The scanner has three tabs, and each one works differently. Business card saves a paper card without using credits and is part of Pro. Event badge always includes enrichment and uses 4 credits. LinkedIn / QR uses 1 credit, or 4 when the code only carries a name and company. See Credits and Usage.
At a trade show or conference you don’t need the official lead retrieval app or a stack of business cards. Just your phone. Open the scanner in Wave Connect, pick the tab that matches what is in front of you, and the contact is read, saved, and synced to your CRM in real time.
Choosing a Tab
The cost follows how much the source already tells us. A card or a QR code usually carries an email, a phone number, or a LinkedIn profile, so filling in the rest is a simple lookup. A badge carries only a name and a company, so it takes a deeper search.
Business Card
The Business card tab is for paper cards.The paper business card scanner is available on the Pro, Teams, and Enterprise plans. Badge scans, QR
scans, and enrichment run on credits on any plan.
- Open the contact and tap Enrich. This costs 1 credit, and the button shows the cost before you confirm.
- Or turn on Auto-enrich new contacts under Settings → Billing to enrich every new contact as soon as it is captured.
Event Badge
The Event badge tab is for conference and trade show badges, and it works on any plan. A badge normally shows only an attendee’s name and their company. Wave Connect reads the printed name and company and then runs the deep enrichment that finds the email, phone number, job title, and LinkedIn profile. Because every badge needs that deeper search, each badge scan costs 4 credits with enrichment included. There is no scan-only option on this tab. The scanner reads the text printed on the badge. It does not read the QR code or the barcode on a badge, so the proprietary codes that events print are never a problem.LinkedIn / QR
The LinkedIn / QR tab captures the contact behind a code, and it works on any plan. This covers LinkedIn profile QR codes and the QR code of any digital business card, including Wave Connect, Popl, Blinq, and HiHello. Most of these codes already carry an email, a phone number, or a LinkedIn profile, so the scan costs 1 credit. When a code carries only a name and a company, it needs the same deeper search as a badge and costs 4 credits.Can I scan a badge with the Business card tab?
No. Use the Event badge tab instead. The Business card tab reads a paper card’s printed layout, and a badge does not carry the same details, so the badge needs the deeper search that the Event badge tab runs.Add Context While It’s Fresh
You’re not just storing contact information. Add tags, notes, and context from the conversation while it’s still top of mind. Maybe someone was interested in pricing, wanted a demo next month, or was asking about enterprise deployment. That context stays attached to the lead, making your follow-ups faster, more personalized, and more effective.What a Scan Uses
Enrichment costs 1 credit when the scan already captured an email, phone number, or LinkedIn URL, and 4 credits for a deeper search from just a name and company. You are never charged when enrichment finds nothing. See Waterfall Lead Enrichment for how the search works. Every account starts with credits to try this out: 10 for a personal account and 20 for a new organization. They work on any of the three tabs. When you run out of credits, event badge and QR code scanning pauses until you add more. The Business card tab keeps saving card records without credits. See Credits and Usage for prices, auto-reload, and usage tracking.Accuracy Tips
For the best scanning results:- Use good lighting: avoid shadows and glare
- Hold the card or badge flat and steady
- Make sure all text is within the camera frame
- Use a plain background behind the card