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QRBold Developers

Build with the QRBold API

Create digital business cards, generate QR codes for them, and run dynamic QR codes from your own systems. These guides take you from your first request to a production integration, one step at a time.

Get started Explore API reference

The QRBold API is a JSON REST API with 22 endpoints. You send an API key with each request, and what your software creates or changes shows up in the dashboard straight away. Everything lives under one address:

Base URL
https://api.qrbold.com/api/public/v1

What you can build

Each card below is something the API does today. Where a feature exists in the dashboard but not in the API, the card says so.

Digital business cardsCreate a public profile for a person, with their contact details, photo, links and more. Use it to issue a card the moment someone joins your company or signs up to your product.Read the guideQR code imagesDownload the QR code for any card or code as PNG, SVG, PDF, JPEG or WebP. Use it to put a scannable code on a badge, an email signature or printed stationery.Read the guideDynamic QR destinationsCreate a QR code that redirects to a URL, then change that URL whenever you like. The printed code never has to be replaced.Read the guideCustom short linksChoose the slug in a card’s or a code’s public link, such as /c/ada-lovelace, instead of a random one.Read the guideBulk card creationCreate cards for a whole team from an employee directory or CRM. There is no batch endpoint: you send one request per person, or post your own JSON to a campaign endpoint.Read the guideScan analyticsRead how often a card or a code was scanned, day by day, with country and device breakdowns on plans that include them.Read the guidevCard and wallet sharingEvery card comes with a link that saves the contact to a phone, and links that add it to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.Read the guidePDF, image and video QR codesDashboard onlyThese are created in the dashboard, not through the API. The API can list them, fetch their images and read their scans, and a URL code can point at a file you host yourself.Read the guide

The full list of things the API does not do, with what to do instead, is on What the API does not do.

Choose your starting point

New to QRBold? Follow these in order. Each step links to the page that covers it.

  1. Get an API key
    Create one in the dashboard under Settings → Developer API. It is shown once.
  2. Authenticate your request
    Send the key in the Authorization header.
  3. Make your first successful call
    GET /me confirms the key works and changes nothing.
  4. Create a digital business card
    One request. The response contains the card’s id and its public URL.
  5. Get the QR code for the card
    The card already has one. You download its image with the card’s id.
  6. Test the QR code on a phone
    Scan it and check the card opens without signing in.
  7. Retrieve the card from your code
    Read it back by id, or search for it by name.
  8. Put it into your application
    Store the key safely, handle errors and retries, and pace your requests.

Prefer to see it all in one place? The end-to-end tutorial runs steps 1 to 7 as a single Node.js script.

Example use cases

The first four work with the API as it is. The last two need something on your side as well, and the table says what.

Example use cases and whether the API supports them today
Use caseSupported today?How
Create a card automatically when an employee joinsYesCall POST /cards from your onboarding flow, or post the HR record to a campaign endpoint.
Issue cards to customers or sales representativesYesPOST /cards with a template, so every card shares one design.
Put QR codes on printed materials or packagingYesPOST /qr-codes, then download the image as SVG or PDF.
Read card details from another applicationYesGET /cards and GET /cards/:id.
Create cards in bulk from a CRM or directoryYes, one request per personNo batch endpoint exists. Loop inside the rate limit, or use a campaign endpoint for duplicate protection.
Offer QRBold inside your own SaaS productPartlyEvery card you create belongs to your one QRBold account. The API cannot create separate accounts for your customers, and there are no webhooks, so your product polls for changes.
Be notified the moment a card is scannedNoWebhooks are not implemented. Poll analytics on a schedule instead.

Prerequisites

  • A QRBold account. Sign up if you do not have one.
  • A plan that includes the REST API: Pro or the Business card plan. On other plans you can still create a key, but it only works with AI assistants, and REST requests answer 403 upgrade_required_api.
  • An API key with the scopes your integration needs. See scopes.
  • Basic familiarity with HTTP and JSON. If you have called any REST API before, you have enough.
  • A terminal or an API tool. cURL is enough. There is also an API explorer in the browser and a Postman collection.
  • A runtime, if you want to run the code samples: Node.js 20 or later for JavaScript, or Python 3.8 or later with the requests package.

Once you have a key, this is the whole first request:

curl "https://api.qrbold.com/api/public/v1/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $QRBOLD_API_KEY"

Create a key in the dashboard, then continue with the quickstart.