How much does real-name identity verification cost?
Identity-verification cost depends on the fact the service must prove. Do not automatically stack identity-record matching, phone matching, bank-card checks, liveness, and face comparison. First establish why the business needs real-name verification; then Wavesteam designs the least intrusive level that meets that purpose and calculates its actual billable volume. When a non-face method achieves the same purpose, face scanning should not be the only option.
A name and national ID match shows whether submitted fields agree with an authoritative source; it does not prove the person at the screen is the subject. A phone-factor check concerns the relationship among the number and identity fields. Liveness plus face comparison attempts to establish that the current operator resembles a target identity. Bank-card factors concern a financial-account relationship and should not be treated as an automatic fourth layer for every financial workflow.
| Method | What it can establish | What it cannot establish | Typical cost | Default recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name and ID match | Submitted identity fields agree | Current operator is the subject | Per check, with supplier failure rules | Use when field consistency is sufficient |
| Phone factors | Number and identity fields agree | Continuing personal control of the phone | Carrier-data check, per use or tier | Use only when the number relationship matters |
| Bank-card factors | Card and registered identity information agree | Transaction intent or continuing presence | Channel call and bank coverage | Assess separately under payment rules |
| Liveness plus client-supplied photo | Live capture resembles the supplied photo | Photo is an authoritative identity source | SDK/H5, liveness, comparison | Use only with a lawful existing photo source |
| Liveness plus authoritative source | Live capture agrees with authoritative identity data | Every later action is by the same person | Identity call, channel, risk, manual fallback | Reserve for necessary high-risk scenarios |
As of August 25, 2026, Tencent Cloud's official face-verification pricing lists both prepaid and postpaid products. The displayed postpaid examples include CNY 1.50 per Plus authoritative-source verification, CNY 0.60 for client-supplied-photo verification, CNY 0.30 for identity-information two-factor verification, and CNY 0.40 for phone-information two-factor verification. These are dated examples from one supplier, not market rates; product, channel, volume, and package can change them.
Use Σ(actual billable calls by verification type × current tier rate) + integration and maintenance + manual review + compliance and security. Confirm whether success, failure, duplicates, and retries consume credit and include unused prepaid package expiry.
When defining budget, scope, and cost assumptions, also compare Why does Wavesteam set a CNY 50,000 starting budget for custom projects? and How much does a custom app cost?; the linked guidance adds context that should be considered in the same decision.
Verify only when the business purpose requires it
Ordinary browsing, enquiry, or low-risk features usually do not justify universal real-name verification. A lawful trigger may occur before withdrawal, contracting, a regulated service, account recovery, or a high-risk change. Whether a previous result may be reused depends on purpose, retention, changed risk, and supplier terms—not a desire to store ID and face images indefinitely to save calls.
China's Measures for the Security Management of Facial Recognition Technology Applications, effective June 1, 2025, require a specific purpose, sufficient necessity, and a method with minimum impact, together with a personal-information protection impact assessment. When another non-face method achieves the same purpose, face recognition may not be the sole route. Specified storage volumes can also trigger filing obligations.
The comparison must therefore include alternative verification, separate consent and notice where required, minimum retention, encryption, access audit, deletion, impact assessment, and human appeal. A supplier's advertised accuracy is not the product's acceptance result. Test relevant devices and representative users for completion, false rejection, attack handling, and manual fallback.
Wavesteam records requests, billable calls, outcomes, errors, retries, P95 completion, abandonment, manual review, and cost per successfully verified user. With the client's legal and business owners, we document the basis and recommend the minimum level. The client owns the provider account; we integrate and protect credentials, errors, throttles, monitoring, and fallback without adding face or bank checks merely to increase integration work.