What happens to your QR codes if you stop paying

Your links and your dynamic QR codes keep redirecting after a paid plan ends. A code printed on a package, a menu or a business card does not stop working because a subscription lapsed or a card expired.

That is worth stating plainly, because it is not how this category usually works. Several QR code services deactivate every dynamic code when a trial or a subscription ends and point the scanner at their own website instead — so the brand on the printed material takes the blame for a redirect it no longer controls. CodeQR does not do that.

Availability

Plan: applies to every plan. What follows describes a workspace moving to Free, whether by cancelling, by a trial ending, or by a payment that could not be charged.
Where: Settings → Billing.

What keeps working

Every short link and every dynamic QR code keeps resolving. The redirect does not consult your plan, your subscription or your payment status.
Static QR codes never depended on CodeQR at all — the destination is encoded in the image itself.
Your content stays. Links, QR codes, pages, folders, tags and team members are not deleted when a plan ends.
Scans and clicks keep being counted, up to the Free plan's monthly allowance.

What changes

The workspace moves to the Free plan and its limits apply from that moment:

10 links and 5 QR codes per month. These are creation counters for the billing cycle, not a cap on what you already have. A workspace with 4,000 links keeps all 4,000 and may create 10 more this month.
1,000 clicks and 1,000 scans counted per month, and 1 page.
No custom domains, no folders, and one team member in the plan's allowance. Nothing is removed — you keep what exists and cannot add more.
2 tags and 10 AI credits per month.
Analytics history shrinks to the last 30 days. The data is not deleted, and a later upgrade brings the window back.
The API rate limit drops to 60 requests per minute.
Features tied to paid plans stop applying: smart rules, link cloaking, the pre-redirection form, conversion tracking, the audit log, wallet passes, and the root-domain redirect. The Made with CodeQR mark returns on pages.

The one thing to set up again

If a custom domain of yours redirected its root somewhere — go.example.com itself, not go.example.com/anything — that redirect is cleared when the plan ends, and the root then serves a CodeQR page rather than your site.

The links and QR codes on that domain are unaffected; only the bare root is. Setting it up again is one field once you are back on a plan that includes it, and Redirect a domain root to your website covers it.

This is the only thing a cancellation takes away without saying so.

Verify it works

Open one of your printed or shared codes with a phone, or request the short link and read the response:

curl -sS -o /dev/null -D - https://go.example.com/your-key

A working link answers 302 with a Location header pointing at your destination. That holds on the Free plan exactly as it did on a paid one.

Troubleshooting

My QR code stopped working after I cancelled

A plan change does not stop a redirect, so look for another cause. Three things do stop one: the link or QR code has an expiration date that has passed, it was archived or deleted, or the destination itself is down. If the code is on a custom domain, check that the domain's DNS is still configured.

My domain root shows a CodeQR page

That is the root-domain redirect described above. It is cleared when the plan ends and has to be set again on a plan that includes it.

My analytics only go back 30 days

That is the Free plan's retention window. The events are not deleted — upgrading restores the longer history.

I cannot create a link and I am under my old limit

The Free plan allows 10 new links per billing cycle. What you already created does not count against it: the counter measures creation this month, and it resets on your cycle date.

Can I get my old plan back with everything as it was

Yes. Upgrading restores the limits, the retention window and the paid features, and nothing needed re-creating in the meantime — see Choose a plan and change it later.