Short answer: a basic QR code made with Canva’s built-in QR generator is static and does not expire. The destination URL is baked directly into the black-and-white pattern, so there is no server in the middle to switch off, no trial to lapse, and no subscription to deactivate it. Scan it next year or a decade from now and it does the same thing it did the day you printed it.
That’s the answer most people searching this came for. The rest of this post is the one asterisk, and the one case where the answer changes.
The one asterisk: “never expires” assumes the destination stays live
A static QR code is just a picture of a URL. It will keep scanning forever — but “scanning forever” only matters if the page it points to is still there.
If you delete that page, let the domain lapse, restructure your site so the old link 404s, or point it at a free hosting URL that gets taken down, the code still scans perfectly and then lands on a dead page. The QR didn’t expire. The destination did. This is link rot, and it has nothing to do with Canva — it’s true of every static QR code from every tool.
So the honest version of the answer is: a Canva static QR code never expires, as long as the URL you put inside it stays live and unchanged. If you control that URL and plan to keep it alive, you’re done — print with confidence.
Where it changes: Canva Pro and dynamic QR apps
Canva’s basic QR generator makes static codes. But Canva also has apps and integrations in its marketplace — including third-party QR apps — and some of these create dynamic QR codes: codes that point at the app provider’s server instead of your URL directly.
Dynamic codes are genuinely useful — you can change where they point without reprinting, and some track scans. But the trade-off is that the code now depends on a running service. If that dynamic code is tied to a Canva Pro plan or a third-party app subscription, then cancelling the plan, ending a trial, or the app being removed can break it. The pattern still scans; the redirect behind it just stops answering.
This is the distinction that catches people out. “I made a QR code in Canva” can mean two completely different products:
- Static (basic generator): the URL is in the pattern. Free, permanent, can’t be edited. Doesn’t expire.
- Dynamic (a paid app/integration): the URL lives on someone’s server. Editable, sometimes tracked — and only alive as long as that service and subscription are.
If you’re not sure which one you have: if you were never asked to log in to a separate QR service and you can’t change the destination after the fact, it’s almost certainly static — and you have nothing to worry about.
If you need an editable destination
Most people don’t. If your QR points somewhere that won’t move — a fixed landing page, a domain you own — a free static Canva code is the right tool, and paying anyone for a redirect layer (including us) would just be adding a dependency you don’t need.
The one case Canva doesn’t durably cover is when you do need the destination to change after printing — a menu that updates seasonally, a campaign link you’ll repoint, a profile that moves. That’s the dynamic case, and a static code can’t do it. We build Heldqr for exactly that: a redirect you can edit any time (it propagates in under 60 seconds, the printed code never changes), on a free tier that stays free and never deactivates, with a published continuity plan so the redirect doesn’t quietly vanish if we ever wind down. That’s the honest reason to reach for a dynamic redirect instead of a static Canva code — not because static Canva expires, but because static can’t be edited.
The takeaway
Do Canva QR codes expire? The basic ones don’t — they’re static, the URL is baked in, and they’ll outlast most of the things you print them on. Keep the destination URL alive and you’re set. Only worry if your code came from a paid QR app or integration, in which case it’s dynamic and lives or dies with that subscription.
If your Canva code has already gone dark, start with Canva QR code stopped working? for the diagnosis and the fix. For the full picture on why some QR codes stop working and how to choose a provider that won’t disappear, read The Complete Guide to QR Codes That Don’t Expire. Found a Canva detail that’s changed, or a claim here that’s gone stale? Email us at hello@heldqr.com.