How to make a barcode for free

A short, practical guide.

If you have ever needed to label a box, a product, or a shelf full of inventory and assumed you would need design software or an account with a barcode company to do it properly, you do not. A barcode is just a pattern generated from a piece of text, and you can make one in your browser in under a minute.

What you actually need before you start

Two things: the value you want encoded, and a format to encode it in. The value can be a product code, a SKU you made up yourself, an asset number, or plain text. The format matters more than people expect. Code128 accepts almost any text or number and never asks for a specific digit count, which makes it the easiest starting point for anything that is not going on a retail shelf.

Formats like EAN13 and UPC are built for retail products and need an exact number of digits. If you are not selling a product through a store or marketplace, you almost certainly do not need them.

How to generate a barcode online, free

1. Open the barcode generator on TidyToolbox.
2. Type or paste the code, SKU, or text you want to encode.
3. Pick a format. Code128 is the safest default unless you already have exact retail digits.
4. Choose a size and download the barcode as a PNG.

Everything happens in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server, so it works just as well for an internal asset tag as it does for something that will end up printed on packaging.

A couple of things worth knowing

For a barcode to scan reliably on a handheld scanner, print it at least an inch tall. Smaller than that and cheap scanners start to struggle, especially on glossy paper.

If you are planning to sell a physical product through a retailer or a marketplace like Amazon, there is more to know before you pick EAN13 or UPC. We cover that in do you need to buy a barcode, or can you make one for free.

Looking for something else? See the QR code generator if you need a scannable link instead of a product code, or browse all tools on TidyToolbox.