In 2015, Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko launched a UK app with one narrow promise: cheaper, faster money abroad than the high street banks offered. A decade on, the Standard account is still free.
Yet Revolut reported £1.7bn in profit before tax for 2025.
Both things are true at once, which is why founders keep asking: how does Revolut make money? This piece follows the company from travel card to super-app, covering the Revolut business model, the Revolut revenue streams behind it and the pressures that come with growth at this speed.
From Travel Card to Super-App
Storonsky and Yatsenko founded Revolut in the UK in 2015, offering transfers and foreign exchange that were faster and cheaper than those of legacy banks.
The first product was narrow.
Storonsky launched it to change how people spend and send money abroad.
A decade later, the range is wide. Revolut now covers spending, saving, investing and borrowing for retail and business customers. It ended 2025 with 68.3 million retail customers and 767,000 business customers.
The origin still shows in the accounts. Foreign exchange, where the company started, earned £606m in 2025.
How Does Revolut Make Money?
Mostly through fees. Fee income supplied 76% of 2025 turnover, while interest income added 21.6%. The fees come from card payments, subscriptions, wealth products and foreign exchange.
The interest comes from the cash, Treasury investments and loans on its balance sheet.
The scale is large.
Group revenue reached £4.5bn ($6.0bn) in 2025, up 46% from £3.1bn.
Revolut Revenue Streams Explained
Five of Revolut’s largest revenue streams in 2025 were card payments, interest income, subscriptions, wealth and foreign exchange. Revolut Business, a separate segment, accounted for 16% of total income.
Card payments rest on interchange, the fee a merchant’s bank pays the card issuer each time a card is used.
Regulators limit it: UK rules set caps of 0.2% for consumer debit and 0.3% for credit on domestic transactions, and the EU applies similar caps under its own rules.
Interest income works differently.
It comes from the whole balance sheet, customer balances and loans included, which is why it grew 23% as balances climbed.
Revolut Subscription Revenue: What Paid Plans Add
The free card was the hook.
The paid plans are the upsell. Revolut subscription revenue reached £708m in 2025, up 67% from £423m, while paid plan adoption grew 42%.
For new UK customers, as of 26 October 2026, personal plans cost £3.99 a month for Plus, £8.99 for Premium, £16.99 for Metal and £60 for Ultra. Existing customers move to the new prices from 19 December 2026. It is the first increase since early 2024.
The plans also change what customers pay elsewhere.
Standard includes £1,000 of currency exchange a month, with a 1% fair usage fee above that. Plus allows £3,000 at 0.5%. Premium, Metal and Ultra have no exchange limit.
The Revolut Business Model: From Free Account to Cross-Sold Super-App
The Revolut business model starts with a free Standard account and layers paid plans, wealth products, borrowing and business accounts on top.
So where does the money come from on a customer who never pays a subscription? Card spending generates interchange revenue, while balances and other balance-sheet assets feed interest income.
Revolut reported £974m in interest income in 2025, alongside £1.0bn from card payments.
Engagement rises with use. During 2025 the average customer held 11% more in their current account, made 24% more transactions, saved 11% more and invested 24% more. Customers also bring each other: more than 63% of new retail customers in 2025 joined through word of mouth or referrals.
Revolut’s 2025 Results in Numbers
Revolut reported 2025 revenue of £4.5bn, profit before tax of £1.7bn and net profit of £1.3bn, its fifth consecutive year of net profitability.
The profit before tax margin rose to 38% from 35% in 2024. Retail customers grew 30% to 68.3 million, business customers grew 33% to 767,000, and total customer balances rose 66% to £50.2bn.
Eleven product lines each cleared £100m in revenue. Card payments, the largest line, supplied 22.2% of the total, and subscriptions supplied 15.7%.
Storonsky said “multi-engine platform provides the structural resilience to navigate any environment”.
Risks and Pressures Behind the Model
Regulation and security remain the main risks.
In April 2025, the Bank of Lithuania fined Revolut Bank €3.5m for deficiencies in its anti-money-laundering controls.
The regulator found weaknesses in how the bank monitored transactions and identified suspicious activity, but did not establish that money laundering had occurred.
The UK route was long. Revolut applied for a banking licence in 2021, received one with restrictions in July 2024, and saw the Prudential Regulation Authority lift those restrictions in March 2026.
UK customers are moving to the new bank gradually.
Security has also drawn scrutiny.
In September 2026, Revolut confirmed that a third party impersonating a government agency had obtained customer information through fraudulent requests. It said a limited number of customers were affected and that its systems and customer funds were unaffected.
What UK Founders Can Learn from Revolut
UK founders can take three lessons from Revolut: solve one sharp problem first, add revenue lines deliberately, and treat regulation as part of the product.
- Start narrow: Revolut began with transfers and foreign exchange that were cheaper and faster than those of legacy banks, and earned its right to expand.
- Add revenue lines deliberately: Eleven product lines now earn more than £100m each, so no single line carries the business.
- Treat regulation as part of the product: The UK banking process ran from a 2021 application to March 2026, a wait most startups can’t fund without a plan.
FAQs
1. Is Revolut free?
Yes, the Standard plan has no monthly fee, although limits and fees apply, including a 1% fair usage fee on currency exchange above £1,000 a month. Paid plans start at £3.99 a month.
2. Is Revolut profitable?
Yes, It reported its fifth consecutive year of net profitability in 2025, with net profit of £1.3bn and profit before tax of £1.7bn. The profit before tax margin was 38%, up from 35% in 2024.
3. How much money does Revolut make?
Revolut generated £4.5bn ($6.0bn) in revenue in 2025, up 46% from £3.1bn, and £1.7bn in profit before tax. Card payments were the largest single line at 22.2% of revenue.
Sources: Revolut Annual Report 2025 and results release (24 March 2026); Revolut UK fees page (as of 26 October 2026); Revolut company page; Payment Systems Regulator; FinTech Futures (April 2025); Tech.eu (March 2026); TechCrunch (September 2026). USD figures are Revolut’s illustrative conversions. Figures reflect the most recent available data at the time of writing.
The EP+ Editorial Desk covers UK startups, founder stories, and venture capital. All editorial content is independently produced and human-reviewed before publication.
