How to Scan a QR Code or Barcode on Mac (From Your Screen or an Image)

QR codes are designed for phones, but they keep turning up on your Mac: in a PDF ticket, a Wi-Fi sheet, an email, a slide in a video call, or a payment page. The usual workaround is to pick up your phone and point it at your own screen. There is an easier way.

I build Picture to Text - ExtractText, a free Mac OCR app that reads images, PDFs and any area of the screen on your Mac, and the screenshots here come from it. If you want to try it as you read, get Picture to Text on the Mac App Store.

How do I scan a QR code on my Mac screen?

1. Open whatever contains the QR code.
2. Press Shift-Command-2 in Picture to Text, or start a capture from the menu bar icon.
3. Drag a box around the code.
4. Picture to Text shows what the code contains. Click to open or copy it.

How do I read a QR code from an image or PDF file?

Drag the image or PDF from Finder into Picture to Text, or paste it from the clipboard. Any QR codes or barcodes are detected along with the text.

What kinds of codes can it read?

Picture to Text detects QR codes and barcodes. Typical content includes:

• Website links.
• Plain text, such as booking references.
• Email addresses and phone numbers.
• Product barcodes.

Is it safe to open a QR code link?

QR codes hide where a link goes, which is why scammers use them ("quishing"). Because Picture to Text shows you the content before anything opens, you get a chance to check it:

• Read the domain carefully. Look for misspellings such as paypa1.com or extra words in the domain.
• Be wary of codes in unexpected emails, especially ones asking you to log in or pay.
• Do not enter passwords on a page you reached from a QR code. Go to the site directly instead.
• Watch out for shortened links that hide the real destination.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Detection runs on your Mac with Apple's Vision framework. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed. Of course, opening a link that a code contains needs internet.

More guides you may find useful:

• How to Extract Links, Emails and Phone Numbers From an Image on Mac
• How to Copy Text From a Video or Video Call on Mac (YouTube, Zoom, Teams)
• Live Text Not Working on Mac? How to Fix It (and Select Text in Any Image)

How Picture to Text helps

• Drop in images or PDFs, paste from the clipboard, or choose several files at once.
• Capture any area of the screen with Shift-Command-2 or from the menu bar.
• Read multi-page scanned PDFs, with each page labelled in the result.
• 30+ languages, including Urdu, Persian, Pashto, Sindhi and Punjabi in beta.
• Clean Up, Detect and Translate: join broken lines, open links, emails, phone numbers, QR codes and barcodes, and translate on macOS 26 or later.
• Private: Apple's on-device Vision framework, no uploads, no account, no tracking, and it works offline.

Download Picture to Text free on the Mac App Store and copy text from anything on your screen.

More on screen capture: screenshot to text on Mac with Shift-Command-2.