Customised profile slug
A clean personalised address with no trailing characters, giving the shortest possible payload for this generator.
Encoded as
https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgatesLinkedIn QR Code Generator
Swap professional details at a conference without typing anyone's name into a search box.
Generated on your device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
What a LinkedIn QR code does
A LinkedIn QR code opens your public profile. It solves a specific and genuinely irritating problem: finding someone on LinkedIn by name usually means searching, then choosing between several people with the same name and no obvious way to tell them apart. A code removes the ambiguity entirely. Its natural home is anywhere a professional introduction happens and a phone is already in hand — conference badges, business cards, speaker slides, trade stands — where the alternative is a search that frequently ends in connecting with the wrong person.
When to use one
- Conference badges and lanyards where introductions happen constantly
- Business cards for consultants, recruiters and professional services
- Speaker slides at the end of a talk while the audience still has phones out
- Trade stand backdrops and pull-up banners at industry events
- Printed CVs and portfolios submitted in physical form
- Office reception signage in client-facing professional services firms
Why it works well
Removes the wrong-person problem
Searching a common name on LinkedIn returns dozens of results with similar headlines and no reliable way to identify the right one. A code goes straight to you, which eliminates both the search and the embarrassment of connecting with a stranger.
Works at the moment of introduction
Connections made while the conversation is still fresh are far more likely to be accepted and remembered than a request sent days later once the context has faded from both sides.
The profile stays current
Unlike a printed contact card, the destination updates itself. Change role or employer and every code already printed shows your new position without any reprinting.
Shorter payload than a contact card
A LinkedIn slug is far shorter than a full vCard, so the pattern is coarser and survives being printed small on a badge or in a corner of a business card.
Worked examples
Default slug with random suffix
The address LinkedIn assigns before customisation. Note how much longer the payload is and how much finer the resulting pattern becomes.
Encoded as
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-mcallister-4a7b23e1How to create a LinkedIn QR code
Find your public profile address
Open your LinkedIn profile and copy what follows linkedin.com/in/ in the address. Put that in the Profile slug field. It is often your name followed by a string of random characters unless you have customised it.
Customise the slug to shorten the code
LinkedIn lets you edit the public profile URL in settings. Removing the trailing random characters shortens the payload noticeably, which produces a coarser pattern that scans better when printed small on a badge.
Check the profile is publicly visible
LinkedIn's visibility settings can restrict what appears to people who are not signed in or not connected. Open your own link in a private window to see what a stranger scanning your badge actually gets.
Scan it before the event
Confirm the code opens your profile rather than a search page or a login wall. Discovering a broken badge code mid-conference is a wasted day of introductions.
What goes wrong, and how to avoid it
Using the default slug with its random suffix
LinkedIn assigns a URL ending in several random characters, which adds meaningfully to the payload and makes the pattern finer. On a conference badge printed at two centimetres that can be the difference between scanning first time and not scanning at all. Customising the URL in settings takes a minute and is free.
Restrictive profile visibility settings
LinkedIn allows you to limit what non-connections and logged-out visitors can see. A tightly restricted profile shows a stranger almost nothing after they scan, which defeats the purpose at the exact moment you wanted to make an impression. Check the public view before an event.
Confusing a personal profile with a company page
Personal profiles sit under /in/ and company pages under /company/. This generator builds the /in/ form. Using a company slug here produces an address that does not resolve, so use the URL generator for company pages.
The login wall for logged-out visitors
LinkedIn increasingly prompts people who are not signed in to log in or register before showing a full profile. Someone scanning your badge without an account may see very little, which is worth knowing when your audience is not exclusively LinkedIn users.
Printing it too small on a badge
Conference badges are scanned in crowded rooms with variable lighting, often by someone holding a drink. A code tucked into a corner at fifteen millimetres frequently fails in those conditions even though it works perfectly at a desk.
Device and app compatibility
The payload is a standard https link, so every scanner opens it. With the LinkedIn app installed the link is handed to the app and the profile appears natively for a signed-in user, which is the smoothest path and the most common one at industry events. Without the app, the mobile web version loads and frequently shows a prompt to sign in or register before revealing the full profile — a platform decision that has grown more aggressive over time and is outside your control. Desktop scans open the web profile normally, with the same logged-out restrictions applying.
The link uses the www.linkedin.com/in/ form, which is the canonical public profile address. Slugs may contain hyphens and alphanumeric characters, all of which are safe in a URL path and pass through the encoder unchanged.
Common questions
How do I shorten my LinkedIn URL?
LinkedIn lets you edit your public profile address in settings, usually under the public profile section. Removing the random characters LinkedIn appends by default makes the payload considerably shorter, which produces a coarser pattern that scans more reliably when printed small on a conference badge or a business card.
Can I link to a company page instead?
Not with this generator, which builds personal profile addresses under /in/. Company pages live under /company/ and need the URL generator with the full address instead. Using a company slug here produces a link that does not resolve, because the path prefix is wrong.
What does someone see if they are not logged into LinkedIn?
Often less than you would like. LinkedIn increasingly prompts logged-out visitors to sign in or register before showing a full profile, and your own visibility settings restrict it further. Open your link in a private browsing window to see exactly what a stranger scanning your badge receives.
Does the code update when I change jobs?
Yes, and this is a real advantage over a printed contact card. The code points at your profile rather than at a snapshot of your details, so a new role or employer appears automatically to anyone who scans an existing printed code afterwards.
How big should the code be on a conference badge?
Larger than most badge designs allow for. Conference halls are crowded and unevenly lit, and people scan one-handed while holding something else. Two and a half centimetres is a sensible minimum, and customising your profile URL first helps by coarsening the pattern.
Is my profile address sent to your server?
No. The link is built in your browser and the pattern drawn on your device, with nothing transmitted while you type. Your public profile address is public by definition, but the same rule applies here as everywhere on this site — nothing entered into a form is uploaded.
Read before you print
- How big should a printed QR code be?Sizing a code is one ratio and three constraints. This guide gives the distance rule, the minimum sizes that survive real printing, and the reason a code that looks fine in the design file fails on the press.
- What is a QR code?A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that stores text as a grid of black and white squares. This guide takes one apart — the corner markers, the data area, the repair information — and explains why that structure decides how much you can encode.
Other QR code generators
- vCard QR Code GeneratorPut your full contact details into a scan instead of a typed-out card.
- Facebook QR Code GeneratorPoint people at your page, group or profile without spelling out a long address.
- Instagram QR Code GeneratorA profile code that works from any camera, not only from inside the app.
- Email QR Code GeneratorOpen a prefilled draft instead of making someone copy an address by hand.
This generator is part of social media QR codes — see the whole group, and what to decide before you generate one.