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Revolut pilots UK facial recognition checkout with Pay with Smile

Revolut pilots Pay with Smile, a UK first in-store facial recognition checkout, at select London coffee shops.

AI News Feed · 2026-09-24 19:26

Revolut Register is a modular, two-screen register designed to bring together payments, banking and floor operations for merchants. The company said Pay with Smile offers 0% processing fees for merchants. TechRadar reported that the move looks to ensure UK small businesses do not lose money from payment terminal issues, whether they are hardware- or software-related, by offering another way to accept payments.

Customers must already have a Revolut account. The system uses facial technology to verify a user's identity against the selfie ID checks they added when they signed up for Revolut, then authenticates and processes the payment. According to TechRadar, transactions are authenticated with end-to-end encryption managed inside the Revolut app, and no personal data is stored by merchants. Engadget reported that Revolut keeps and processes all personal data entirely within its own proprietary application environment and does not share it, and that facial embeddings used to complete transactions are deleted immediately after a sale is confirmed and are not kept in-store by merchants.

Alex Codina of Revolut said in a statement that the system combines high-performance processing with facial recognition technology to replace outdated, fragmented tills with a highly efficient checkout experience designed to solve consumer and merchant pain points. Engadget reported the statement.

TechRadar, which tried the system at a Kiss the Hippo shop in central London, reported that the process was quick and smooth, similar to authenticating on a phone app or having a photo taken at passport control. Customers who paid in-store with a smile could order from a special Revolut menu, with specialty coffees priced at £1, according to TechRadar.

Engadget reported that UK Revolut customers can sign up and try the system between now and Sept. 26 at Kiss the Hippo cafes in Bloomsbury, Chelsea and Soho. The pilot is starting in London only.

Engadget noted that Pay with Smile is not the first facial recognition payment system and that even the name is not unique. Alipay, a division of Alibaba, introduced a system called Smile to Pay in 2017 at KFC restaurants in Hong Kong, though it did not move outside China. Tencent unveiled a facial payment system called Frog Pro in 2019. Engadget wrote that Revolut's system is designed to reduce payment friction that can cause lost sales, but that it is bound to be controversial given the public's general distrust of facial recognition technology.

TechRadar reported that Revolut Register is available now with a 50% discount for a merchant's first terminal, at £349.50 plus VAT until Dec. 31, 2026, compared with a regular recommended retail price of £699 plus VAT. The discount applies to new and existing customers, according to TechRadar.