Cash remains “important to many people” with £76 billion withdrawn from ATMs last year, according to cash machine network Link.
Figures from the ATM and cash access network show £76.7 billion was withdrawn from Link ATMs in 2025, with 1.27 billion transactions recorded across the year.
Compared with 2024, this represents a 4% decline in the value of withdrawals (£80.0 billion) and a fall of around 8% in the number of transactions (1.39 billion).
Link transactions represent 77% of the UK’s ATM transactions, most of the remainder being where consumers use their own bank or building society’s ATMs, the cash machine provider said.
The average ATM withdrawal value in 2025 was just over £90, according to Link’s figures.
The busiest day at Link’s ATMs in 2025 was on December 19 when £355 million was withdrawn.
Link had previously said it expected Christmas Eve to be the busiest day of 2025, but in the end it recorded £353 million in withdrawals on that day – just below the December 19 figure.
Historically, the busiest day for cash machines on the Link network was December 22 2017, when £766 million was withdrawn.
Graham Mott, director of strategy, Link, said that despite the “overall downward trend” in cash withdrawals annually: “Cash remains important to many people and £76 billion was still withdrawn from Link ATMs last year.
“People may be visiting cash machines less often and some are relying exclusively on a digital wallet on their phone, but cash continues to be a vital budgeting tool for many.
“It remains an essential and resilient payment choice for millions.”
The figures also show that there were 42,403 Link ATMs in December, down by around 5% compared with 44,569 in December 2024.
Within the latest total, 33,710 ATMs were free for consumers to use and 8,693 were charging.
Back in 2010, 21,687 Link ATMs were pay-to-use and 41,581 were free-to-use.
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