Ultralytics YOLO-Face

YOLO-Face is an upcoming Ultralytics model announced on the official Ultralytics roadmap as facial recognition and analysis, extending the real-time YOLO family with face-specific capabilities.

Common applications include secure device and access authentication, attendance systems, camera autofocus and framing, audience analytics with anonymized counts, and photo organization. Face detection is also a building block for redaction workflows that blur faces to protect privacy in published imagery and video.

Ultralytics announces release timing on the official roadmap, which is the authoritative source for what ships when. Follow the roadmap and Ultralytics on GitHub for release announcements.

Yes — train Ultralytics YOLO26 on a face dataset to build a fast custom face detector today using train mode or Ultralytics Platform. The roadmap describes YOLO-Face as facial recognition and analysis, going beyond what a custom detector provides today.

Facial recognition is regulated in many jurisdictions, and deployments must comply with applicable laws such as GDPR and local biometric-data rules. Ultralytics licensing governs commercial use of its models. Design face applications with consent, data minimization, and clear user benefit from the start.