Contactless And Tap To Pay Usage Statistics (2026)

Introduction

Contactless And Tap To Pay Usage Statistics: Imagine you enter your go-to café, ask for a cappuccino, and settle the bill just by touching your phone — no need to input a PIN, no cash, and no wallet to fuss about. This effortless experience is no longer a dream of the future. It is quickly being turned into a daily event. It is estimated that by 2025, contactless and tap-to-pay payments will have completely replaced cash and credit cards as the main modes of transaction. This transformation will not only influence consumers’ spending habits but also the very way businesses operate worldwide.

In cities with heavy public transportation and small grocery stores, people can now easily pay by tapping. This article will present the Contactless and Tap to Pay Usage Statistics and their recent trends.

Editor’s Choice

• The contactless payment market has enjoyed an annual growth rate of 15.4% over the last ten years, which means it will expand from US$22.4 billion in 2022 to a value of US$35.4 billion in 2025.
• Market growth is expected to stay strong and contribute to reaching the revenue of US$90.6 billion in 2032, mainly because of the global acceptance and infrastructure improvement.
• The United States is at the forefront of this mobile payment trend, and its transaction volume is expected to grow from 4.4 billion in 2022 to 8.3 billion by 2027.
• The worldwide digital payments are escalating very quickly, and it is believed that by 2027, they will almost touch US$198 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 15.5%.
• Digital wallets are already responsible for almost half the value of worldwide ecommerce, and this share is expected to exceed 52% by 2025.
• The use of Apple Pay is on the rise, and there are already 55.8 million U.S. users in 2023, with a prediction of user growth to 67 million by 2026.
• The pandemic was a catalyst for adoption, as the number of contactless transactions rose globally by 410% from 2020 to 2025.
• Digital wallets have already taken the lion’s share of in-store sales, 38%, and the strongest upsurge in the use of contactless payments is observed in the grocery and healthcare sectors.
• Retail transactions in the form of digital wallets and mobile payments are the leading transactions internationally, while their share ranges between 45 and 50%.
• Cash is hardly used in developed economies, now comprising only a minuscule 2-5% of in-store sales.
• The total of QR code payments is expected to reach almost the tune of US$4.8 trillion globally by the year 2028, with the major factor being their wide usage in third-world countries.
• Users of tap payments continue to rise fast; currently, the percentage of such transactions outside the United States is 74%, while the domestic tap technology usage is catching up quickly.
• Contactless payments are highly received by consumers; 71% of the world population prefers them, and nearly 50% of consumers declare their readiness to give up on purchases if they do not have the option of paying contactlessly.

Contactless And Tap To Pay Market Size

(Source: scoop.market.us)

• The last decade has witnessed rapid growth of the contactless payment industry, with the market size increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.4%, which was mainly attributed to a consumer preference shift towards faster and more convenient transactions.
• The sector’s revenue was US$22.40 billion in 2022, setting the momentum for continued growth.
• This upward trend has not only sustained but also reached the point where revenues are expected to be estimated at US$25.90 billion in 2023 and US$29.30 billion in 2024, before coming close to US$35.4 billion in 2025. The numbers are going to keep increasing.
• The following year, 2026, will see US$41.1 billion, and US$46.7 billion for 2027, and finally, US$51.1 billion for 2028, which is attributed to the global acceptance of the payments being widely adopted.
• Further, the strong market growth that has a good chance of coming to fruition continues with the forecast revenues of US$59.0 billion in 2029, rising to US$66.9 billion in 2030, and US$77.2 billion in 2031. Finally, US$90.6 billion by 2032, thus reaffirming the fact that contactless payment technologies are the ones that will eventually dominate the payment landscape of the world.

Contactless Pay – Mobile And Digital Wallet

• Mobile and digital wallets have exhibited remarkable growth and are being recognized as the fundamental components of the global payments system.
• The USA, having established itself as the pacesetter in the mobile payment market, reported around 4.4 billion mobile transactions in 2022.
• The mobile payment volume in the United States is anticipated to nearly reach 8.3 billion transactions per year by 2027, approximately 89% in total increase over the five years.
• This booming activity has to do with the fact that more customers are becoming comfortable with mobile payments, and consequently, acceptance by more vendors and platforms.
• Meanwhile, the powerful digital payment market is growing, wide open, with its arms.
• There is a global digital payment revenue projected to increase from US$96.19 billion in 2022 to US$111.11 billion in 2023, equivalent to a compound annual growth rate of 15.5%, doing the math for the whole year.
• This strong pace of growth is expected to continue through 2027, when the market is forecast to reach nearly US$198 billion, therefore confirming the cash and traditional payments long-term decline.
• Digital wallets are on their way to establishing a leading position in the e-commerce industry.
• They were already responsible for 48.6% of the global e-commerce transaction value in 2021, which was a little over US$2.6 trillion.
• The number of digital wallets will further increase their share, and by 2025, it will be 52.5%, according to the estimates.
• In the United States, adoption is moving along at a slightly slower rate compared to other regions, but nevertheless, it is still a steady growth.
• Digital wallets’ share of U.S. e-commerce transaction value was 29.2% in 2021 and is estimated to increase to almost 33% by 2025, thus marking the acceptance of these payment methods among American consumers.
• One such trend is Apple’s continued success in 2023, when over 55.8 million people in the United States used Apple Pay, nearly 10% more than in 2022.
• It is anticipated that the number of users will climb to about 67 million by 2026, approximately 23% of the total U.S. population.
• This permanent increase indicates that mobile wallets, especially those of Apple Pay, will eventually take over as the main form of payment for consumers in the forthcoming years.

Post-COVID Growth In Contactless Payment Methods

• The evidence brought forth by the pandemic shows it was a huge driving force behind the instant and wide use of contactless payment systems everywhere.
• There was an awesome 410% rise in contactless payments from 2020 to 2025, which indicated that modern buyers have no turning back when it comes to the electronic way of getting things done.
• Health and safety plus convenience were the two main reasons behind such a dramatic change, with 72% of consumers admitting that they have switched to contactless purely for the hygiene and convenience factors, and if at all, that number would have been higher in 2025.
• Digital wallets thus became an essential part of physical retail, almost tripling their share from 29% of all in-store sales in 2023 to 38% in 2025.
• Healthcare and essential service providers, among others, quickly turned to contactless, and the usage increased by 82% in 2025.
• Such services ensured that customers and staff minimized their physical contact. To meet such demands, banks and other financial institutions meanwhile issued over 610 million contactless cards.
• Adoption was driven by daily cases in the US, with supermarkets alone reporting a 65% rise in contactless payment usage in the period of 2023-2025.

Most Popular In-Store Payment Methods

(Source: coinlaw.io)

• Digital payment options are the clear winners in the payment options hierarchy at points of sale today.
• Digital wallets and mobile payment applications like Apple Pay and Google Pay have reached the top of the payment methods, and currently, they are responsible for about 45-50% of the total worldwide in-store purchases.
• A quick look at the consumer side would reveal the reason behind this report, since people opt for fast, easy, and convenient payment experiences that involve their gadgets.
• The usual credit and debit cards remain widely adopted and include contactless card transactions; however, they now constitute a lesser portion of around 25-30% of the payments in physical stores worldwide.
• The very nature of cash dictates its sharp and rapid decline in the markets. So much so that now it only represents 2-5% of the in-store transactions in the developed markets.
• The development has also affected the Buy Now, Pay Later services at physical sales points, where they have managed to offer only 2% of the store transactions, and their acceptance is even stronger in online shopping than in person sales.
• On the other hand, the new technologies that have been introduced, like wearables, QR-based payments, cryptocurrencies, and direct bank transfers, together still account for less than 1% of the total global in-store payments.
• This denotes that even though there is a continuous flow of innovation, the acceptance of the new methods in the mainstream still remains at a nascent stage.

QR Codes and Tap To Pay

• Payments via QR codes are witnessing a steep global rise, which is primarily attributed to their low cost and easy installation.
• An estimation made by Juniper Research points out that the total value of QR code payments will grow from US$2.9 trillion in 2023 to almost US$4.8 trillion by 2028, which is a 59% growth.
• A significant portion of this growth is projected to develop in the markets where QR codes are cost-effective substitutes for the conventional card infrastructure.
• QR codes are budding as one of the primary elements in digital wallet utilization.
• The share is assumed to reach around 40% of the total world digital wallet transactions by the year 2025.
• Yet, this proportion is less than the 47% logged in 2020, indicating that the QR codes were vital in the very beginning phase of the pandemic, but their grip is loosening as other contactless methods, tap-to-pay cards, and NFC-enabled wallets, for instance, are being adopted and made available more easily.
• The use of QR codes is a consumer preference that is highly dependent on the context.
• The U.S. is one of the countries where QR code payment acceptance in restaurants is extremely low.
• According to the study conducted by TouchBistro, no one out of the 1,000 surveyed Americans said that they would like to use QR codes in sit-down dining for payment purposes, which reveals the unwillingness to accept QR code payments in those locations where personal interactions are considered to be the most important and simplicity is the main criterion.
• On the other hand, the trend of tap-to-pay payments is becoming very strong, especially in the retail sector.
• The use of tap-to-pay technology in face-to-face transactions outside the U.S. is at 74% worldwide. The U.S. is not keeping pace with the rest of the world in this technology, but the adoption is getting faster and faster.
• Currently, the tap-to-pay share of in-person transactions in the U.S. is 34%, which signifies a 700% increase compared to three years ago, and more than 10% since 2021. This movement represents a clear preference for the faster, hassle-free payment methods that consumers can use with barely any effort.

Consumer Perspective On Contactless Payments

(Reference: coinlaw.io)

• The consumers’ opinions are very much in favour of the contactless payment methods, which are an indication of how much they have become a part of consumers’ daily lives.
• The term “contactless payment” was preferred to “cash” by 71% of the global population in 2025.
• The acceptance is the highest among young people, with 90% of U.S. Gen Z and Millennial users having employed a contactless payment method at least once in the past month.
• The issue of safety is also a key factor, as 69% of consumers consider contactless payments to be safer than cash, because people are less likely to come into contact with germs and there is a lower risk of theft.
• The retail aspect has a direct relationship with convenience when it comes to spending behavior.
• Contactless payment options are attractive to 45% of shoppers, and nearly half of the world’s consumers (47%) would reject a transaction if contactless payment were unavailable.
• Spending behavior related to this convenience factor is also different across income groups.
• In the case of the U.S., households with annual incomes of US$100,000 and over are 2.3 times more likely to use mobile wallets as their main payment method than those with lower incomes.
• However, the trend is different for the seniors who are increasingly adopting contactless payments.
• Educating the older population and simplifying the process of interaction with such technologies has led to a 38% rise in the use of contactless cards by seniors over the last two years.

Regional Insights And Market Segmentation

• There is no uniform global pattern that can be drawn from the regional adoption of contactless payment, as different regions are at different stages of the transition from cash to nothing but electronic payments.
• The APAC region will be the largest user of contactless payments, accounting for 56% of all transactions in 2025, mainly due to the fact that mobile wallet is the most common method of payment.
• The U.S. consumer market is very close to 100% penetration of contactless payments since already 67% of the consumers in the U.S. are using this method of payment regularly, particularly in urban and metropolitan areas where there is the highest acceptance rate.
• Europe is practically all set to go, and 97% of point-of-sale terminals are already equipped with the technology needed for contactless transactions.
• The developing markets are also catching up fast; the contactless payments market in Africa is growing by 19% CAGR, and this is being driven by the adoption of mobile money platforms like M-Pesa, while in Latin America, the fintech companies targeting unbanked populations have contributed to a 33% increase in contactless transactions in 2025.
• Canada is the top country in the world in terms of the share of contactless payments in in-person card transactions, accounting for 81%.
• In the Middle East, the mobile wallet adoption rate increased by 27% year-on-year, with the fastest growth in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The Evolution of POS Payments Technology

• Point-of-sale technology advancements have been the primary driver of contactless payments expansion.
• During the period between 2020 and 2025, 72% of U.S. retailers updated their POS systems to accommodate contactless transactions.
• On a global scale, smart POS terminals that can process mobile wallets and QR codes have accounted for 44% of total POS shipments.
• The acceptance of mobile wallets by small businesses has also seen a dramatic rise, with 57% of U.S. small merchants receiving mobile wallet payments in 2025, as opposed to only 42% in 2020.
• Retailers are also adopting more sophisticated features, with 19% having integrated biometric authentication into their POS systems, thereby improving security and speeding up the transaction process.
• There was a 38% rise in the number of contactless vending machines worldwide, thus allowing fully touch-free purchases.
• AI-powered POS systems are in the process of being rolled out to monitor customer spending patterns, and 2025 pilot programs indicate a possible sales increase of as much as 20%.

Recent Developments

• The contactless payments landscape has changed rapidly through a combination of strategic acquisitions, product innovation, funding activity, and technological progress.
• In 2023, PayPal acquired Japan-based Paidy for US$2.7 billion, thereby expanding its foothold in Asia, and this move will facilitate the adoption of buy-now-pay-later and contactless solutions across the region.
• Square (Block) acquired Afterpay for US$29 billion in 2023, thus boosting BNPL service integration in its ecosystem and providing a better contactless payment experience for both store owners and customers.
• In 2024, Apple launched Tap to Pay on iPhone, which was a groundbreaking step for small and medium-sized traders.
• It allowed businesses to receive contactless payments right on the iPhone without the need for extra hardware.
• On the other hand, Google Pay increased its contactless functions in late 2023 by introducing better loyalty rewards and integrating even more with global transport systems, which made the service even more convenient, and users would automatically use it more frequently.
• The investment trends indicate a strong market confidence. Stripe gained US$600 million in 2023 for developing contactless infrastructure that would be particularly beneficial for small businesses and underserved market sectors.
• SumUp also managed to collect US$750 million by 2024 to make its card reader solutions available in Europe and North America.
• The adoption of new technology is still a factor that drives the market. Experts are predicting that, by 2025, at least 30% of the contactless systems will come with biometric authentication.
• The use of payment through wearable devices is also increasing, and the market for it is expected to rise by 20% in 2024.
• Worldwide, the proportion of contactless payments among all transactions is projected to grow to more than 50% by 2025, with the regions of North America and Europe still being the frontrunners of the adoption.

Conclusion

Contactless and Tap to Pay Usage Statistics: Contactless and tap-to-pay payments have become a crucial part of the modern payments ecosystem. Initially, they were just a convenience. However, they have now become the most favoured and, in many cases, the only way to pay for retail, e-commerce, transit, and essential services. The strong growth of the market, the widespread acceptance of consumers, and the rapid technological innovation are factors that continue to drive the contactless solutions forward.

With the digital wallets, mobile devices, and wearables becoming more popular, and the merchants upgrading their POS infrastructure, the shift away from cash and traditional payments is happening faster than before. Security will keep improving, and adoption will be worldwide. Consequently, contactless payments will be the main way to transact in everyday life, even for the next decade.

FAQ