SUMMARYThis paper gives normwise and componentwise perturbation analyses for the Q‐factor of the QR factorization of the matrix A with full column rank when A suffers from an additive perturbation. Rigorous perturbation bounds are derived on the projections of the perturbation of the Q‐factor in the range of A and its orthogonal complement. These bounds overcome a serious shortcoming of the first‐order perturbation bounds in the literature and can be used safely. From these bounds, identical or equivalent first‐order perturbation bounds in the literature can easily be derived. When A is square and nonsingular, tighter and simpler rigorous perturbation bounds on the perturbation of the Q‐factor are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.