GOV.UK One Login opens passkeys to 23 million users, and is saving 600 pounds a day on SMS
After a 300,000-user trial, GOV.UK One Login is offering passkeys to more than 23 million people across childcare, driving licences, State Pension and tax services. Nearly one in ten daily sign-ins already use one. Passwords stay optional.
The UK government extended passkey support across GOV.UK One Login to more than 23 million users on September 14, 2026, after a trial with over 300,000. The services covered run from childcare support and driving licence renewals to State Pension checks and tax management. Users sign in with a fingerprint, Face ID, or device PIN instead of a password plus an SMS code, with the biometric or PIN staying on the device. The government says nearly one in ten daily One Login sign-ins already use a passkey, that they are up to eight times faster than password plus 2FA, and that the shift is already saving close to 600 pounds a day in SMS costs. Passwords remain available for anyone who prefers them.
Why it matters
This is the largest government passkey deployment to date and the numbers it published are more useful than the announcement. Eight times faster and 600 pounds a day in avoided SMS are the two figures that move a business case, and the SMS line is the one to steal: every organization still sending one-time codes is paying a per-message bill for its weakest factor. Amazon reported similar economics for its passkey users, six times faster sign-in, in August.
Read the "killing off passwords" framing carefully, though, because it is not what has happened. Passkeys are optional and passwords remain, which means One Login accounts keep a phishable recovery path. That matters more this week than most, given the BigBear kit that disables WebAuthn in the browser to force exactly such a fallback. A passkey alongside a live password is a faster login, not a phishing-resistant account.
That is not a criticism of the rollout so much as a description of where the hard part starts. At 23 million users spanning every level of digital confidence, removing the fallback means solving account recovery for people with one device and no backup, which is a genuinely unsolved problem at population scale. Watch what the UK does about recovery next; it will be the more instructive announcement.
Source: The Register
Related on Start with Identity
- BlogFIDO Alliance to publish its wallet certification documents and opens a forum for issuers and regulators
At Authenticate 2026 on October 20, the FIDO Alliance said it will publish the Credential Manager Reference Architecture and a Framework for Verifier Identifica
- BlogSingpass passkeys reach Android, with about 800,000 already registered
GovTech has opened Singpass passkeys to Android users after an iPhone beta, with about 800,000 passkeys registered by September 9. Singpass serves 5.5 million u
- BlogAmazon says more than 500 million customers have turned on passkeys
Amazon updated its passkey announcement on October 20 to say more than 500 million customers have enabled passkeys, which it says sign in about six times faster
- PodcastEntra.Chat
A weekly show for Microsoft Entra administrators, with deployment stories from practitioners and the engineers who build the product. Hosted by a Microsoft empl
- PodcastOkta
Okta's 2023 interview series for product managers and marketers on using customer identity to build better experiences. One season, 14 episodes.
- PodcastThe Biometric Update Podcast
A weekly show from trade outlet Biometric Update that explains biometrics and digital identity news to a general audience. Short and accessible.