Why This Number Matters at the Terminal
Contactless adoption is a direct input into what terminal a merchant actually needs, and what a POS conversation should assume as a baseline rather than treat as a novelty. A merchant still running a swipe-only or chip-only terminal in 2026 is behind roughly a fifth of in-person transaction volume that already prefers a tap, a real, if modest, gap an agent can point to as a concrete reason to modernize hardware, not just a general upgrade pitch.
Why the Newest Fed Release Is Not the Source for This Specific Figure
The Federal Reserve published a newer topline release in July 2026, covering 2024 data, but that release does not include a chip-versus-contactless usage breakdown. The November 2024 release, covering 2021 and 2022 data, remains the newest Fed publication that reports this specific split. Both releases are cited below, each for the figures it actually contains, rather than blending a 2022 breakdown with an unrelated 2024 topline number.
The Numbers
19.7% of in-person general-purpose card transactions were contactless in 2022, per the Federal Reserve’s November 2024 payments study release, the newest Fed publication to report this specific breakdown.
Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve Payments Study (Nov. 2024 release, 2021-2022 data)
87.5% of in-person general-purpose card transactions used chip technology in 2022, including 29.1% that specifically used chip-and-PIN.
Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve Payments Study (Nov. 2024 release, 2021-2022 data)
In-person payments made up 63.8% of all general-purpose card transactions in 2022.
Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve Payments Study (Nov. 2024 release, 2021-2022 data)
Total general-purpose card payments reached 153.3 billion transactions worth $9.76 trillion in 2022, up 6.0% by count and 10.5% by value from 2021.
Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve Payments Study (Nov. 2024 release, 2021-2022 data)
The Fed’s newest release, published July 2026 and covering 2024 data, counted 236.6 billion total noncash payments, more than triple the 2000 figure, with cards making up over three-quarters of all noncash payments by number, though this release does not break out a contactless-specific share.
Federal Reserve, initial findings from the 2025 triennial payments study (press release, July 2026)
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.
- Federal Reserve, The Federal Reserve Payments Study (Nov. 2024 release, 2021-2022 data)
- Federal Reserve, initial findings from the 2025 triennial payments study (press release, July 2026)