US Buy Now, Pay Later Market: CFPB Loan Origination Data 2019-2023

The CFPB has published two market reports on pay-in-four Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) loans. These loans are typically repaid in four equal, interest-free installments. The first report, from September 2022, covered five lenders from 2019 to 2021 [2]. The second, from December 2025, covered six lenders from 2019 to 2023 [1]. Neither report includes longer point-of-sale installment loans [1].

In 2023, the six surveyed lenders originated 335.8 million BNPL loans with a nominal value of $43.9 billion [1]. Adjusted for inflation, the CFPB reports the 2023 total as $45.2 billion, with an average loan size of $135 [1]. Nominal originations were $33.4 billion in 2022 [1]. That makes 2023 growth about 31% (FREEE.REPORT calculation). The CFPB says growth continues but at a slower pace than in earlier years [1].

The 2025 CFPB report gives nominal dollar originations of $2.2 billion in 2019, $8.9 billion in 2020, $25.5 billion in 2021, $33.4 billion in 2022 and $43.9 billion in 2023 [1]. Over the same years, loan counts rose from 19.8 million to 77.9 million, 196.6 million, 273.8 million and 335.8 million [1].

The 2022 report used a five-lender sample. It recorded $24.2 billion in 2021 originations, nearly triple the $8.3 billion of 2020 and more than twelve times the $2 billion of 2019 [2]. The two reports use different lender samples, so their figures should not be mixed in a single series.

Unique BNPL users rose from 48.0 million in 2022 to 53.6 million in 2023 [1]. Over the same period, the average number of loans per user rose from 5.7 to 6.3, and the average yearly total per user rose from $695 to $820 [1].

Apparel and beauty made up 80.1% of originations in 2019 but only 58.6% in 2021, as BNPL spread to sectors such as travel, groceries and gas [2][4].

In the 2022 CFPB report, 10.5% of borrowers were charged at least one late fee in 2021, up from 7.8% in 2020 [2]. The share of borrowers with a loan charged off rose from 2.9% to 3.8% [2]. Lender margins fell to 1.01% of originations in 2021, down from 1.27% in 2020 [4].

A June 2026 Federal Reserve note estimates that BNPL providers originated close to $160 billion in consumer credit in 2025 [3]. Pay-in-four plans made up about half of that, and short- and longer-term installment loans made up the rest [3]. The note also finds that more than 60% of the total carried a 0% APR [3]. These are the authors' estimates built from public disclosures by six market participants, not CFPB survey data [3].

The 2019-2023 series comes from Table 5 of the CFPB's December 2025 BNPL market report. Values are in nominal US dollars and cover pay-in-four loans from six surveyed lenders [1]. The 2021 figures from the five-lender September 2022 report are shown separately [2][4]. The 2025 total-credit figure is a Federal Reserve staff estimate [3]. FREEE.REPORT calculation: 2023 growth = $43.9 billion / $33.4 billion - 1, or about 31%.