Klarna has surpassed 1 million merchants globally, expanding across online and in-store payments as it pushes further into everyday spending categories.
Over the past year, the number of merchants offering Klarna payment options rose 47%. During 2025, it added 285,000 merchants, including more than 115,000 in the final quarter.
Klarna operates as a digital bank and flexible payments provider. It is best known for buy now, pay later services, and also offers pay-in-full and other checkout options through partner integrations.
Partner distribution
A key driver of this expansion has been a broader set of agreements with payment service providers. These deals embed Klarna payment methods into existing checkout and acquiring relationships, reducing the work for merchants to add another option.
This distribution strategy matters in a market where merchants already manage a growing mix of cards, wallets, bank transfers, and other alternative payment methods. Larger payment service providers can also offer a single integration route across multiple geographies and channels.
Klarna's merchant base now spans 26 markets. That footprint puts it among the larger cross-border alternative payments players, with a model that depends on local regulatory approvals, risk controls, and underwriting practices that vary by jurisdiction.
Category shifts
Leisure, Sport & Hobby is now Klarna's fastest-growing merchant category, up 91% year on year in February 2026.
The category includes areas such as wellness and fitness. Merchants in this segment often sell higher-ticket products and repeat services, such as equipment, studio packages, personal care, and subscriptions, which can increase demand for instalment payment options.
Payments firms have competed aggressively for share in these categories, partly because they sit between essential spending and discretionary retail. Purchase cycles can be frequent, and conversion can depend on whether consumers recognise the payment methods available at checkout.
David Sykes, Klarna's Chief Commercial Officer, said the milestone reflects a broader shift in how consumers handle routine expenses.
"Home repairs, a new couch, salon appointments, gym memberships - these are facts of life for most people, but the way they pay for them hasn't kept up. Reaching 1 million merchants is a reflection of how deeply embedded Klarna is becoming in everyday money management, and the acceleration across verticals and markets shows no signs of slowing down."
Network effects
Klarna is trying to convert merchant scale into more consistent revenue streams as competition intensifies across buy now, pay later, cards, and digital wallets. Larger networks can increase consumer familiarity and drive repeat usage across retailers and services.
It describes its platform as an AI-powered payments and commerce network, with more than 118 million active users globally and an average of 3.4 million transactions per day.
Klarna payments are available online and in-store, including via Apple Pay and Google Pay. This extends reach at the physical point of sale, where tokenised card payments and wallets have become the default for many shoppers.
For merchants, distribution through payment service providers can bring Klarna into markets where it has less direct sales coverage than larger card networks or acquirers. It also raises the importance of operational issues such as dispute handling, customer service integration, and settlement processes.
Klarna's merchant list includes Uber, H&M, Saks, Sephora, Macy's, Ikea, Expedia Group, Nike, and Airbnb, reflecting a strategy that spans retail, travel, marketplaces, and services.
Klarna is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker KLAR. It said recent merchant growth has coincided with expansion into higher-frequency categories, focusing on segments where consumers make repeat purchases and may seek instalment payments more often.