---
title: "Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume"
slug: phantom-debt
summary: "Six large buy now, pay later lenders made $43.9 billion in pay-in-four loans in 2023, up from $33.4 billion in 2022"
category: "Savings"
unit: billions_usd
frequency: annual
direction: bidirectional
latest_value: 43.9
latest_period: "2023"
data_status: historical
last_updated: "2026-09-17T00:00:00Z"
source: "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Buy Now, Pay Later Market Report"
measurement_basis: "How much money six large buy now, pay later lenders — Affirm, Cash App Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, Sezzle and Zip — lent out over a calendar year, in that year's own dollars, as reported by the CFPB for 2019 through 2023. It counts pay-in-four loans only: point-of-sale installment loans and credit card installment plans are not in it. It is a flow, the lending done during the year, not a balance anyone owes at a moment in time. The CFPB puts these six firms at roughly forty percent of the overall point-of-sale financing market in 2023 and says its sample is not necessarily representative of the whole buy now, pay later market, so this is a large slice of the market and not the market."
source_url: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/the-buy-now-pay-later-market/
canonical_html: https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/
citation_apa: "Kilburn, R. (2026). Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/"
citation_chicago: "Kilburn, Ross. 2026. \"Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume.\" American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/."
citation_mla: "Kilburn, Ross. \"Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume.\" American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/."
---

# Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume

Also tracked as Phantom Debt.

> Six large buy now, pay later lenders made $43.9 billion in pay-in-four loans in 2023, up from $33.4 billion in 2022

## Historical Reading

Final reading, 2023: Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume was **$43.9 billion**. The figures come from a single CFPB market report covering 2019 to 2023, and no later year has been published.

in pay-in-four loans made by six large lenders in one year

## Recent Values

| Period | Value |
|--------|-------|
| 2023 | $43.9B |
| 2022 | $33.4B |
| 2021 | $25.5B |
| 2020 | $8.9B |
| 2019 | $2.2B |

## Historical Context

- Peak since 2019: **$43.9 billion** in 2023
- Low since 2019: **$2.2 billion** in 2019

## Methodology

This is an archived series interpreted as moving in both directions against household distress, with no single end of the range reading as the distressed one. Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Buy Now, Pay Later Market Report. The source has no newer data, so this page keeps the final reading.
Measurement basis: How much money six large buy now, pay later lenders — Affirm, Cash App Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, Sezzle and Zip — lent out over a calendar year, in that year's own dollars, as reported by the CFPB for 2019 through 2023. It counts pay-in-four loans only: point-of-sale installment loans and credit card installment plans are not in it. It is a flow, the lending done during the year, not a balance anyone owes at a moment in time. The CFPB puts these six firms at roughly forty percent of the overall point-of-sale financing market in 2023 and says its sample is not necessarily representative of the whole buy now, pay later market, so this is a large slice of the market and not the market.

## Source

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Buy Now, Pay Later Market Report — [https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/the-buy-now-pay-later-market/](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/the-buy-now-pay-later-market/)

Data retrieved: 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

## Machine-Readable Endpoints

- HTML page: https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/
- JSON: https://americandefault.org/api/indicators/phantom-debt.json
- CSV: https://americandefault.org/api/downloads/phantom-debt.csv
- BibTeX: https://americandefault.org/citations/phantom-debt.bib
- RIS: https://americandefault.org/citations/phantom-debt.ris

## Citation

**APA 7th**

    Kilburn, R. (2026). Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume [Data set]. American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/

**Chicago (author-date)**

    Kilburn, Ross. 2026. "Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume." American Default Research. https://americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/.

**MLA 9th**

    Kilburn, Ross. "Buy Now Pay Later Lending Volume." American Default Research, 2026, americandefault.org/indicators/phantom-debt/.

Use **American Default Research** as the institutional name in source lists, bibliographies, and press citations. **American Default** is the brand and URL form. **American Distress Index (ADI)** is the product name for the national composite score.