The Headline Numbers
Wallet passes deliver to the lock screen at a 99%+ read rate (Square 2025 Loyalty Report), generate $0 marginal cost per push notification (Apple Wallet developer documentation; Google Wallet API documentation), and have crossed 1.4 billion active users globally between Apple Wallet (600M+, Apple Q4 2024 earnings commentary) and Google Wallet (800M+, Google I/O 2024 keynote). For comparison, the average email open rate sits at 21.55% across industries (Mailchimp 2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report), and SMS costs $0.0079 to $0.02 per message depending on carrier and provider (Twilio 2025 pricing; Telnyx 2025 pricing).
Those four numbers are why wallet passes have become the most efficient direct customer channel available to a small or mid-sized business in 2026. Read rate is near-perfect. Marginal cost is zero. The audience is functionally the entire smartphone-using population of the United States. And every other channel they replace costs real money on every send.
Methodology and Sourcing Note
Statistics in this report are compiled from primary developer documentation (Apple PassKit, Google Wallet API), public earnings commentary (Apple Q4 2024, Alphabet 2024 quarterly disclosures), industry benchmark reports (Square 2025 Loyalty Report, Mailchimp 2024 Email Benchmarks, Twilio Messaging Insights 2024, Eventbrite Pulse Report 2024), regulatory and trade-association sources (CTIA 2024 Wireless Industry Survey, GSMA Mobile Economy 2024), market research (Statista 2024, IBISWorld 2025, Juniper Research 2024 Mobile Wallet forecast), and Regulr platform data across 38+ customer venues spanning restaurants, breweries, food halls, event organizers, and hospitality groups. Where a stat is sourced from Regulr's own data, it is labeled "Regulr platform data, 2026". Numbers are rounded for readability. This report is updated quarterly. Last updated 2026-05-05.
Headline Statistics Journalists Pull-Quote
Wallet Pass Read Rate: 99%+
Wallet push notifications deliver to the device lock screen and are read 99% of the time (Square 2025 Loyalty Report, "Mobile Wallet Engagement Study"). This is the highest verified read rate of any consumer messaging channel currently in commercial use, including SMS (95% read rate within 3 minutes per CTIA 2024) and RCS (95%+ read rate per GSMA 2024 RCS Business Messaging report).
Cost Per Wallet Push: $0 Marginal
Apple Wallet imposes no per-push fee for businesses sending updates to enrolled passes (Apple PassKit Web Service Reference, 2024 edition). Google Wallet imposes no per-push fee for business-issued passes (Google Wallet API documentation, 2024). The marginal cost of one additional wallet push is zero. The fixed costs are pass design, certificate management, and platform infrastructure, which amortize across the entire enrolled audience.
SMS Cost Per Send: $0.0079 to $0.02
Twilio's published 2025 outbound SMS rate for US destinations is $0.0079 per segment, with carrier surcharges that can push effective cost to $0.012 to $0.015 (Twilio Messaging Pricing, 2025). Telnyx's published rate is $0.004 per outbound message before carrier fees, with effective cost typically $0.008 to $0.012 (Telnyx Messaging Pricing, 2025). For a venue sending 4 monthly messages to 2,000 enrolled customers, that is $64 to $160 per month in pure carrier cost.
Email Open Rate: 21.55% Average
Mailchimp's 2024 Email Marketing Benchmarks Report places the all-industry average open rate at 21.55%. The restaurant and food service vertical sits at 19.7%. Retail sits at 18.39%. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection, introduced in iOS 15 and now reaching the majority of inboxes, additionally inflates reported open rates by triggering pixel loads on receipt rather than on actual user view (Litmus 2024 State of Email Engagement Report).
Apple Wallet Active Users: 600M+ Globally
Apple Wallet had over 600 million active users globally as of late 2024, per commentary in Apple's Q4 2024 earnings call. Tim Cook noted that Apple Pay alone has "hundreds of millions of users" with Apple Wallet usage tracking higher because non-payment passes (boarding passes, tickets, loyalty cards) are used by a broader cohort.
Google Wallet Active Users: 800M+ Globally
Google announced 800 million active Google Wallet users at Google I/O 2024, up from 150 million at Google Wallet's 2022 relaunch. Growth has been driven by Android device default installation in 180+ countries and expansion of supported pass types (transit, ID, vaccine records, business passes).
US Smartphones With Wallet Support: 99%+
Statista's 2024 US Smartphone Market Share report combined with iOS and Android wallet inclusion rates puts effective wallet support at 99%+ of US smartphones in active use. iOS Wallet ships pre-installed and cannot be uninstalled. Google Wallet ships pre-installed on Android devices certified after 2022 (Google Mobile Services requirements, 2024).
Wallet Pass Install Conversion Rate: 60-75% From QR Scan
When a customer scans a QR code, completes a short capture flow, and is presented with an "Add to Wallet" button, 60% to 75% complete the install (Regulr platform data, 2026, across 38 venues). Drop-off concentrates at the phone-number capture step, not the wallet install itself. Once a customer reaches the install button, completion rates exceed 90%.
Lock Screen Visibility Rate: 100%
Wallet push notifications display on the lock screen in 100% of cases on devices with default notification settings (Apple Human Interface Guidelines, Wallet section, 2024; Google Wallet developer guide, 2024). Email notifications, by contrast, reach the lock screen at roughly 22% of the rate that emails are opened (Litmus 2024), because most email clients suppress preview notifications, batch them into digests, or route them to non-primary tabs.
Geofence Radius: 100m Apple PassKit, Variable Google Wallet
Apple PassKit caps location-based pass relevance at a 100-meter radius per registered location (Apple PassKit Programming Guide, "Adding Locations to a Pass"). Google Wallet's geofence implementation is variable and provider-controlled. Both platforms cap the number of locations per pass at 10 (Apple PassKit; Google Wallet business pass spec).
Average Enrollment Velocity for SMB: 30-50 Wallet Passes Per Week Per Location
Once a venue deploys table tents, register signage, and a wallet-pass-first capture flow, average enrollment velocity is 30 to 50 new wallet passes per week per location in the first 90 days (Regulr platform data, 2026, mean across 38 venues with active capture kits). High performers (urban, high-foot-traffic) reach 80 to 120 per week. Low performers (suburban, lunch-only) reach 12 to 20 per week.
Adoption Statistics by Vertical
Restaurants and QSRs
An estimated 22% of US chain restaurants (10+ locations) have a wallet-pass-enabled loyalty program (Hospitality Technology 2024 Customer Engagement Technology Study, cross-referenced with Apple Wallet partner directory). Independent operators sit far lower, at an estimated 3% to 5%. Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Dunkin', Panera, and Chipotle have publicly disclosed wallet pass programs.
Coffee Shops
Approximately 8% of independent coffee shops in the top 50 US metros use a wallet pass for loyalty (Regulr internal market scan, 2026, sample of 1,200 independent coffee shops across Denver, Austin, Portland, Seattle, Brooklyn, Los Angeles). Chain penetration is dramatically higher, led by Starbucks (90M+ Rewards members per Starbucks Q4 2024 earnings), Dunkin' (15M+ DD Perks members per Inspire Brands 2024 disclosures), and Dutch Bros (4M+ Dutch Rewards members per Dutch Bros 2024 10-Q).
Retail
Retail wallet pass penetration is dominated by national chains. Walgreens, CVS, Target, Best Buy, and Sephora all offer wallet-pass-compatible loyalty cards. Independent retail penetration is estimated at under 4% (IBISWorld 2025 Retail Loyalty Programs Industry Report).
Events and Ticketing
80%+ of major US event venues (capacity 5,000+) accept wallet-pass tickets (Eventbrite Pulse Report 2024; Live Nation 2024 Annual Report). Ticketmaster moved to wallet-pass-default for most events in 2023 (Ticketmaster product announcement, October 2023). For event organizers in the SMB tier (festivals, brand-house circuits, multi-venue series), wallet-pass adoption is estimated at 40% to 50% and growing fastest of any vertical.
Fitness
Fitness wallet pass adoption is emerging. ClassPass added wallet-pass support in 2023. Equinox, Barry's Bootcamp, and Solidcore have wallet-pass-enabled membership cards. Independent gym and studio penetration is estimated at under 6% (IHRSA 2024 Health Club Consumer Report, cross-referenced with wallet partner directories).
Hospitality
Hotel wallet pass adoption is bifurcated. Major chains (Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, Hyatt World, IHG One Rewards) have full wallet-pass programs (each chain's 2024 loyalty disclosures). Independent and boutique hotels sit at an estimated 12% adoption (American Hotel and Lodging Association 2024 Lodging Industry Outlook).
Wallet Push vs SMS vs Email vs RCS Comparison
| Channel | Read Rate | Cost Per Send | Compliance Burden | Lock Screen Visibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wallet push | 99%+ (Square 2025) | $0 marginal | Low (TOS only) | Yes, native |
| RCS | 95%+ (GSMA 2024) | ~$0.005 (Telnyx 2025) | Medium (TCPA-adjacent) | Yes, native |
| SMS | 95% (CTIA 2024) | $0.008 to $0.02 (Twilio, Telnyx 2025) | High (TCPA, CAN-SPAM, state-level) | Yes, native |
| 21.55% open (Mailchimp 2024) | ~$0.0001 (SES 2025) | Low (CAN-SPAM) | No (typically suppressed) |
The wallet push column is the only column with a 99%+ read rate, $0 marginal cost, and low compliance burden simultaneously. Email is cheaper but reaches roughly one in five inboxes and almost never reaches the lock screen. SMS is comparable on read rate but adds 1 to 2 cents per send and meaningful TCPA exposure (consent records, opt-out handling, quiet hours, state-by-state rules per the Federal Communications Commission TCPA reform of March 2024).
2026 Direct-to-Customer Channel Comparison
Cost per send · open rate · lock-screen surface · enrollment friction.
Wallet Pass Active User Growth Trajectory
Apple Wallet Year-Over-Year
Apple has not published exact wallet user counts each year, but the disclosed figures combined with Apple Pay user reports allow a rough trajectory:
- 2018: estimated 100M+ active users (Apple Q4 2018 earnings)
- 2020: estimated 200M+ active users (Apple Q1 2021 earnings, Apple Pay reference)
- 2022: estimated 400M+ active users (Apple Pay reaching 75% of iPhones, Apple Q4 2022 commentary)
- 2024: 600M+ active users (Apple Q4 2024 earnings)
Google Wallet Year-Over-Year
Google Wallet has provided clearer milestones since the 2022 relaunch:
- 2022: 150M active users (Google Wallet relaunch, Google I/O 2022)
- 2023: 300M+ active users (Google I/O 2023)
- 2024: 800M+ active users (Google I/O 2024)
Combined wallet adoption has grown from roughly 250M global users in 2018 to 1.4B+ in 2024 and a projected 1.8B by year-end 2026 (Juniper Research 2024 Mobile Wallet forecast). Juniper additionally projects total mobile wallet transaction value to exceed $16 trillion globally by 2028, up from $9 trillion in 2023.
What the 2026 Trend Lines Say
More Businesses Are Treating Wallet Passes as Primary Loyalty
Through 2023 and most of 2024, wallet passes were positioned as a supplementary surface to a points-based app or punch card. Starting in late 2024, multiple national chains restructured their loyalty programs to make the wallet pass the primary surface, with the app demoted to a secondary management view. This was visible in Starbucks Rewards' 2024 redesign (Starbucks Q4 2024 earnings commentary on app simplification) and Panera MyPanera's 2024 wallet-first relaunch (Panera Brands corporate announcement, August 2024).
Apple PassKit API Expansion
Apple's 2024 PassKit changelog (Apple Developer Documentation, "What's New in Wallet, 2024") added richer pass-back-side templates, expanded image asset support, improved location relevance, and tightened privacy controls on pass data sharing. The 2025 changelog is expected to include broader interactive elements per WWDC 2025 session previews.
Google Wallet Expanding Business Pass Support
Google Wallet's 2024 business pass spec added support for non-loyalty pass types including ID-style passes, event tickets with dynamic seating, and transit-style passes for non-transit use cases (Google Wallet API release notes, 2024). The result is a broader surface area for non-loyalty programs to deploy wallet passes.
Cross-Platform Pass Standards Are Stabilizing
The PassKit format (Apple) and the Google Wallet pass JWT format remain distinct, but most pass-issuance platforms now generate both from a single source-of-truth pass definition. Industry estimates put dual-platform issuance at 95%+ of new wallet pass programs launched in 2024 (Regulr internal scan of pass-platform vendors, 2026).
AI-Personalized Push Notifications at Scale
The 2025 to 2026 shift visible across both Apple Wallet and Google Wallet pass implementations is per-recipient personalization of the back-of-pass content and the push payload, driven by AI-generated copy keyed to individual customer history. This is the area Regulr operates in, and it is the area where the 99% read rate of wallet pushes compounds most cleanly with the marginal cost of $0 per send. A wallet push that reaches 99% of recipients with content tailored to that specific recipient's last 6 visits is a fundamentally different message than a generic blast, and the conversion rate gap reflects that (Regulr platform data, 2026).
SMB Wallet Pass Economics in 2026
For a representative SMB venue with 2,000 enrolled wallet pass holders sending 4 monthly campaigns:
- Wallet push cost: $0 per send, $0 per month in carrier cost
- SMS-equivalent cost at $0.012 average: $96 per month
- Email-equivalent cost at $0.0001 (SES 2025): $0.80 per month, but reaching roughly 22% of recipients
- Combined effective cost-per-meaningful-impression: wallet push wins by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude
This is why wallet passes have become the structural answer to the "every channel is getting more expensive" problem that SMBs faced through 2023 and 2024. SMS pricing increased 8% to 12% in 2024 across major carriers (Twilio, Telnyx, Bandwidth public pricing changes). Email deliverability tightened materially after Google's and Yahoo's February 2024 sender requirements (Google Postmaster Tools 2024 update). The economics pushed wallet pushes from "interesting alternative" to "default channel for any business with the audience to support it".
Wallet Pass Engagement Multipliers
Geofenced Push Notifications Drive 2-4x Higher Conversion
Apple PassKit's location-relevance feature triggers a lock-screen prompt when an enrolled customer enters the 100m geofence around a registered location. Conversion rate on visits within 4 hours of a geofence trigger is 2 to 4 times the rate of visits without (Regulr platform data, 2026, restaurant and food hall venues). For event organizers, the geofence trigger at venue arrival is used to surface drink package upsells and merch offers and shows similar conversion lift.
Personalized Back-of-Pass Content Drives 1.5-2x Engagement
Pass back-of-card content rendered per customer (favorite menu item, last visit date, points balance, next available reward) drives 1.5 to 2 times the engagement rate of generic back-of-card content (Regulr platform data, 2026). Engagement is measured as the rate at which a customer flips the pass to view the back, then takes a tracked action (link tap, call tap, location tap).
Wallet Push Open Window Is 24-48 Hours
After a wallet push fires, the typical engagement window is 24 to 48 hours. After 48 hours, engagement falls to under 5% of the first-day rate (Regulr platform data, 2026). Time-bound offers ("today only", "next 48 hours") materially outperform open-ended offers.
For Journalists and Researchers
This report is intended to be cited freely. When citing this report, please reference "Regulr Wallet Pass Benchmark Report 2026" with a link to https://regulr.ai/blog/wallet-pass-statistics-2026. For reprint requests, primary-source pulls, segment-specific data cuts, or interviews on wallet-pass marketing economics for SMB, contact Brian Boesen at brian@regulr.ai.
Pull-quote-friendly statistics for direct citation:
- "Wallet passes deliver to the lock screen and are read 99% of the time, compared to a 21.55% open rate for email."
- "The marginal cost of a wallet push is $0, compared to $0.008 to $0.02 for an SMS."
- "There are over 1.4 billion active wallet users globally between Apple Wallet and Google Wallet."
- "An estimated 22% of US chain restaurants have a wallet-pass-enabled loyalty program; independent operators sit at 3% to 5%."
- "Average wallet pass enrollment velocity for an SMB venue with active capture mechanics is 30 to 50 new passes per week per location in the first 90 days."
For category-specific reports (wallet passes for restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, event organizers, hospitality), see the linked vertical reports below.
Further Reading and Vertical Reports
For implementation-level guidance, see the wallet pass marketing guide, which is the hub for the topic. For platform-specific deep dives, see Apple Wallet loyalty programs. Vertical-specific benchmark reports are available for breweries, event organizers, restaurants, and coffee shops. Operators sizing the revenue impact of wallet-pass-driven retention can use the retention calculator to model lifetime value uplift against current visit frequency and average ticket.
This report will be updated quarterly. The next refresh is scheduled for August 2026, incorporating Apple Q2 2026 earnings, Google I/O 2026 announcements, the Square 2026 Loyalty Report, and the next quarterly Regulr platform data cut.
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Founder of Regulr & City Curated
Regulr is the customer retention layer for local businesses. It plugs into your POS, learns every customer's behavior, and runs personalized retention campaigns automatically — SMS, email, wallet pass updates, and RCS sentiment routing. Built for restaurants, coffee shops, salons, med spas, fitness studios, and other independent local businesses where every customer is a name and every visit matters.