How to add a QR code to a LinkedIn banner

Who actually scans a banner code

Be clear-eyed about the audience before designing. Someone viewing your profile on their phone cannot scan a code on the screen they are holding. The banner code works for the other case, which happens to be a valuable one: a recruiter or contact viewing your profile on a desktop, phone in hand, who can scan your code and walk away with your details, the standard screen-scanning mechanics apply, and they are forgiving at desk distances.

So the banner code is a complement to your profile URL, not a replacement. It is also a signal in itself in some fields. It reads as "this person ships details properly".

The layout numbers

• Banner canvas: 1584 × 396 px (4:1).
• Your profile photo overlaps the lower-left of the banner on both desktop and mobile, and different screen widths crop the banner differently.
• Safe placement: the right third, with the code roughly 300 × 300 px including its quiet zone, inset at least 60 px from the top and right edges so responsive cropping never clips it.
• Solid light background behind the code. If your banner is a photo, put the code on a white card; a code composited straight onto imagery fails the contrast rules.

At ~300 px in a 396 px-tall banner the code displays at readable size on typical desktop layouts: small enough to be polite, big enough to scan from a phone at 20–30 cm.

What to encode: profile URL, not vCard

The tempting choice is a vCard so a scan saves your contact card. The problem is density: a full vCard easily runs 200–400 bytes, pushing the code to a high version whose modules are too small at banner display sizes. A short profile URL (linkedin.com/in/yourname: claim your custom URL first, it drops the numeric suffix) keeps the code at a low version with fat, scannable modules.

If you genuinely want scan-to-save-contact, that belongs on surfaces with room and guaranteed print quality: your business card or CV. The broader strategy (what a LinkedIn code should point at in different contexts) is covered in QR codes for a LinkedIn profile.

Build and upload

1. Generate the code with the URL generator, black on white, no logo: banner display sizes have no margin for styling losses.
2. Compose the 1584 × 396 banner in any editor and export PNG (LinkedIn re-encodes uploads; PNG gives the compressor the cleanest starting point).
3. Upload via profile → edit banner, then verify on a real desktop profile view, not the upload preview: scan it with your phone from arm's length.
4. Confirm the payload with the validator, a banner with a typo'd URL is a slow way to find out.

Check it again after any profile-photo change; the overlap area shifts and can crowd a code placed too far left.

FAQ

What size is a LinkedIn banner and how big should the code be?

The banner is 1584 × 396 pixels. A code around 300 pixels square in the right third, inset from the edges, displays at a scannable size on desktop without dominating the design.

Should the LinkedIn banner code be a vCard or my profile URL?

Profile URL. A vCard payload is dense, and at banner display sizes its small modules scan poorly. The short profile URL keeps the code low-version and reliable; save the vCard for business cards.

Can people scan my banner from the LinkedIn mobile app?

Not with the phone they are viewing it on. The banner code serves desktop viewers who have a phone available (which includes most recruiters at work), while mobile viewers use the normal tap-through.

Why is my banner QR code blurry after upload?

LinkedIn re-encodes banner images. Upload a PNG composed at exactly 1584 × 396 with the code as sharp full-resolution artwork, not a stretched screenshot, and it survives the re-encode comfortably.