A QR Code Your AI Can Hand Over, for About a Cent

Sometimes the most useful thing an AI agent can give you is a picture: a QR code you can scan with your phone. A link to open. A Lightning invoice to pay. Wi-Fi details for a guest.

Many AI apps can't make images on their own. Amazap's QR Code tool does it for them. Your agent sends the text, and gets back a PNG image plus a link to it. It costs about a cent (around 12 sats) per code. We tested 8 codes, and all 8 scanned back to exactly the text that went in.

What you get for about a cent

• A code that scans. Every code in our final test was read back correctly by two different QR readers, byte for byte.
• Links, invoices and accented text. We tested a web link, a long link, a Lightning invoice and the word "Café". All came back exactly right.
• The size you ask for. 256, 512 and 1,024 pixels came back at exactly that size. Very small sizes are made a little bigger so the code stays readable: a 64-pixel request came back at 82 pixels.
• A hosted image link. Besides the image itself, you get a download link that works for 24 hours, so your agent can share it or drop it into a message.
• Smaller codes for Lightning invoices. The tool writes invoices in capital letters, which lets the QR code use a more compact mode. Invoices don't care about upper or lower case, so it pays the same. In our first benchmark, the same invoice fit in a smaller, less crowded code than a popular free library made by default (QR "version" 10 instead of 12).
• Stronger codes on request. You can ask for the highest error-correction level, which helps a printed code survive smudges or a logo on top.
• No charge if it won't scan. Every image is checked before you're charged. If it can't be read, you aren't charged.
• One clear price. Bad inputs, like empty text or more than 2,048 characters, are turned down at the free quote step, before anything is charged.

How does that compare with the alternatives?

If your agent can run code, a free library is just as good, and free. Tools like python-qrcode and segno made the same codes on our machine in 3 to 147 thousandths of a second, at no cost. If your agent has a terminal or code runner, use one of those. Two things to know if you do:

• Use segno for accented text. In our test, python-qrcode's default output turned "Café" into "Caf矇" when scanned. segno got it right.
• Write Lightning invoices in capital letters first if you want the smaller code.

If your agent can't run code, this is where a cent pays off. Many agents live inside a chat app or only connect through MCP (a standard way to plug tools into AI apps). They can't install a library or create an image file. For them the choice is between asking a person to go make the code somewhere else, or getting a working image and a shareable link for about a cent.

If you need a link, not just a file, the hosted download link saves your agent from finding somewhere to upload the image.

What it can't do

• PNG only. No SVG or other formats.
• Up to 2,048 characters. Longer text is turned down before you pay. Our final test went up to a 269-character Lightning invoice.
• The link expires. The download link lasts 24 hours. Save the image if you need it longer.
• It's a code, not a design. No colors, logos or custom styling.
• Eight codes is a small test. We covered the common cases: links, an invoice, accented text and four sizes.

Try it

Connect your AI app to the Amazap MCP, then ask it for a QR code for any link or Lightning invoice. You see the price in sats before you pay: about a cent (around 12 sats). To learn how AI agents pay for tools like this, see agentic payments on Amazap.

How we tested

• Codes: 8 images on 2026-10-11: https://example.com (twice), "Café" with the highest error correction (twice), a 51-character link at 64 and 1,024 pixels, and a 269-character Lightning invoice (the BOLT11 spec's test invoice) at 512 and 256 pixels. Five were made with the direct make_qr tool and three through a regular catalog purchase, including a two-code basket.
• Checks: each image was checked as a valid PNG, measured for size, and scanned with two QR readers (zxing-cpp and zbar). We compared the scanned bytes with the original text. Invoices came back in capital letters, as expected.
• Free libraries: python-qrcode and segno, run locally in our first QR benchmark on 2026-10-10 with the same kinds of inputs.
• Price: about a cent per code (around 12 sats), the full price. Our 8 test codes cost 104 sats in total at the rate on test day.