QR Code Statistics 2026

The value of QR-code payments worldwide reached $5.4 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to grow 50% to more than $8 trillion by 2029.[Juniper Research]

An estimated 2.2 billion people use QR-code payments worldwide — roughly 29% of all mobile phone users, up from 1.5 billion in 2020 (a 2021 Juniper forecast for 2025).[Juniper Research]

India's UPI network — whose merchant payments are overwhelmingly QR-driven — processed 18.68 billion transactions worth about $294 billion in May 2025 alone, up 33% year over year.[NPCI (via IBEF)]

India accounted for 49% of all real-time payment transactions on Earth in 2023 — about 130 billion payments, more than the rest of the world's top-10 markets combined.[ACI Worldwide]

In China, QR-code scanning is the single most-used payment method for 95.7% of mobile-payment users (2022).[Payment & Clearing Association of China]

In Brazil, 76.4% of the population now uses Pix, the country's QR-enabled instant-payment system — ahead of both debit cards (69.1%) and cash (68.9%).[Banco Central do Brasil (via Global Finance)]

QR-code scans rose year over year in every world region from 2024 to 2025 — led by Europe (+42%) and Latin America (+40%), per Bitly's first-party platform data.[Bitly, State of QR Code Scans 2026]

Scans jumped 20–50% or more in most markets while the number of new QR codes created grew just 0.5–7% — evidence people are reusing existing codes, not suffering “QR fatigue.”[Bitly, State of QR Code Scans 2026]

The number of U.S. consumers who scan QR codes with their smartphones is forecast to reach 102.6 million by 2026, up from 94 million.[eMarketer]

Global QR-code creation rose 41% year over year in the first half of 2023, with the retail and consumer-goods sector up 88%.[Bitly mid-year report (via PR Newswire)]

Getting more information is the top reason people scan QR codes (75%), well ahead of redeeming discounts (52%) or making a payment (35%).[Uniqode, State of QR Codes 2026]

79% of consumers say they are more likely to buy a product whose packaging has a scannable QR code that offers extra product information.[GS1 US 2025 consumer survey]

62% of consumers say they would spend more on a product that offers detailed information behind a scan; 77% call product information important to a purchase.[GS1 US 2025 consumer survey]

The global QR-code market was worth about $13.0 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $33.1 billion by 2031 — a 16.8% compound annual growth rate.[Mordor Intelligence]

Asia-Pacific generates the largest share of QR-code revenue — 37.6% of the 2025 global total — and is the fastest-growing region.[Mordor Intelligence]

Analysts expect the QR-code payment market alone to reach roughly $67–85 billion within a decade; Fortune Business Insights projects $81.2 billion by 2034 at a 20.3% CAGR.[Fortune Business Insights]

The market for QR-code generator software — the tools businesses use to make and manage codes — was worth about $1.0 billion in 2024 and is forecast to nearly triple to $3.0 billion by 2032.[Verified Market Research]

93% of marketers say they increased their use of QR codes over the past 12 months.[Bitly, How Marketers Use QR Codes 2025 (250 marketers)]

98% of marketers report QR codes had a positive impact on their marketing over the past year, and 60% plan to use them even more.[Uniqode, State of QR Codes 2026 (524 marketers)]

A measurement gap remains: 56% of marketers expect QR codes to lift revenue, but only 12% actually measure that impact — a case for trackable dynamic QR codes.[Uniqode, State of QR Codes 2026]

Under GS1's “Sunrise 2027” initiative, retail checkout scanners worldwide are being upgraded to read QR codes and other 2D barcodes on product packaging by the end of 2027.[GS1, 2D Barcodes at Retail POS]

Traditional linear barcodes will stay on packs until at least 90% of point-of-sale scanners can read 2D codes — the tipping point GS1 has set for the switch-over.[GS1, 2D Barcodes at Retail POS]

In Asia-Pacific, QR-led digital wallets already account for 77% of online spending and 63% of in-person spending (2025) — a preview of where other regions are heading.[Worldpay, Global Payments Report 2026]