What the Confirmed Adoption Data Actually Shows
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found more than 1 in 5 American consumers with a credit record had used a BNPL service in 2021, up from 17.8% in 2020, a fast one-year climb in a payment method that barely existed at meaningful scale a few years before. That figure measures whether a consumer had ever used BNPL, a broader bar than measuring active, ongoing use.
A separate, more recent measure from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that in fall 2023, only 9% of overall consumers were actively using BNPL, a smaller share than the CFPB’s ever-used figure, but one the Boston Fed itself frames as a 40% increase from two years prior. The two figures are not directly comparable: one measures whether a consumer has ever tried BNPL, the other measures who is currently using it, and reading them as the same statistic overstates how large the actively-using population is.
Why a Small-Business Point-of-Sale Number Is Not in This Data
Neither the CFPB figure nor the Boston Fed figure breaks results out by where the purchase happened or by the size of the business accepting the payment. Both are consumer-side adoption measures across every purchase channel, online and in-person, at businesses of every size, not a small-business-specific point-of-sale statistic. A page or a pitch that quotes either number as a small-business adoption rate is stretching the data past what it actually measures.
What the confirmed data does support is a directional argument: BNPL usage grew fast enough between 2020 and 2023 that a merchant fielding customer requests for it, or watching a competitor advertise it, is responding to a real, growing consumer behavior, not a fad. Total US noncash payments reached 236.6 billion in 2024, more than triple the number in 2000, with cards accounting for over three-quarters of all noncash payments by number, the broader backdrop BNPL adoption is growing inside rather than against.
The Numbers
More than 1 in 5 American consumers with a credit record had used a BNPL service in 2021, up from 17.8% in 2020.
Wikipedia, Buy Now, Pay Later (citing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau)
In fall 2023, only 9% of overall consumers were actively using BNPL, a figure representing a 40% increase from two years prior.
Wikipedia, Buy Now, Pay Later (citing the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)
Total US noncash payments reached 236.6 billion in 2024, more than triple the number in 2000, with cards accounting for over three-quarters of all noncash payments by number.
Federal Reserve, 2025 triennial payments study, initial findings
Sources
The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.
- Wikipedia, Buy Now, Pay Later (citing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)
- Federal Reserve, 2025 triennial payments study, initial findings