Location QR code generator
Drop a pin in a QR code. Scanning it opens the exact coordinates in the phone's maps app — no address to mistype, no wrong branch of the same street name.
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Location
Decimal degrees, latitude first. South and west are negative. Six decimals is about 11 cm — more than any phone's GPS can tell apart.
Options
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Your image is read in this tab with FileReader and drawn straight onto the code — it is never uploaded.
Enter a latitude and longitude to mint your location code.
Why the default is a maps link, not geo:
The purpose-built payload for a location is the geo: URI from RFC 5870 — geo:51.500729,-0.124625, coordinates and nothing else. On Android it does exactly what it should: the scan offers to open the coordinates and the phone hands them to whichever map app is installed. On an iPhone it does nothing useful. Apple never registered geo: as a scheme its apps handle, so the Camera app reads the code, finds a URI it cannot open, and either shows the raw text or offers nothing at all.
That is why this tool defaults to a maps link instead. A maps URL is an ordinary https:// address, so every camera and every scanner app opens it, on both platforms, without knowing anything about maps. The trade is that it is longer — around 60 characters against 25 — so the code comes out denser, and it needs a connection at scan time, where geo: hands the coordinates to an installed app that may have offline maps. Pick geo: when you know the audience is on Android with a map app installed, such as an internal fleet or a site crew; leave it on the maps link for anything the public will scan.
Finding your coordinates
In Google Maps on a phone, press and hold on the spot until a pin drops; the latitude and longitude appear in the search bar at the top, in decimal degrees, ready to copy. On a desktop, right-click the spot and the first item in the menu is the coordinate pair. In Apple Maps, drop a pin and swipe up on the place card to see the coordinates. Decimal degrees is what this form wants — 51.500729, not 51° 30' 2.6". If you have degrees, minutes and seconds, convert before pasting: degrees plus minutes over 60 plus seconds over 3600, negative for south and west.
Precision is worth a thought when a QR code is involved, because every extra digit is more data in the pattern. Five decimals puts you within about a metre, six within about eleven centimetres, and this tool trims anything past six because no consumer GPS can resolve it. For a shop entrance or a trailhead, four or five decimals is plenty and prints a friendlier code.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use an address instead of coordinates?
Not in this form — it encodes the coordinate pair, which is the part that cannot be ambiguous. If the address is the point, encode a maps search link with the link QR code instead.
Can I put a name on the pin?
Some map apps show a label passed with the coordinates and others ignore it, so this tool leaves it out rather than shipping something that appears on one phone and not the next. The pin lands in the right place on every platform; the sign next to the code can carry the name.
Which one works offline?
The geo: URI, on a phone whose map app has the area downloaded — the payload is handed straight to that app. The maps link needs a connection, because it is a web address first.
Why does my code look denser than the Wi-Fi one?
A maps link carries a domain, a path and a query string around your coordinates. Switch the format to geo: and the same pin encodes in less than half the characters — just check who is scanning it first.
