How to Create a QR Code for a Microsoft Form

To create a QR code for a Microsoft form, open the form, select Collect responses, choose who can respond, then select the QR code icon and Download. Forms saves the code as a .png that opens your form when someone scans it with their phone’s camera.

I recorded the video in 2020, in a cafe that was still logging every customer’s arrival on a paper form. My version was a five-question check-in form behind a QR code, with every response landing in Excel. Back then I made the code with a generator website. Forms makes its own now.

Before you start

• Know who should respond. The audience setting decides whether people need to sign in after they scan, and it’s the first choice on the Collect responses screen.
• For PowerPoint, a work or school account. Inserting a form into PowerPoint is available for business and education subscriptions, and your admin can turn it off.

How do you get the QR code for a form?

1. Open the form in Microsoft Forms and select Collect responses in the top right.
2. Choose Anyone can respond, Only people in my organization can respond or Specific people in my organization can respond.
3. Select the QR code icon, then Download. The code saves as a .png file.
4. Put the image wherever people will scan it: a poster, a table card, a slide. Scan it with your own phone before you print.

The code opens the same link as Copy link. In my 2020 demo, scanning it opened the form in Safari, and the response was in the Responses tab and the Excel workbook as soon as I submitted. Today, Open results in Excel on the Responses tab creates a workbook that stays connected to the form, so new responses appear without another export.

How do you show a form with a QR code in PowerPoint?

1. In PowerPoint, select Insert > Forms. In PowerPoint for the web, it’s Home > Add-ins > Forms.
2. Find the form under My forms and insert it.
3. Choose Present for interactive meetings. The other option, Collect responses offline, embeds the form for people reading the file later.
4. Start the slide show.

Watch the video

In my 2023 demo, the slide showed a QR code and a short URL. I presented it in a Teams meeting, scanned the code with my phone as a participant, and the answers were on the presenter’s slide by the time I switched back, ready to step through question by question.

If Forms doesn’t appear on the Insert tab, your admin has probably turned the feature off for the organisation.

What I’d decide before printing a QR code

1. Pick the audience for the people scanning. A QR code is a link, and anyone can share a photo of it. For a public check-in or a feedback card, Anyone can respond is the only setting that works for visitors, and nobody signs in, so you won’t know who answered unless you ask. For staff, Only people in my organization can respond can record names, but anyone scanning on a personal phone signs in with their work account first.
2. Ask for as little as you need. The cafe form asked for a name and phone number because contact tracing needed them. Most feedback forms need neither.
3. Own it with a group if anyone else needs the results. For a form that runs for months, like a site induction or an event sign-in, I’d create it as a group form so the results don’t sit with one person. Where Microsoft Forms file uploads go covers personal and group forms and how to move one.
4. Print the short link under the code. Copy link with Shorten URL ticked gives you something short enough to type for anyone whose camera won’t scan.
5. Close it when it’s done. Turn off Accept responses in the form’s settings so an old poster doesn’t keep collecting answers.

For a quick vote inside an email rather than a form people scan, inserting a poll in Outlook uses the same Forms engine.

Frequently asked questions

Does a Microsoft Forms QR code stop working? The code holds the form’s link, so it opens whatever that link opens. If you turn off Accept responses or delete the form, people who scan it can’t respond, which is why I close a form rather than leave an old poster live.

Why does the QR code ask people to sign in? The form is set to Only people in my organization can respond or Specific people in my organization can respond. Those settings need a work or school account, so people scanning on their phone sign in first. Choose Anyone can respond if visitors need to fill it in.

Can I see who responded through the QR code? Only if the form records it. With an organisation-only setting you can choose to record names and limit people to one response each. With Anyone can respond, nobody signs in, so responses carry no name unless the form asks for one.

Why isn’t Shorten URL available? It isn’t offered when you’re signed in to Forms with a personal Microsoft account, or on the Forms mobile site. Sign in with your work or school account on a desktop browser.