AML Screening Cost 2026
The cost of PEP, sanctions and adverse media screening alongside KYC, on a per-check basis. Verified rates from Veriff, Sumsub, Shufti Pro and iDenfy. Ongoing monitoring priced separately.
What AML screening actually covers
- PEP (Politically Exposed Persons) lists: domestic and foreign government officials, senior executives of state-owned enterprises, their close family and associates.
- Sanctions lists: OFAC SDN (US), UN consolidated, EU consolidated, UK OFSI, plus jurisdiction-specific lists.
- Adverse media screening: news mentions flagging the applicant as connected to financial crime, terrorism financing, corruption, etc.
- Watchlist hits: regulatory enforcement actions, debarred persons, internal blacklists.
The level of false-positive friction varies widely. Strict-match screening hits many John Smiths; fuzzy match with date-of-birth disambiguation reduces noise but requires the underlying biographic data. Some vendors include the disambiguation, others charge for it.
Published per-check AML rates
| Vendor | AML model | Per-check rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veriff | Per-check add-on | $0.64 | On top of Essential ($0.80) base rate |
| iDenfy | Per-check add-on (tier-dependent) | $0.50 / $0.45 / $0.40 | Basic / Premium / Enterprise |
| Sumsub | Bundled in Compliance tier | $1.85 all-in | $299/mo minimum; includes ongoing monitoring |
| Shufti Pro | Bundled in Essentials | $0.95 all-in | Up to 20,000/mo on Essentials |
| Didit | Per-module quote | $0.02-$2.00 module range | Specific AML module rate requires vendor quote |
Ongoing AML monitoring (per existing customer per month)
This is a separate cost line from new-applicant screening. Once a customer is onboarded, regulated firms must rescreen them periodically (or continuously) against PEP, sanctions and adverse-media changes. Pricing:
- Sumsub bundles ongoing AML monitoring into Compliance ($1.85 + $299/mo minimum) without a separate per-entity charge. This is the cleanest commercial when you have a large book.
- Veriff charges $0.09 per ongoing check. The check frequency drives the per-customer-per-month rate.
- Quote-only vendors (Onfido/Entrust, Persona, Jumio, Trulioo, Alloy, Plaid) do not publicly disclose ongoing-monitoring rates. Pricing is bundled into the multi-year contract or quoted per engagement. Ask the vendor for the explicit per-entity per-month rate.
The bundled vs add-on decision
Run the maths on your specific AML-attach rate. If you screen AML on 100% of applicants (typical for regulated finance, crypto, gaming) then bundled-tier pricing is usually cheaper at scale because it amortises the AML cost into one tier upgrade. Sumsub Compliance ($1.85) beats Veriff Essential + AML ($1.44) at high AML volumes only when ongoing monitoring is needed; without ongoing, Veriff wins.
If you screen AML on a subset (e.g. enhanced due diligence only for high-risk applicants in a step-up workflow) then per-check add-on pricing wins because you do not pay the tier premium on the cheap-screen applicants.
Worked example: 10,000 applicants, 100% AML
Acme Crypto Co. (illustrative example, not a real company) needs KYC + AML on 10,000 applicants per month.
Above ~20,000 verifications per month Shufti Pro pushes you to Enterprise (custom pricing). Veriff and Sumsub will negotiate. iDenfy Premium drops to $1.30 base + $0.45 AML = $1.75 above the $325 minimum, which can edge Sumsub on Compliance at scale.
The regulatory baseline
Most regulated firms' AML obligations derive from FATF Recommendation 10 (Customer Due Diligence) and Recommendation 22 (CDD for DNFBPs). See the FATF Recommendations. Local implementations include FinCEN's CDD rule in the US, the FCA Handbook SYSC 6.3 in the UK, and the EU AMLR. None of these regulations specify a per-check cost, but they do impose obligations that translate into the AML module spend.