Do QR Codes Expire?
· DexURL Guides · 5 min read
The QR code itself never expires. The pattern is fixed ink and will always decode to the same text. What can stop working is the destination behind it: a static code breaks if its URL changes, and a dynamic code depends on the service behind its short link continuing to resolve.
The code is not the part that expires
A QR code is a printed encoding of a string of text. Those squares are a fixed pattern, and a scanner reading them in ten years will decode exactly the same string it decodes today. Nothing about the pattern degrades, times out, or phones home. In that literal sense, the answer is no: QR codes do not expire.
The question people are really asking is different. They are asking why a code that worked last year now lands on an error page. That is never the pattern failing. It is the thing at the other end of it.
Three ways a printed code stops working
The destination moved
The most common cause by far. A static code has the final URL baked into the pattern, so if that page is renamed, restructured, or taken down, every printed copy is now wrong and there is nothing to edit.
The link service stopped resolving
A dynamic code encodes a short link, so it only works while that link keeps resolving. Some providers retire codes on free tiers after a trial window or a scan allowance — check the terms before you commit a code to a print run.
A rule you set fired
If you deliberately gave the link an expiry date, a click limit, or one-time access, the code will stop routing when that rule is met. This one is working as intended, and it is the only one you control directly.
Worth separating: "expired" usually means the destination is gone, while "disabled" means the link was turned off. A safety block is a third case again, and on DexURL it cannot be cleared by the link owner on any plan.
What this means before a print run
The risk is asymmetric. A code on a screen can be replaced in seconds; a code on ten thousand menu inserts cannot be replaced at all. So the question to ask before printing is not "will this code expire" but "if the destination has to change, what is my recovery?"
- Use a dynamic code for anything printed. The whole point is that the recovery path exists at all.
- Read the provider terms for how long a free code keeps resolving, and whether a scan allowance applies. This is the detail that turns into a reprint bill.
- Keep the destination on a domain you control, so a platform change is a redirect rather than a dead end.
- Set an expiry only when you actually want one, and give it a fallback destination so an expired scan lands somewhere deliberate.
How DexURL behaves
A DexURL short link keeps resolving until you delete it. Expiry is opt-in, not a default — a link created without an expiry rule does not stop working on its own, on any plan. When you do set one, Free allows a window of up to 24 hours and Pro allows up to 90 days, and ordinary fair-use terms apply to both.
That is what makes editing the destination safe after printing: the pattern points at the short link, and the short link is the part you can change. The rules you can attach are listed in Conditional targets, and the plan limits are in Plans and limits.