GOV.UK Pay replaces Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen in a £25.3M deal

The UK's Government Digital Service (GDS) has replaced Stripe with Dutch provider Adyen as the payment processor for many transactions made through its GOV.UK Pay service. The contract runs for three years and is worth up to £25.3 million.

What the contract covers

Under the deal, Adyen takes over GOV.UK Pay card payments for local authorities, police forces and armed forces units, as well as pay by bank services. According to the tender notice published in February 2025, the contract covers around 17 percent of payments made through GOV.UK Pay but more than 70 percent of the organisations using it, and includes the only option that lets a body start taking payments within one working day. At that stage the estimated maximum value was £49 million, with no guarantees over volume.

Around 1,000 services to migrate

In a blogpost about the contract award on 2 June, GDS said it will migrate around 1,000 services to the new supplier. Alan Maddrell, senior content designer for the service, wrote that the migration will be made as straightforward as possible while complying with Know Your Customer legislation, and that "most importantly, there will be no discernible difference for paying users and no loss in functionality."

The change of supplier also opens the way to new options, including pay by bank, which moves money directly between bank accounts using open banking services and removes the need to type in card details. GDS will continue to use WorldPay to process payments for central government, linked organisations and NHS bodies.

Why GOV.UK Pay exists

GDS established GOV.UK Pay so that public services would not have to build their own online payment systems. The service does not charge organisations beyond passing on transaction fees. According to its performance data, GOV.UK Pay has processed 137.5 million transactions worth around £9.2 billion since it was set up in 2016. It currently supports 1,718 services, including 662 for local government and 256 for police forces, across 608 organisations that range from the 1079 (Tiverton) Squadron RAF Air Cadets to Yeovil Town Council.