOS 11, and Google's help pages say the built-in Camera scans them on Android 9 and later. Older phones can use Google Lens. The NCSC said in 2024 that QR codes in pubs and restaurants are "probably safe" and advised people to use the phone's own scanner rather than a scanning app, which is also the advice to print on the card: "open your camera and point it here".

Scams, and how to keep your customers safe

Action Fraud received 784 reports of QR code fraud ("quishing") between April 2024 and April 2025, with almost £3.5 million lost, mostly from codes stuck over car park and payment signs. Menus are a low-value target, but there is a simple defence that also protects your reputation.

• Use a static code to your own domain. A customer who looks at the preview on their phone sees your-cafe.co.uk, not a random short link. Dynamic codes through a redirect service show the provider's domain, which is exactly what the scam codes look like.
• Print the address under the code. "Scan or visit your-cafe.co.uk/menu". It is a fallback for people whose camera will not focus and a trust signal for everyone else.
• Check the stickers. A code stuck over yours is the only real attack. A glance at the tables each morning is enough.
• Never route payment through the menu code. Keep ordering and paying inside your ordering system or at the till.

How an AI agent helps beyond the code

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Manus and Meta's Muse will all draft a menu, and some will draw a QR code. The difference with Jobbit is that the same chat does the whole menu job, with files you can download and a page it can host.

• Builds the menu page. Give it your menu as a photo of the old card and it builds a phone-friendly page with sections, prices, dietary icons and the allergen line per dish, then hosts it.
• Makes every code you need. Table card, window sticker and takeaway bag codes with the right size advice for each, in PNG and SVG.
• Lays out the table card. A print-ready PDF at the card size your printer wants, with your logo, the code, the address and a line on allergens.
• Changes a price in one sentence. "Salmon is now £16.50, oat milk is 40p extra" and the page updates; the printed code keeps working.
• Writes the review and Wi-Fi cards too. The menu code is one of three codes a cafe ends up with; the free QR code guide covers the other six uses.
• Keeps the menu in a project. Allergen matrix, supplier prices and the menu copy in one place, so the next change is a sentence, not a rebuild.

The free plan gives 100 credits a day with no card, enough for the code, the card layout and a menu change most days. A hosted menu on your own domain is where the £7 Go plan earns its place.

A 30-minute plan for Monday morning

• Minutes 0 to 10: the menu page. If you have a website, create a page called /menu and paste the menu in. If not, send the agent a photo of your current menu and ask for a one-page phone-friendly menu site with an allergen line per dish.
• Minutes 10 to 15: the code. Open the QR code tool, paste the menu link, choose "Menu or table card" and black on white. Download the PNG and SVG.
• Minutes 15 to 25: the card. Ask the agent for a 10 cm by 15 cm table card PDF with the code 3.5 cm wide, your logo, "Open your camera and point it here", the address under the code and the allergen sentence. Send it to a local printer for matt laminated cards.
• Minutes 25 to 30: the test. Scan the proof with an iPhone and an Android phone under the dimmest light in the room. If both open the menu, order the cards.

Read next

• How to make a free QR code that never expires: the seven uses, with the prompt for each.
• How to track QR code scans: UTM links and free alternatives to dynamic codes.
• Jobbit's four free tools in one place: QR codes, PDF compressor, image resizer and invoice generator.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make a QR code menu for free?

Put the menu on a page you control, then make a static QR code that points at it. On the Jobbit QR code tool you paste the link, pick "Menu or table card" and get a PNG and SVG back in a chat, free and with no card. Because the code is static, it never expires and there is no monthly fee.

Do QR code menus expire?

A static code never expires, because the menu address is encoded in the code itself. A dynamic code goes through the provider's redirect, and on trials and free tiers it stops working when the trial ends or a scan cap is reached. If a QR menu site asks for a card or offers a trial, the code is almost certainly dynamic.

Can I change the menu without reprinting the code?

Yes, if the code points at a page or a cloud file rather than at the PDF itself. Edit the page, or upload the new PDF as a new version under the same link, and every printed code shows the new menu. Only the address must stay the same.

Do I have to show calories on a QR menu?

Only if your business has 250 or more employees, under the England calorie labelling regulations in force since 6 April 2022, which cover digital menus as well as paper. Independent cafes and small chains are below the threshold. Allergen information is required for every food business regardless of size.

Is a QR code menu safe for customers?

Yes, when it is a static code to your own domain with the address printed underneath. The NCSC's advice is to scan with the phone's built-in camera, and the Action Fraud reports of QR scams are mostly codes stuck over parking and payment signs. Check your tables each morning for stickers that are not yours.

How big should a QR code be on a table card?

At least 2 cm wide for a code read from 20 cm, following the 10 to 1 distance rule, and 3 cm or more if you want it to work for everyone. Keep a white quiet zone around it, print dark on light, and prefer matt over gloss laminate.

What if I do not have a website for the menu?

Ask the agent to build one. On the free plan a one-page menu site runs as a preview; on the Jobbit Go plan it stays live on your own domain for £7 a month. Then make the code on the QR code tool and point it at that address.