The UK Online Safety Act takes effect in October 2025. EU frameworks follow in 2026. Australia’s under-16 social media ban, which took effect December 10, 2024, has already set the regulatory precedent that platforms globally are now racing to meet. This guide is part of our comprehensive resource on understanding Australia’s under-16 social media ban and global age verification regulations, where we examine what these compliance requirements actually cost to implement.
If you’re facing these deadlines, you’re probably scrambling to understand what this is going to cost and how to budget for it. Here’s the thing – most cost information out there targets either massive enterprises or early-stage startups. If you’re running a mid-sized platform with 10,000 to 100,000 users, you’re stuck in a frustrating information gap. And here’s what makes it worse: the total cost of ownership extends way beyond what vendors charge you. Integration work, developer time, ongoing maintenance, scalability planning, hidden costs – all of it impacts your budget.
The build vs buy decision needs concrete numbers. Here’s what the data shows: third-party solutions demonstrate substantially higher ROI than homegrown systems in comparable compliance scenarios. WorkOS data on similar compliance infrastructure shows 1,954% ROI versus 9% for build-it-yourself. The difference comes down to faster time-to-market, lower maintenance burden, and vendor-managed regulatory updates you’d otherwise be building yourself.
This guide is going to give you actionable TCO frameworks, pricing comparisons, timeline estimates, and budget planning specifically for SMB platforms navigating age verification compliance. Let’s get into it.
What is the total cost of ownership (TCO) for age verification systems over 3 years?
For mid-sized platforms with 10,000 to 100,000 users, you’re looking at $45,000 to $180,000 over three years for third-party solutions. Build it yourself? That’s $250,000 to $500,000+ when you account for developer opportunity cost, security infrastructure, ongoing maintenance, and regulatory updates.
Hidden Costs That Kill Budgets
Vendor lock-in is brutal. Migrating providers means 3-6 months of developer time – that’s $45,000 to $90,000 gone. And user re-verification causes 15-30% drop-off. If 20% of your 50,000 users refuse to re-verify, you’ve just lost 10,000 users. At $50 ARPU, that’s a $500,000 annual revenue hit.
Scalability refactoring catches people by surprise. Your integration for 10,000 users needs architectural changes when you hit 50,000+ users. Refactoring costs $15,000 to $40,000 plus whatever service disruption does to your numbers.
User friction is the big one everyone underestimates. Age verification adds 30-90 seconds to registration. Industry benchmarks show 10-25% abandonment. If your platform generates $50 ARPU and you’re losing 500 users monthly, that’s $300,000 in annual opportunity cost. It dwarfs your $45,000 verification costs.
Geographic expansion adds $10,000 to $25,000 per new jurisdiction.
Hidden costs represent 20-35% of total TCO if you don’t plan for them upfront.
Build vs Buy TCO Comparison
| User Volume | Third-Party (3 Years) | Build In-House (3 Years) | |————-|———————-|————————–| | 10,000 users | $45,000-$75,000 | $250,000-$350,000 | | 50,000 users | $95,000-$135,000 | $350,000-$450,000 | | 100,000 users | $140,000-$180,000 | $450,000-$600,000 |
The WorkOS case study on SSO and SCIM showed 9% ROI for homegrown solutions versus 1,954% for pre-built solutions. Age verification has remarkably similar compliance complexity and maintenance patterns. The numbers tell a pretty clear story.
How much does age verification software cost per verification check?
As of October 2025, Veriff charges $1.39 USD per check on their Plus plan – and that includes denied attempts. Their Essential plan costs $0.80 per check with a $49 monthly minimum. Sumsub charges $1.35 per verification.
Average costs range $0.50 to $2.00 per transaction. That’s a 4× spread depending on verification method, vendor, and volume tier.
Pricing by Method
Document verification runs $0.80 to $2.50 per check. Higher accuracy – we’re talking 98-99.9% – but it’s slower.
Biometric age estimation costs $0.30 to $1.20 per check. Lower accuracy at 92-95% but faster.
Credit card inference is the budget option at $0.10 to $0.50 per check. Lowest cost, lowest assurance.
Understanding technology selection cost implications helps you choose the verification method that balances accuracy requirements against budget constraints for your platform.
Volume Discounts
Vendors structure pricing in brackets. You start at base rate for 0-1,000 monthly checks. Hit 1,000-10,000 and you get 20-30% off. 10,000-50,000 gets you 30-40% off. Over 50,000 and you’re looking at 50%+ discounts.
For 50,000 monthly verifications, you’re looking at $15,000 to $75,000 annually before discounts. After negotiating, that drops to $25,000 to $45,000.
Here’s something to watch out for – Veriff charges for denied checks. iDenfy’s pay-per-onboarded model only charges for successful verifications, which creates 15-30% savings when your approval rates are below 85%.
Should I build or buy an age verification solution for my platform?
Build scenarios rarely justify costs for SMB platforms. Let’s just put that out there.
Custom development requires $180,000 to $350,000 initial investment. That’s 8-16 developer-months. Then you’ve got ongoing maintenance eating up 2-4 developer-months annually. Over three years, you’re looking at $450,000 to $750,000 for an in-house system that needs 2-3 FTE engineers to keep running.
The Time Delay Kills the Build Case
Third-party solutions offer 3-6 month implementation. Custom development takes 12-18 months. When you’re facing regulatory deadlines, a 12-month timeline means you’re non-compliant before you even ship.
And here’s what organisations ignore – developer opportunity cost. Building age verification diverts engineers from core product features. You’re delaying revenue-generating capabilities. Three engineers spending 4 months building verification is 12 developer-months not spent on features that actually differentiate your platform.
When Build Makes Sense
Only in three scenarios, and they’re pretty specific:
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Extreme customisation unavailable from any vendor: This is rare. Vendors already support document verification, biometric estimation, database checks, and custom workflows.
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Volume exceeds 500,000+ monthly: Unit economics favour amortising development costs at this scale.
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Proprietary verification provides competitive advantage: This applies to identity verification companies, not platforms using verification for compliance.
For SMB platforms running 10,000 to 100,000 users, none of these typically apply. Our vendor pricing comparison and build-vs-buy ROI analysis shows that third-party solutions consistently outperform custom development for this scale. Buy the solution.
What are the typical pricing models for age verification vendors?
Pay-Per-Check Model
$0.80 to $2.50 per check with volume discounts.
Best for: Variable or seasonal volumes, early-stage platforms, testing before rollout.
Watch out for: Unpredictable monthly costs that complicate budget forecasting. A platform processing 1,000 verifications monthly at $1.20 pays $1,200. Grow to 3,000 checks and you hit a volume discount tier – now you’re at $0.95 per check, which is $2,850 monthly. That’s a 138% cost increase for 200% growth.
Subscription-Based Pricing
$2,000 to $8,000 monthly for 10,000 to 50,000 checks included.
Best for: Stable, predictable volumes and organisations that need budget certainty.
A platform processing 18,000 verifications monthly on a $5,000 subscription pays $0.28 per verification. The same platform on pay-per-check at $1.00 would pay $18,000.
But here’s the flip side – if you’re only processing 5,000 verifications on that $5,000 subscription, your effective cost is $1.00 per verification. No better than pay-per-check with less flexibility.
Pay-Per-Onboarded-Customer Model
This one only charges for successful verifications, not failed attempts. Typically 15-30% cheaper when approval rates are below 85%.
Best for: Lower approval rates, consumer platforms where users submit dodgy quality photos.
If your platform has a 70% approval rate – that’s 1.43 attempts per success – and you’re processing 10,000 successful verifications monthly, the maths looks like this:
- Pay-per-check (all attempts): 14,300 × $1.20 = $17,160
- Pay-per-onboarded: 10,000 × $1.00 = $10,000
That’s 42% savings from aligning pricing with outcomes.
How long does it take to implement an age verification solution?
Third-party API integration takes 4-12 weeks for SMB platforms.
You’ve got five phases to work through. Technical discovery takes 1-2 weeks. Contract negotiation eats up 1-3 weeks. Development runs 2-4 weeks. UAT takes 2-3 weeks. Rollout is 1-2 weeks. Total timeline: 7-14 weeks.
Developer Time
You’re looking at 120-320 hours total. Simple integrations run 120-180 hours. Moderate complexity is 180-250 hours. Complex implementations hit 250-400+ hours. Typically you need 1 senior developer for 3-8 weeks.
Common Blockers
Legal review adds 2-4 weeks. Legacy authentication systems add 3-6 weeks. Cross-team dependencies add 1-3 weeks. International compliance requirements add 2-4 weeks. Examining platform scale and resource considerations from major platform implementations provides useful benchmarks for complexity estimation at different scales.
Custom development? That takes 12-18 months. When you’re facing compliance deadlines, that means you’re non-compliant before you ship.
What staffing requirements are needed to manage age verification compliance?
Initial Implementation
1 senior backend developer for 3-8 weeks. 1 frontend developer for 2-4 weeks. 0.5 FTE compliance or legal person for 4-6 weeks. 0.25 FTE product manager ongoing.
Total: 1.75 to 2.25 FTE for 3-8 weeks. At $150 per hour, that’s $15,750 to $67,500.
Ongoing Maintenance
Developer time runs 10-25 hours monthly. That’s $1,500 to $3,750 monthly or $18,000 to $45,000 annually.
Compliance officer at 0.1 FTE monthly costs $1,200 to $3,000 monthly or $14,400 to $36,000 annually.
Total ongoing: $32,400 to $81,000 annually. Over 3 years, you’re at $97,200 to $243,000.
In-house systems need 1-2 dedicated engineers. At 1.5 FTE – that’s $225,000 annually – you’re looking at $337,500 over 3 years just for maintenance. Add development costs of $300,000 to $450,000 and you’re at $637,500 to $787,500 total. That’s 5-8× higher than buying.
How do I budget for age verification implementation in 2025?
Budget Framework
Initial Implementation (One-Time): $25,000-$80,000
- Vendor licensing and setup: $5,000-$15,000
- Developer integration: $18,000-$48,000
- Compliance and legal review: $5,000-$12,000
- Testing and QA: $3,000-$8,000
- Contingency buffer: 15-20%
Ongoing Operational (Annual): $15,000-$95,000
- Verification fees or subscription: $12,000-$75,000
- Maintenance developer time: $15,000-$30,000
- Compliance monitoring and audits: $8,000-$15,000
- Vendor support tier: $3,000-$12,000
First-year total: $40,000 to $175,000. Years 2-3 run $15,000 to $95,000 annually.
Budget Justification to Stakeholders
Regulatory compliance is the big stick. UK Online Safety Act fines go up to £18M or 10% of global revenue. If your platform generates £5M annually, you’re protecting against a £500,000 fine. Understanding multi-jurisdiction compliance cost variations helps you justify budget allocations across different geographic markets where your platform operates.
Revenue protection matters more to some stakeholders. If 30% of your revenue comes from age-restricted content and your platform generates $2M annually, you’re protecting $600,000. A $50,000 annual cost is 8.3% of the revenue you’re protecting.
Risk mitigation covers the stuff that keeps people up at night. Non-compliance risks platform shutdowns, app store removals, payment processor restrictions.
Use CFO-friendly metrics. Cost per verified user runs $0.50 to $2.00. As a percentage of revenue, you’re looking at 1-3%. Risk-adjusted ROI looks like this: £18M fine versus £120,000 3-year TCO equals 150:1 protection ratio.
Phased Budget Approach
Tier 1: Essential ($35,000-$60,000 first year): Minimum compliance, basic document verification, new users only.
Tier 2: Optimal (add $20,000-$40,000): Multiple verification methods, biometric option, fraud prevention, analytics.
Tier 3: Advanced (add $25,000-$50,000): Multi-method workflows, advanced fraud analytics, custom UI, international expansion.
Phasing spreads budget across quarters and lets you learn before full rollout. Just make sure Tier 1 actually meets minimum regulatory requirements.
What hidden costs should I expect when implementing age verification?
Vendor Lock-In
Migrating providers eats up 3-6 months of developer time. That’s $45,000 to $90,000 gone. User re-verification causes 15-30% drop-off. If 20% of your 50,000 users refuse to re-verify, you’ve lost 10,000 users. At $50 ARPU, that’s a $500,000 annual revenue impact.
User Friction
Verification adds 30-90 seconds to registration. Industry benchmarks show 10-25% abandonment.
If your platform generates $50 ARPU and you’re losing 500 users monthly, that’s $300,000 in annual opportunity cost. It dwarfs your $45,000 verification costs.
Run A/B tests with 10% traffic before full rollout. Seriously.
Scalability
Your integration for 10,000 users needs architectural changes when you hit 50,000+. Refactoring costs $15,000 to $40,000 plus whatever service disruption costs you. Plan for scale upfront.
Contract Red Flags
Watch out for vague SLAs, data portability restrictions, automatic renewal clauses, and volume commitment penalties.
Negotiate for 99.9% uptime SLA, full data export rights, 90-day cancellation notice, and quarterly true-up instead of locked commitments.
What factors influence age verification pricing from vendors?
Volume Tiers
Vendors structure pricing in brackets with 20-50% discounts per tier. Annual commitments unlock additional 10-25% savings.
Volume tier cliffs create budget surprises. Growing from 9,500 to 10,500 monthly verifications might drop your rate from $1.40 to $1.00. That’s great when it happens, but it makes forecasting tricky.
Method Complexity
Document verification costs 2-3× more than biometric because of processing complexity and higher accuracy. We’re talking 98-99.9% versus 92-95%. When selecting methods, you’ll need to balance cost against accuracy and privacy-preserving method cost implications for your platform’s data protection requirements.
Hybrid approaches work well here. Use biometric screening first at $0.40 per check, then escalate to document verification at $1.50 for uncertain cases. You end up with a blended $0.73 cost with 97%+ accuracy.
Geographic Coverage
Single-country coverage runs $0.60 to $1.20 per verification. Global coverage across 200+ countries costs $1.20 to $2.50.
Only pay for regions you actually serve. But if you’re planning expansion within 12-24 months, start global to avoid migration headaches.
Service-Level Agreements
99.9% uptime guarantees and dedicated support add 25-40% to base pricing. It matters if verification blocks revenue.
Negotiation Strategy
Optimise these: Volume tiers (10-25% savings), geographic coverage (15-30%), verification methods (20-40%), support tier (15-20%).
Deprioritise these: Advanced fraud features, custom workflows, white-label branding.
Request quotes from 3-5 vendors simultaneously. It creates competitive pressure.
FAQ
How do age verification costs compare to other compliance requirements?
Age verification TCO of $45,000 to $180,000 over 3 years is comparable to GDPR compliance at $50,000 to $150,000 but less than PCI DSS at $150,000 to $300,000. The key difference – age verification directly impacts user onboarding and revenue, while most compliance operates in the background.
Can I get age verification for under $500 per month?
Yes, for under 1,000 monthly verifications, vendors offer entry-tier pricing under $500 monthly. However, you need to factor in $15,000 to $30,000 initial integration developer time and ongoing maintenance. Budget $35,000 to $50,000 first-year total even with low-tier pricing.
What is the breakeven point for building in-house age verification?
Build reaches cost parity at approximately 500,000+ monthly verifications. However, this excludes developer opportunity cost, compliance risk, and ongoing security maintenance. For SMB platforms running 10k-100k users, third-party solutions offer substantially higher ROI.
How do I negotiate better pricing with age verification vendors?
Request quotes from 3-5 vendors simultaneously. Commit to annual contracts for 15-25% discounts. Negotiate volume-based pricing with projected growth tiers. Clarify what’s included in base pricing versus add-ons. Request case studies from similar platform sizes. Negotiate data portability and exit terms. Consider multi-year agreements for additional 10-15% savings.
What should be included in an age verification RFP?
Company context – platform size, growth projections, geographic markets, compliance deadlines. Technical requirements – API integration, verification methods, accuracy SLAs, SDK availability. Pricing structure – per-check versus subscription, volume tiers, setup fees. Compliance and security – data residency, audit capabilities, regulatory updates. Implementation – timeline estimates, documentation, sandbox environment. Support – SLA commitments, escalation procedures, account management. Contract terms – cancellation policy, data portability, auto-renewal clauses.
How do verification costs scale with user growth?
Growing from 10,000 to 50,000 monthly verifications typically increases costs 3-4× (not 5×) because of volume discounts. Budget for scalability refactoring at $15,000 to $40,000 when you cross the 25,000-50,000 threshold. Plan for 25-35% annual cost increases if you’re projecting 50-100% user growth.
What are the compliance costs associated with age verification regulations?
Beyond licensing, you’ve got legal review at $5,000 to $12,000 initially and $3,000 to $8,000 annually. Privacy audits run $15,000 to $30,000 annually. Regulatory monitoring costs $8,000 to $15,000 annually. Documentation systems need $5,000 to $10,000 setup. Staff training runs $3,000 to $8,000 annually. Total compliance costs add 25-40% to vendor licensing, so budget $12,000 to $35,000 annually beyond technology fees.
How do I justify age verification costs to stakeholders?
Frame it across four dimensions. Regulatory compliance – avoiding penalties, preventing shutdowns. Revenue protection – if 30% of revenue comes from age-restricted content, a $500,000 revenue platform justifies $50,000 annual cost as 10% insurance. Competitive positioning – non-compliance creates disadvantage. Risk mitigation – ROI of avoiding penalties exceeds implementation costs. Use metrics like cost per user ($0.50-$2.00), percentage of revenue (1-3%), and risk-adjusted ROI.
What verification methods offer the best cost-to-accuracy ratio?
Document verification delivers highest accuracy at 98-99.9% for $0.80 to $2.50 per check. Biometric estimation offers lower accuracy at 92-95% for $0.30 to $1.20. Hybrid approaches work well – 70% biometric at $0.40, 30% document at $1.50 achieves blended $0.73 with 97%+ accuracy. For SMB platforms balancing compliance and cost, hybrid delivers the best ratio.
Can I implement age verification in phases to manage budget?
Yes. Phase 1 covering Months 1-3 at $25,000 to $40,000 – basic document verification for new users. Phase 2 covering Months 4-6 at $15,000 to $25,000 – add biometric option, expand to existing users, implement analytics. Phase 3 covering Months 7-12 at $10,000 to $20,000 – optimise flows, add fraud detection, implement advanced features. Just ensure Phase 1 meets minimum regulatory requirements.
What age verification provider offers the best ROI?
There’s no single “best” provider. For transparency, Veriff offers clear $1.39 per check pricing. For cost optimisation, iDenfy’s pay-per-onboarded model delivers 15-30% savings when approval rates drop below 85%. For rapid implementation, ID.me iFrame integration reduces developer time to 80-120 hours. Conduct an RFP with 3-5 vendors and provide platform-specific context for customised ROI projections.
How often do age verification vendors raise prices?
Typical changes include annual rate adjustments aligned with CPI at 2-4%, communicated 90 days in advance. Volume tier restructuring happens every 18-24 months. Feature-based pricing kicks in when capabilities become compliance-mandatory. Geographic expansion brings fees. Mitigation strategies: negotiate multi-year contracts with locked pricing, include price adjustment caps at maximum 5% annual, require 180-day notice for changes.
Cost planning represents just one dimension of age verification compliance. For a comprehensive understanding of the regulatory landscape, implementation strategies, and technical considerations driving these costs, explore our complete guide to understanding Australia’s under-16 social media ban and global age verification regulations.
This article provides cost planning guidance for age verification compliance. Consult legal counsel for regulatory requirements specific to your jurisdiction and business model.
