Cash was 19% of in-person payments by number and 16% by value in Australia in 2025 on Reserve Bank figures, so a hospitality till taking much more than one dollar in six in notes is running above the national benchmark.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and takeaways in Australia and New Zealand, and phone orders are where cash still turns up most. This page gives you the measured national benchmark from the Reserve Bank's 2025 Consumer Payments Survey, the four steps to work out your own venue's share from a month of reports, what to do if your number is well above or well below, and what Australia's new cash acceptance mandate does and does not require of a cafe.
The benchmark comes from the Reserve Bank's 2025 Consumer Payments Survey, published on 20 April 2026. These are the four figures to check yourself against.
| Measure | Cash share, 2025 |
|---|---|
| All consumer payments, by number | about 15% |
| All consumer payments, by value | about 8% |
| In-person payments, by number | 19% |
| In-person payments, by value | 16% |
In-person is the row that matters to a venue, because almost nothing you take is remote. So the benchmark for a hospitality till is roughly one payment in five by count, and one dollar in six by value.
For food retail specifically, meaning dining out and takeaway, the RBA's commentary on its own graph reads as cash use falling to around 20 per cent by 2025. That is the RBA describing a chart rather than publishing a point estimate, so use it as a shape and not as a measurement. It sits just above the all-sectors in-person figure, which is what you would expect of a sector with a lot of small payments.
Two more numbers from the same survey that explain who is handing you the notes. Around one in four payments under A$10 were made in cash, and 27% of the very smallest in-person transactions. And about 7% of respondents were high cash users, meaning they used cash for at least 80% of their transactions, which the RBA puts at roughly 1.5 million adults who rely mainly on cash.
Four steps, and it takes about ten minutes with a month of end-of-day reports.
A worked example, with the inputs on show so you can swap them. A cafe takes A$62,000 in a month, of which A$9,300 is cash. That is 15.0% by value, a shade under the national in-person figure of 16%. On 7,400 transactions, 1,780 cash gives 24.1% by count against a national 19%, which says the venue has a high share of small cash purchases, typical of counter trade and morning coffee.
Both directions tell you something, and neither is automatically bad.
Much higher than 16% by value. Usually counter trade, an older or more local customer base, a venue in a suburb or town rather than a CBD, or a price point under A$10 where the RBA's one-in-four figure bites. The operational consequences are real: more banking runs, more float, more skim risk, and more staff time at reconciliation. Price the banking time before you decide anything. What it is not is a reason to refuse cash, because a quarter of your customers chose it.
Much lower than 16%. Common in licensed venues, table service at higher average spend, and anywhere with pay-at-table. The risk here is the one most operators miss: the lower your cash share, the more a dead terminal costs you, because the fallback has gone. If you are at 4% cash you lose almost all of a service when the card machine fails. Our page on what to do when the EFTPOS machine is not working is the companion to this one for exactly that reason.
Either way, do not read your cash share as a measure of how modern your venue is. Read it as a measure of what breaks if one payment rail goes down.
Almost certainly not, and the answer is more specific than the internet makes it sound. The Australian Government's cash acceptance mandate, announced on 14 December 2025, started on 1 January 2026. From that date most retailers must accept cash for in-person transactions of A$500 or less, between 7am and 9pm.
Two limits do the work. The release defines the essential goods in scope as groceries and fuel, and does not name cafes, restaurants or takeaways. And businesses with aggregate annual turnover under A$10 million are exempt, although a small business sharing a trademark with a larger retailer is still covered. Between those two, the ordinary independent venue sits outside the mandate on both counts.
That is a statement about the mandate, not blanket permission. If you do go cashless the obligation that remains is notice: the price and the terms have to be clear before someone orders, which in practice means a sign at the door, a line on the menu and the same line on the phone. Our page on the card surcharge ban covers the pricing rules that changed on 1 October 2026, and restaurant merchant fees covers what cards actually cost you, which is the number most cashless decisions are really about.
Different source, narrower data, and no equivalent mandate to point at. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand's progress update on cash, published 27 November 2025, reports that over 80% of New Zealand adults use cash sometimes, 56% store cash and 8% rely on it. It also reports that 72% of small businesses would be adversely affected if cash were unavailable as a means of payment.
Note what that source does not say, because the honest gap matters more than a tidy paragraph. It gives no cash share of payments for New Zealand, and it does not address whether New Zealand retailers must accept cash. The RBNZ's work on cash is about access and availability. So a New Zealand venue should not borrow the Australian 16% as its benchmark, and should not read the Australian mandate as applying across the Tasman. Calculate your own share from your own reports using the four steps above, and use our New Zealand wage page as the reminder that the two markets rarely share a number.
More than it looks, and it is the practical end of the benchmark. Phone orders are where cash and card collide: the customer rings, orders, and pays at pickup. A venue at 24% cash by count is taking a meaningful share of its phone orders in notes at the counter, which means no card details, no deposit and no protection if nobody collects.
The fix is in the script rather than the payment rail. Take a name and a mobile number on every phone order, read the order back, and say the pickup time out loud. Our pages on how to answer the phone at a restaurant and restaurant no-shows have the wording. Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and takeaways in Australia and New Zealand and captures that detail on every call. If your phone mostly carries enquiries rather than orders, a basic message-taking plan will do the job and it is not us.
What percentage of restaurant payments are cash in Australia?
Use the Reserve Bank's 2025 Consumer Payments Survey, published 20 April 2026. Cash was 19% of in-person payments by number and 16% by value, and about 15% of all consumer payments by number and 8% by value. For food retail, meaning dining out and takeaway, the RBA's commentary on its own graph reads as around 20 per cent by 2025, which is a chart reading rather than a published point estimate.
How do I calculate my venue's cash percentage?
Take a full month of sales, divide cash tendered by total sales for the cash share by value, then repeat on transaction counts. Use the tendered figure from your point of sale rather than bank deposits, because deposits lag and include float movements. Compare the value figure with 16% and the count figure with 19%.
Do restaurants have to accept cash in Australia?
The cash acceptance mandate that started on 1 January 2026 requires most retailers to take cash for in-person transactions of A$500 or less between 7am and 9pm, but the Treasury release names groceries and fuel as the essential goods in scope and exempts businesses with aggregate annual turnover under A$10 million. An ordinary independent venue sits outside it on both counts. If you go cashless, make the terms clear before people order.
Is a high cash percentage a problem?
Not in itself. It usually means counter trade, a local customer base or a price point under A$10, where the RBA found around one in four payments are cash. It does cost you in banking runs, float and reconciliation time, so price that time before changing anything. A very low cash share carries the opposite risk: when the card terminal fails you have almost no fallback.
How many people in Australia rely on cash?
The Reserve Bank put high cash users, those using cash for at least 80% of transactions, at about 7% of respondents in 2025, and estimated roughly 1.5 million adults rely mainly on cash for everyday payments.
What is the cash picture in New Zealand?
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand reported in November 2025 that over 80% of adults use cash sometimes, 56% store cash and 8% rely on it, and that 72% of small businesses would be adversely affected if cash were unavailable. It publishes no cash share of payments and does not address whether retailers must accept cash, so a New Zealand venue should calculate its own share rather than borrow the Australian figure.