A dynamic QR code doesn’t contain your address. It contains a short link on the service’s own domain, and every scan goes through that service before it reaches your page. That is what makes editing and scan statistics possible. It also means the printed code works only as long as the service keeps forwarding it, and the service’s own rules decide when that stops.
Those rules are spread across pricing pages, help articles and terms of service, and they are rarely in one place. So we collected them. Below is what 15 services say, in their own words, about three moments: when a free trial ends, when you cancel or stop paying, and when you reach a scan limit.
How we checked. On 9 November 2026 we read each service’s pricing page, help centre and terms of service, and quoted only those, never reviews or competitors’ blogs. Where a service’s own pages disagree with each other, we say so instead of picking one. Prices are the cheapest plan that includes dynamic codes, as shown to us on that day; they vary by region and change often. A disclosure: this site makes static QR codes for free, so we have an interest in the topic. That is why every claim below links to the service’s own page; check it there before you decide anything.
The short version
- Trials that end with dead codes are common. At Scanova, Uniqode, QRfy, QR.io, QR Planet and QRCodeKIT, dynamic codes made during the trial stop working when it ends without a purchase. Most of them reactivate the codes if you pay later.
- Some services have a free tier that keeps a few codes alive. Hovercode (3 codes), Flowcode (2), QRCodeChimp (10, with a monthly scan cap), QR TIGER (3, 500 scans each, with ads), QRCodeKIT (2, if you choose the free plan), ME-QR (with ads) and Bitly (codes work, but on the free plan you can’t change where they lead).
- Cancelling usually means the codes stop at the end of the paid period, or that only the free tier’s number of codes keeps working. Bitly is the clearest exception: its short links keep working after you downgrade.
- Paying is not always enough. QRCodeChimp pauses codes for the rest of the month when a plan’s monthly scan cap is reached, and Uniqode deactivates codes when the yearly scan limit is exceeded.
- Several services contradict themselves. QR Code Generator PRO, QRStuff, Unitag and Flowcode each give two different answers on different pages.
Side by side
| Service | Free dynamic codes | When the trial ends | After you cancel a paid plan | Scan limits | Cheapest plan with dynamic codes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitly | 2 codes a month; free codes can’t be edited; ads on free links | No trial | bit.ly links “continue to work after you downgrade” | Unlimited scans | $10/month, billed yearly |
| Flowcode | 2 | Not stated on current pages | Codes beyond the free 2 “archived and re-directed to flowcode.com” (terms); older help pages say they keep scanning | Scans always work; analytics capped | $25/month, billed yearly |
| Hovercode | 3, unlimited scans, no expiry | No trial | First 3 stay active; others “become inactive but won’t be deleted” | Unlimited scans | $12/month or $120/year |
| ME-QR | Yes, with ads after the first 10 scans | No trial | “All your codes will work, just ads will be shown again” | Unlimited | $9.99/month or $72.99/year |
| QR Code Generator PRO | None listed | 14 days; trial codes deactivate (stated in general terms on its blog) | Guide: active “for three more years”; help centre reportedly differs | Starter plan: 10,000 scans | Price not shown to us |
| QR Planet | 1 code, 50 scans a day (one help page says free accounts are no longer offered) | 15 days; codes “will stop working” | Codes kept only on request, after at least 1 year as a customer | Unlimited on paid plans | €5/month, billed yearly |
| QR TIGER | 3, 500 scans each, with QR TIGER ads | No length stated | “If your plan expires, it will stop working”; data kept up to 1 year | Unlimited on paid plans | $7/month |
| QR.io | None | 7 days; codes “will be paused” | Not stated | Unlimited | $39.99/month |
| QRCodeChimp | 10, 1,000 scans a month in total | No trial (15-day refund) | Moves to free plan; codes beyond 10 are paused | Monthly caps on paid plans too | $9.99/month or $6.99/month yearly |
| QRCodeKIT | 2, 100 scans each a month (free plan must be chosen) | 7 days; “all QR codes are paused and stop working” | At period end “some or all of your QR codes may stop working” | Not stated | $20/month, billed yearly |
| QRfy | None | 7 days; codes “stop redirecting”; data kept 30 days | Access until the end of the period, then “the account will be limited” | Unlimited | $19/month, billed yearly |
| QRStuff | 10, working for 30 days, 50 scans a month | The free account is the trial: codes work 30 days | Pages disagree (see below) | 200 a month on the cheapest plan | $10/month or $100/year |
| Scanova | None (static only) | 14 days; codes “will stop working” | “Require an active subscription to keep working” | Unlimited | $5/month, billed yearly |
| Uniqode | None (static only) | 14 days; codes “will no longer redirect” | Codes “stop working” after the renewal date | Yearly limits; codes go inactive above them | $9/month, billed yearly |
| Unitag | Free account; limits not published as text | 14 days; paid content “archived” up to 12 months | Terms say “archived”; FAQ says codes “will remain functional” | No scan limits on paid plans | £19/month |
Service by service
Bitly. The free plan includes “2 QR Codes/month” and “Unlimited clicks & QR Code scans”, but changing a code’s destination is not included. On downgrading: “Your bit.ly links continue to work after you downgrade”, and “the effect of downgrading your account is the same for QR Codes as it is for short links”. Links on a complimentary custom domain stop working “when that registration expires”. Bitly shows “an interstitial page that includes a preview of the link destination and an ad” on free accounts’ links. Sources: pricing, downgrading, ads on free accounts.
Flowcode. The free plan includes “Up to 2 Flowcodes” with “Lifetime scans”. The current terms of use say that after a paid plan ends, “any of your Flowcodes which are in excess of the Flowcode Free plan code threshold will be archived and re-directed to flowcode.com or another location of our choosing”. Older help pages say the opposite: “your Flowcodes will continue to scan”. Sources: pricing, terms of use, help: will my codes expire.
Hovercode. Free: “3 dynamic QR codes in total … They don’t expire! … Unlimited scans”. After cancelling, “your first 3 dynamic QR codes (remain active)… Any additional QR codes… beyond these limits will become inactive but won’t be deleted”, and codes on a custom domain “will stop working”. Resubscribing reactivates them. Sources: pricing, cancelling.
ME-QR. The free plan includes dynamic codes; “the first 10 scans are ad-free. After that, visitors may see a short advertisement before accessing your content, which they can skip after 5 seconds.” After a subscription ends: “all your codes will work, just ads will be shown again.” Codes not scanned for 365 days are blocked for a month and then deleted. Sources: pricing, FAQ.
QR Code Generator PRO. The trial is “14-day free trial—no credit card needed”. On cancelling, its guide says: “If you cancel your subscription, your QR Codes remain active for three more years, minus the tracking data.” Its help centre, which we could not load directly, is reported in search results to describe a much shorter period, so check it in your own account. On trials, its blog says in general terms that “the codes deactivate automatically when the trial period finishes”. Notice of cancellation: “always 30 days before the end of the billing cycle”. Sources: pricing, guide, blog.
QR Planet. After a trial without payment, “all QR Codes and Landing Pages created during the trial period will stop working after it has ended”; paying later brings them back. After a subscription ends, codes are retained “upon request … when all invoices have been paid and you have been a customer with us for at least 1 year”. Sources: pricing, after the trial, after the subscription.
QR TIGER. Free: “three free dynamic QRs with a 500 scan limit each”, and “QR TIGER ads display when users scan QR codes generated from the free trial version”. Paid codes: “Dynamic QRs have unlimited scans with a valid subscription. If your plan expires, it will stop working.” Its help centre: “All dynamic QR codes will become invalid.” Data is kept “for a maximum period of 1 year”. Sources: FAQ, help: plan expires.
QR.io. “The free trial lasts 7 days.” When it ends: “Dynamic QR codes will be paused”, and “when you upgrade your account, the Dynamic QR Codes will be reactivated”. We found nothing on what happens after a paid plan is cancelled. Sources: pricing, help: trial expires.
QRCodeChimp. Free: 10 dynamic codes and “1000 scans per month free for all the dynamic codes combined. Once you reach the 1000 scans limit for a month, scans are paused, but they reopen next month.” Paused codes send scans “to a default page informing users that the QR Code is not available”. Paid plans have monthly caps too (10,000 on Starter). When a paid plan ends, “your account switches to the Free plan. Any QR codes beyond the Free plan’s limits will be paused.” Sources: pricing, help: paused codes.
QRCodeKIT. The terms: after a trial ends without a plan, “all QR codes are paused and stop working”, and “the free plan is not activated automatically and must also be selected manually”; account data is kept “for sixty (60) days”, then the account is deleted. Cancelling a paid plan “takes effect at the end of the current paid period”. Sources: terms, pricing.
QRfy. “Free for 7 days. To keep using your Dynamic QR codes, a subscription is required.” When the trial ends, “your dynamic codes will simply stop redirecting to their destination. Your data and designs will be safely stored in your account for 30 days”. After cancelling, “you will continue to have access until the end of your billing period … Once this period has elapsed, the account will be limited.” Sources: home page, terms.
QRStuff. Free accounts get “10 that work for 30 days”. On cancelling, the pricing page says “your account will remain as a full suite until the duration of your paid subscription ends”. Its FAQ, as shown in search results, says codes expire “30 days or 1 year after your monthly or annual subscription expires respectively” with a 10-scan monthly limit, while the terms (last updated 2018) say redirects “depend on the applicable plan and its active service period”. Sources: pricing, terms.
Scanova. “Your Dynamic QR Code will stop working once the free trial ends.” And: “Dynamic QR Codes require an active subscription to keep working.” Source: pricing.
Uniqode (formerly Beaconstac). “Once your free trial expires, any dynamic QR Codes you created will become inactive … the QR Codes will no longer redirect users.” After cancelling, “your plan and all its features stay active until the end of your current billing period”, and after the renewal date “your dynamic QR codes stop working”. Above a plan’s yearly scan limit, “your QR Codes will become inactive”. Sources: pricing, scan limits.
Unitag. A 14-day trial with “no card required”. Its general terms of sale say that when paid services end, “the QR Codes and content generated by the Paid Services will be archived by UNITAG for a maximum period of 12 months”, while its FAQ says that if a subscription expires, codes “will remain functional”. Free codes from its public generator “will stop working after being scanned a hundred times”. Sources: terms and conditions, FAQ, generator.
What this means for a printed code
If you print a dynamic code, you are printing an address that someone else controls. That can be worth it: you get scan counts and you can change the destination after printing. But the code then lasts as long as the plan, and some services also stop it at a scan limit.
Before you print one:
- Find the service’s page on what happens after cancellation, and save a copy.
- Note who holds the account and which card pays for it. Many codes die because the person who set them up left.
- Ask whether you really need to edit the destination later. If you link to a page on your own website, you can change that page whenever you like, and a static code pointing to it never expires.
If a code is already printed, scan it with the QR code expiry checker. It shows whether the code goes through one of these services, and if it has stopped working, how to replace it with a permanent code and a cover-up sticker. More on the causes in why a QR code stops working.
Checked on 9 November 2026. Services change their terms; if you spot something out of date, the service’s own page is the authority.
