Passkey Enrollment Rate

What is the Passkey Enrollment Rate?#

Passkey Enrollment Rate (PER) (also often called Passkey Activation Rate or Passkey Creation Rate) measures how often users who are offered a chance to create a passkey actually complete enrollment. It is the gateway metric for passkey adoption because enrollment is the moment users get access to faster sign in and stronger account protection. Simply providing passkeys as an option does not guarantee adoption. Users rarely seek out new login methods by themselves.

Where does the Passkey Enrollment Rate fit in the login funnel?#

We measure Passkey Enrollment Rate across the enrollment funnel that starts when a user is shown an enrollment offer (e.g. screen with "Do you want to create a passkey?") and ends when the passkey is successfully registered to the user account. Measurement boundary: from Passkey Offer shown to Passkey enrolled within the chosen time window.

Passkey enrollment can happen in several contexts. The most effective is the post-login nudge where users are prompted to create a passkey immediately after authenticating with a non-passkey method. Companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft rely heavily on this approach. Other contexts include signup flows, after password reset, settings pages or in-app banners.

Passive approaches like offering the passkey creation in the account settings alone yield very low enrollment rates, while post-login prompts can reach significantly higher acceptance. For a comprehensive guide on nudge strategies, see our passkey creation best practices.

How to calculate the Passkey Enrollment Rate?#

We calculate Passkey Enrollment Rate per unique user. Each user is counted at most once in the numerator and denominator for the selected window, for example ever enrolled or enrolled within 30 days of first offer.

Enrolled Users is the number of unique users who completed passkey registration. Users offered Passkey Opportunity is the number of unique users who were actually shown an offer that could lead to passkey enrollment.

Numerator: Enrolled Users#

Count a user when Passkey Enrollment completed is logged and the credential is registered to the account. If a user enrolls on multiple devices, we still count only one enrolled user. Do not count starts, client side creation without server registration or failed attempts.

Denominator: Users offered Passkey Opportunity#

Count a user when Passkey Offer shown is logged, meaning the user could realistically proceed. Do not count users who were only eligible in theory, users on unsupported devices or users who never saw the offer due to rendering or delivery issues.

How to use Passkey Enrollment Rate to improve outcomes#

Passkey Enrollment Rate (PER) tells you one thing:
When users see a real offer to create a passkey, how many actually finish creating it?

Use PER to decide where to place prompts, how to message value and what to fix in the enrollment flow so more users end up with a passkey.

What the Passkey Enrollment Rate helps you improve

• More successful sign-ins (more passkey usage later)

  • If PER is low in an important cohort (e.g. repeat buyers, high-LTV users), your prompt timing or placement is probably wrong.
  • Action: test where you ask (post-login usually wins) and how you explain the benefit of passkeys

• Less drop-off during enrollment

  • If many users see the offer but don’t start, the offer isn’t compelling or clear.
  • Action: simplify the screen, reduce anxiety (e.g. "it only takes one tap") and make the benefit obvious (e.g. “faster login next time”).

• Fewer support tickets

  • If users start but don’t complete, it’s often platform-specific issues, confusing errors or weak retry UX.
  • Action: improve error messages, add retry paths, handle OS/browser edge cases and show “what to do next”.

• Lower OTP / reset costs

  • More enrolled users usually means fewer password resets and fewer OTP sends over time.
  • Action: increase PER in flows that reach lots of users (especially post-login).

• Lower fraud exposure

  • If risky users aren’t enrolling, you’re missing the chance to harden accounts.
  • Action: prioritize enrollment prompts for higher-risk segments (with care to avoid annoying everyone).

Blindspots and common pitfalls of Passkey Enrollment Rate#

• Intent bias: Users who see the offer are not random, especially if we only prompt after certain behaviors, so the rate can look healthier than true population readiness.
• Missing telemetry: If Passkey Offer Shown is not logged consistently across clients, the denominator shrinks and the rate inflates.
• Platform differences: Mobile users typically show higher acceptance rates than desktop users. A shift in traffic mix can move the KPI without any UX improvement.
• Nudge type conflation: Comparing enrollment rates across different nudge types without segmentation is misleading. Post-login prompts perform very differently from settings page offers.
• Skip and cooldown logic: If users skip an offer, how long before they see another matters. Too aggressive prompting causes frustration, too passive means missed opportunities.
• Window confusion: Ever enrolled and enrolled within 30 days answer different questions, mixing them breaks trend interpretation.