Phone number QR code
The scan fills the dialler and the reader taps once to call. No transcribing a number from a moving vehicle or a poster in bad light, and no digit lost on the way.
Create a phone codetel link, international format
Editorial teamLast reviewed: 29 October 2026Editorial standards
Short answer
The code holds tel:+441234567890 in full international format, with no spaces or brackets. Add a line of text under the code saying what the call is for, because a reader is more willing to dial when the label tells them who answers.
This is the smallest payload of any type and one of the most useful, because it sits where phone numbers usually go wrong: vans, signs, receipts, menu boards, machine labels.
It is also the type where a formatting mistake silently produces the wrong number, so the details matter more than the length.
What is in the code
A tel link: tel: followed by the number in international format, starting with a plus and the country code. Inside the payload there are no spaces, hyphens or brackets. The generator strips them, because they have no place in the link even though they help a human read the number.
The plus and the country code are not decoration. Without them the number only works from one country, and some phones treat a leading zero as a trunk prefix and drop it.
- Plus and country code: tel:+493012345678, tel:+14155550123
- Drop the leading zero of the national number
- One number per code, not two alternatives crammed together
- Always put a label under it: who answers, and when
When a call beats a form
Breakdowns, delivery problems, a table that needs changing in the next five minutes: a call resolves these faster than any form, and a code removes the two steps that stop people calling, which are finding the number and typing it correctly.
For anything that should be logged or answered in writing, a call is the wrong channel. An enquiry that must be quoted, a complaint that must be acknowledged within a deadline, a change of address: those want a written record, and there a form or an email code is right.
Where the code actually earns its place
On the side of a van, where a passer-by is looking up at an angle in daylight. On a machine in a plant, where the maintenance number is otherwise a sticker that peels off. On a menu board, next to the note that the kitchen takes orders by phone.
Inside a shop, on a website or on a business card it adds less, because the number is already visible and a tap on a phone number is one gesture.
Sizes and durability
The payload is short, so the pattern is sparse and scans easily. Size still follows distance: 2.5 cm on a card, 5 cm on a menu board, and 10 to 15 cm on anything read from a metre or more.
Outdoors, the material decides the lifetime. Printed paper behind glass fades, and a faded code on a van is a dead code within a year. Vinyl, aluminium composite or a laminated label holds up.
Questions about phone codes
Does scanning the code place the call immediately?
No. The dialler opens with the number filled in and the reader confirms. That confirmation step is what keeps a scan from becoming an accidental international call.
Why does my code dial the wrong number?
Usually a missing country code, a retained leading zero, or spaces that were typed but not stripped. Check the number in international format on two phones before printing.
Can the code open a chat instead of a call?
That is a different type. A WhatsApp code opens a chat, a phone code dials. Choose by what the reader should do next, not by which is easier to print.
Is a phone code accessible?
It is one of the better ones, because the payload is tiny and the pattern stays coarse, which helps at low resolution. Screen reader users still benefit from a text label naming the number and the purpose.