Create Multiple QR Codes: Pick the Route That Fits Your Records

To create multiple QR codes, start from where your records already live and choose the route that reads them from there. If they are in a spreadsheet, upload the list or let a Make template create one code per row. If they are tickets, serial numbers, labels or asset tags, there is a template for each. If they sit in your own app, the API creates codes from a request. Whichever you pick, the habit that saves time is the same: one row or record per code, and the code's ID and image link stored next to it.

Start with where your records live

Making one QR code takes a minute in a generator. Making two hundred that way takes an afternoon, and it leaves you with files to match to records by hand. The question to ask first is where the list lives. A list in a spreadsheet, a form that fills a sheet, a registration list, an inventory and your own application each call for a different route.

A list in a spreadsheet you want to upload once

You have a finished list of addresses and need all the codes now. The help article on creating links and QR codes in bulk from a spreadsheet covers the CSV import in the dashboard: you upload the file once, map the columns and get an email when the codes are ready. That is the shortest path when the list is finished and will not grow. Our post on a bulk QR code generator goes through the bulk API and the other routes.

A list in Excel or Google Sheets that keeps growing

When rows keep arriving, uploading again and again gets old. The better setup is an automation that watches the sheet and creates a code for each new row, then writes the ID and the image link back. Our post on an Excel QR code generator explains what a spreadsheet can and cannot do alone. The template watches Google Sheets, and the same scenario can be rebuilt with Make's Microsoft 365 Excel module for watching worksheet rows. There is no Excel template.

Products or items with serial numbers

If every item has a serial number, the code should carry the serial in its name, so you can find it later. Our post on a QR code with a serial number shows how. The Serial numbers template reads a Serial Number and a URL from each row and names the code by the serial.

Labels for shelves, boxes or mail

For printed labels, you need the code image and the text that goes next to it. Our post on QR code labels covers the layout. The Labels template reads a Label Text and a URL from each row and returns a PNG link that you can hand to a label tool or a mail merge.

Equipment and inventory

For assets you track, the code usually opens a page about that item. Our post on QR code asset tags goes through it. For one single tag, you can use the asset tag QR code generator directly. For a whole inventory, the Asset tags template reads an Asset Tag, an Asset Name and a URL from each row and names the code with the tag followed by the asset name.

Registrations and tickets

If every attendee needs their own code that expires after the event, read our post on QR code tickets. The Event tickets template creates a dynamic code for each new registration and sends it by email from Gmail. It needs the Starter plan or above, because expiry does.

Your own app or system

If the records live in software you control, ask for codes through the API. Our post on the QR code API walks through the request and the response, and the bulk endpoint creates up to 100 codes per request. If your system can only send a webhook, the Webhook template does the same without code.

Static or dynamic: decide before you print

This choice applies to every route. A static code holds the destination itself. It opens directly, cannot be changed after printing, and scans are not counted. A dynamic code holds a short link, so you can change the destination later and every scan is counted. Our guide on whether QR codes expire explains the difference.

Five of the six templates create static codes. Only the Event tickets template creates dynamic ones. If you will want to change where printed codes lead, use the API or the dashboard to create dynamic codes.

Plans and what the automations cost

Static QR codes are unlimited on Pro, Business, Scale and Enterprise, and count toward the monthly QR code limit on Free and Starter. Dynamic codes count on every plan. The pricing page has the details.

On the Make side, every module run counts as an operation, so a long list needs a Make plan with enough monthly operations. The Google Sheets templates check for new rows on a schedule, every 15 minutes, so they are not instant. The webhook template is.

Whatever route you use, test one code before you print a batch. Print it at the real size, scan it with two or three phones, and check that it opens the right page. Our guide to QR code size for print has sizing advice, and the post on adding a logo explains what the middle of the code can hold. By default a code has a logo in the middle, and paid plans can turn it off.

To start, create a CodeQR account and connect it to Make with the help article on connecting CodeQR to Zapier, Make, n8n and IFTTT.

The other five Make templates

Besides the one below, CodeQR has five published Make templates:

• Serial numbers: a Serial Number and a URL per row, a code named by the serial.
• Labels: a Label Text and a URL per row, with a PNG link for a label or mail-merge tool.
• Asset tags: an Asset Tag, an Asset Name and a URL per row.
• Event tickets: a dynamic code that expires, emailed from Gmail. Needs Starter or above.
• Webhook: a token, a URL and a title in, the ID, short link and image out.

Use the Sheets rows template

If you are not sure which route fits, start with the Create a QR code for each new Google Sheets row template. It reads a URL and a Title from each new row and writes the QR Code ID and the PNG link back to the same row.

The guided setup asks for your Google connection and spreadsheet, and then your CodeQR connection: sign in to CodeQR and allow Make to access the project. When you turn it on, Make asks where to start. Choose All to process the rows already in the sheet.