Revolut has introduced Pay with Smile, a facial recognition option for in-store payments made through its Revolut Register terminal. According to the announcement, the feature is being piloted in London from 24 September 2026, with coffee chain Kiss the Hippo as the first participating merchant.
How the checkout works
At a Revolut Register terminal, customers select Pay with Smile on the screen and complete a face identity check. Revolut compares the process to unlocking a smartphone or accessing a banking app. The system verifies the customer's face against the identity checks completed when the customer first signed up to Revolut. If the checks pass and a match is found, the payment is authorised as an account-to-account transaction.
In addition, the authentication step draws on identity data that Revolut already holds from customer onboarding. As a result, the feature connects the company's merchant hardware, its consumer identity verification, and A2A payments within a single checkout flow.
Consent and data handling
Customers must actively opt in by enabling Revolut Pay with Smile in their Revolut app settings. Revolut has stated that customers will not be opted in by default and that consent can be revoked at any time.
On data protection, the company said facial recognition data is encrypted end-to-end and that merchants will not store customers' personal data. These terms define how biometric information is treated at the point of sale. The merchant processes the payment but does not retain the underlying personal data.
Merchant pricing and terminal rollout
Revolut is offering 0% processing fees on Pay with Smile transactions. The company presents the pricing as a way to reduce costs for independent venues. It has not given a date for the wider commercial rollout of Revolut Register terminal sales and said only that this will take place in due course.
Alex Codina, general manager of merchant payments at Revolut Business, described the aim as replacing outdated and fragmented tills with a checkout that combines payment processing and facial recognition, addressing issues faced by both consumers and merchants.
Wider availability beyond the pilot merchant will depend on the commercial launch of the Revolut Register terminal, for which no timeline has been set. Until then, the pilot offers a limited test of customer uptake for opt-in biometric payments. It also tests merchant interest in a fee-free, A2A checkout model.
