A possible fee of 5 euros per year is coming: the Poste case, the precedents of the other providers and the government’s strategy between Cie and IT Wallet
Towards the farewell of free spid also for Poste Italiane. It is the digital identity of over 20 million Italians and in fact Poste is the leader of the sector, covering about 70% of the market. But now change of course. The company would be evaluating the introduction of an annual fee of about 5 euros, which would translate into a turnover of around 100 million euros in a transformation market, where several providers have already introduced rates for users. And the question is intertwined with the government’s strategies that aims at a progressive disengagement from the Spid, pushing towards the electronic identity card (CIE) and the IT Wallet.
SPID for a fee: the case placed and the precedents on the market
The hypothesis of a canon on the SPID of Post Office comes after several private managers have introduced rates in recent months to have or renewed the digital identity. Aruba has set the price at 4.90 euros plus VAT, infocert for 5.98 euros, while Register asks for 9.90 euros including VAT. Some free suppliers are currently active, but the trend seems clear: costs, at least in part, fall on citizens. Among the reasons that push and pushed to the canon there is the relationship between the managers and the state. At the end of 2022, in fact, the conventions that regulated economic relations with the providers expired. An office extension guaranteed the continuity of the service until April 2023. But the node of funding has remained unsolved for almost two years. Only in March 2025 the release of 40 million euros promised by the government arrived. Too late to avoid the canons.
Digital identity in Italy: the government’s strategy between Cie and It Wallet
The government’s goal is clear and declared: to retire the spid by focusing on Cie and it Wallet. The electronic identity card is in fact growing constantly: it has gone from 5.5 million activations in 2024 to over 7.3 million in 2025. And at the same time the IT Wallet, the digital portfolio integrated in the app, exceeded 10 million documents uploaded in less than a year. Today it can collect license, health card, European health insurance and disability document, but there will be an expansion, also to harmonize with the future European digital wallet expected by 2026. The arrival of the Spid of Post Payment, therefore, is part of a phase of change that does not only concern the costs for citizens, but the very future of digital identity in Italy.
