Digital wallets handled 56% of online spending and 33% of in-store spending globally in 2025, according to the Global Payments Report 2026 published by Global Payments. Worldpay’s previous edition put wallets at 53% of e-commerce and 32% of point-of-sale spend in 2024. Digital wallet adoption statistics also show a wide split by channel: wallets accounted for 40% of US online spending but 17% of in-store spending in 2025.
Federal Reserve, European Central Bank (ECB), and UK Finance data show the same divide by age. US adults aged 18 to 24 used their phones for 45% of all payments in the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Diary findings, based on 2024 data. PayPal reported 439 million active accounts for the three months ended June 30, 2026. The sections below break the data down by channel, region, age group, wallet provider, mobile money, and forecast.
Key Takeaways
- In the US, wallets took 40% of online spending in 2025 but 17% in stores, where direct card use still held 71%.
- In Asia-Pacific (APAC), digital wallets accounted for 77% of online spending and 62% of in-store spending in 2025.
- Approximately 37.6 million UK consumers were registered to use at least one mobile wallet service in 2025.
- UK mobile payment registration stood at 89% for ages 25 to 34 in 2025, against 29% for those 65 and over.
- PayPal active accounts increased 0.3% to 439 million, while payment transactions increased 8% to 6.8 billion in the second quarter of 2026.
- Cash App monthly transacting actives were 59 million in June 2026, and inflows per transacting active grew 9% year over year.
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- Global wallet share of online spending, 2025: 56%.
- Projected US spending through digital wallets by 2030: $4.1 trillion.
- UPI transactions, September 2026: 24,068.38 million.
- Mobile money transaction value, 2025: over $2 trillion.
- Visa tokenized share of its e-commerce transactions: nearing 60%.
- PayPal total payment volume, second quarter of 2026: $486.4 billion.
Digital Wallet Adoption Statistics: Share of Global Spending
- Digital wallets represented 56% of online spending globally in 2025, up 3 percentage points from the 53% Worldpay’s previous edition reported for 2024.
- Global e-commerce spend increased from $1.2 trillion in 2014 to over $6.8 trillion in 2024.
- Smartphones’ share of global e-commerce spend increased from 19% in 2014 to 57% in 2024.
- Digital wallet use grew ten-fold online and in-store between 2014 and 2024.
| Channel | 2024 share (%) | 2025 share (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Online (e-commerce) | 53 | 56 |
| In-store (point of sale) | 32 | 33 |
Source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2025, Global Payments Report 2026
About This Data
Figures are compiled from 12 sources: 4 Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and World Bank publications, 5 company reports and filings, 2 industry association reports and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Source dates run from December 2024 to October 2026. Only official, company and industry body data qualify, and figures are reviewed on a rolling basis and updated when sources publish new editions.
Digital Wallet Adoption by Region
- In APAC, digital wallets accounted for 77% of online spending and 62% of in-store spending in 2025.
- In APAC, direct use of cards accounted for just 15% of online spending and 20% of in-store spending in 2025.
- Globally, direct card usage represented 31% of online and 48% of in-store spending in the same year.
- In the US, direct use of cards accounted for 49% of online spending and 71% of in-store spending in 2025.
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Recent Developments
- September 2026: India’s UPI processed 24,068.38 million transactions worth ₹29,37,396.67 crore in September 2026.
- August 5, 2026: Block reported 59 million Cash App monthly transacting actives in June, with primary banking actives up 17% to 9.4 million.
- August 2026: UK Finance reported that 58% of UK adults used mobile payments to purchase goods or services at least once a month in 2025.
- July 28, 2026: Visa said its tokenized penetration was nearing 60% of its e-commerce transactions globally, with credentials growing 8% year over year in the third quarter.
- July 28, 2026: PayPal reported total payment volume up 10% to $486.4 billion and payment transactions up 8% to 6.8 billion.
Digital Wallet Use in the United States
- In 2024, mobile phones were used for 45% of remote payments by US consumers.
- Non-cash payments made up 78% of in-person payments in 2024, against 60% in 2016.
- The Federal Reserve’s 2026 Diary of Consumer Payment Choice found credit and debit cards accounting for two-thirds of all payments, with cash the third-most-used payment instrument for the sixth year.
- 38% of consumers said they prefer using credit cards in person, compared with 24% in 2016, while 40% prefer debit.
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US Digital Wallet Growth Since 2014
- Digital wallets’ share of US online spending increased from 15% to 39% between 2014 and 2024.
- Credit, debit and prepaid cards directly delivered 67% of US consumer spending online and at the point of sale in 2024.
- US digital wallet spending is forecast to grow 10% annually across online and in-store between 2025 and 2030.
- US consumers spent twice as much online using credit cards than debit cards in 2025.
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Digital Wallet Adoption by Age Group
- Digital wallets were the most used online payment method for 41% of US consumers aged 25 to 34.
- Digital wallets were the go-to online choice for 9% of respondents 65 and over.
- US consumers younger than 35 used their mobile phone four times per month for in-person non-bill payments, while those aged 55 and older used it for two.
- US adults aged 18 to 24 used their phones for 45% of all payments in 2024.
- In the euro area, the youngest age group used mobile payments in 10% of POS transactions, while the oldest group’s share was 3%.
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Key finding: The age gap repeats across three separate data sets. US adults aged 18 to 24 paid by phone for 45% of all payments, the youngest euro area group used mobile payments in 10% of POS transactions against 3% for the oldest, and UK registration ran at 89% for ages 25 to 34 against 29% for those 65 and over.
UK Mobile Wallet Adoption Statistics
- Approximately 37.6 million consumers, more than six in ten in the adult population, were registered to use at least one mobile wallet service in 2025.
- 58% of UK adults used mobile payments to purchase goods or services at least once a month.
- Registration stood at 89% among adults aged 25 to 34, the highest of the six age groups UK Finance reported.
- Contactless payments increased to 19.2 billion in 2025, up from 18.9 billion the previous year.
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Contactless card payments made up 39% of all UK payments in 2025, up from 3% in 2015, while cash fell to 8% of payments from 45% over the same decade. In the UK, wallets have spread through contactless card infrastructure rather than replacing it.
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Euro Area Mobile Payment Adoption
- The ECB’s SPACE 2024 study found that the share of payments made with mobile devices remained quite low at 6% of POS payments in 2024, but has almost doubled compared with 2022.
- By value, the share of payments made with mobile devices increased from 4% to 7% between 2022 and 2024.
- Payments with mobile devices accounted for more than 10% of POS transactions in the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland.
- The share of mobile payments was less than 5% in seven euro area countries.
- Cash still covered 52% of POS payments in the euro area in 2024, down from 59% in 2022.
| Euro area metric | 2022 (%) | 2024 (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile device share of POS payment value | 4 | 7 |
| Card share of POS transactions | 34 | 39 |
| Cash share of POS transactions | 59 | 52 |
| E-payment solutions share of online payments | 26 | 29 |
| Card share of online payments | 51 | 48 |
Source: European Central Bank, SPACE 2024
Worth noting: Online checkout looks different. The share of e-payment solutions, meaning payment wallets and mobile apps, was 29% of euro area online payments, against 26% two years earlier. Wallets are already a routine online option in the euro area, while in shops they remain a minority habit that has roughly doubled in two years.
PayPal Active Accounts and Transactions
- PayPal’s total payment volume increased 10% to $486.4 billion in the three months ended June 30, 2026.
- Payment transactions per active account increased 3% to 60.0 on a trailing 12-month basis.
- Active accounts increased 0.3% to 439 million, and decreased by 0.2 million on a sequential basis.
- Payment transactions increased 8% to 6.8 billion, or 6,750 million, against 6,226 million a year earlier.
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Why it matters: PayPal’s active accounts increased 0.3% while its payment transactions increased 8%. At PayPal, growth now comes from people paying more often rather than from new sign-ups, which moves the adoption question from reach to frequency, and Block reports a similar pattern at Cash App.
Cash App Adoption Statistics
- Cash App’s monthly transacting actives were 59 million in June 2026, up 3% year over year.
- Primary banking actives grew 17% year over year to 9.4 million.
- Total Cash App inflows reached $87 billion in the quarter, up 13% year over year.
- Inflows per transacting active grew 9% year over year, driven in part by more customers bringing their paychecks into Cash App.
| Cash App metric | Q2 2025 | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly transacting actives (millions) | 57 | 59 |
| Primary banking actives (millions) | 8.0 | 9.4 |
| Total inflows ($ billions) | 77 | 87 |
| Gross profit ($ millions) | 1,501 | 1,973 |
Source: Block second quarter 2026 shareholder letter
Inflows per transacting active moved from $1,345 to $1,469 over the five quarters Block reported, peaking at $1,494. Flat user counts and rising inflows per user point to customers moving more of their money through the app.
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UPI and Mobile Payments in India
- India’s UPI network processed 24,068.38 million transactions in September 2026, against 24,508.96 million in August 2026.
- UPI transaction value reached ₹29,37,396.67 crore in September 2026.
- 756 banks were live on UPI in September 2026, up from 713 in April 2026.
- Monthly UPI volume grew 7.7% between April 2026 and September 2026.
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Mobile Money and Financial Inclusion Statistics
- Mobile money services processed over $2 trillion in transactions in 2025, a 23% increase compared to 2024, according to the GSM Association (GSMA).
- Globally, 86% of adults owned a mobile phone, including 68% of adults with a smartphone, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex.
- In 2024, 42% of adults in low- and middle-income countries made an in-store or online digital merchant payment, up from 35% in 2021.
- About 900 million adults without financial accounts have a mobile phone, including 530 million with smartphones.
- 10% of adults in developing economies used a mobile-money account to save, a 5 percentage point increase from 2021.
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How to keep a digital wallet safe?
Lock the phone first, because the wallet is only as safe as the device. Of the 4 billion adults in low- and middle-income economies who own a mobile phone, only around half use a password to protect their phone, the World Bank found. A screen lock, biometric sign-in and transaction alerts close that most basic gap.
Digital Wallet Spending Forecasts to 2030
- Worldpay projects that over $28 trillion will be spent via digital wallets globally, online and in-store, by 2030. Global Payments’ separate 2030 forecast in the table below measures payment apps across channels rather than digital wallets.
- By 2030, $4.1 trillion of US spending is projected to take place through a digital wallet, a 64% increase from 2025.
- Digital payments are forecast to capture 79% of all spend online and reach 53% of in-store spend by 2030.
- Direct use of cards in the US is forecast to fall from 71% of in-store spending in 2025 to 64% in 2030.
| Forecast for 2030 | Value | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Global spend via digital wallets | over $28 trillion | Worldpay |
| Payment apps across channels | $23.4 trillion | Global Payments |
| US spending through digital wallets | $4.1 trillion | Global Payments |
| Digital payments’ share of online spend | 79% | Worldpay |
| Digital payments’ share of in-store spend | 53% | Worldpay |
| Global crypto spend | $38 billion | Worldpay |
Source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2025, Global Payments Report 2026
What is wallet share growth?
Wallet share growth is the rise in the portion of spending that runs through digital wallets. Wallets represented 53% of e-commerce spend in 2024, and 56% of online spending in 2025, according to the Worldpay and Global Payments reports. Banks use the same phrase for their slice of a customer’s total financial business, so the meaning depends on who is measuring.
Conclusion
Digital wallets carried 56% of global online spending and 33% of in-store spending in 2025, and the distance between those two figures shows where adoption stands. Online checkout has largely moved to wallets, while physical stores in card-heavy markets such as the US remain the open question.
Global Payments expects US digital wallet spending to grow 10% annually between 2025 and 2030. The next Federal Reserve payment diary and the next Global Payments Report will show whether in-store wallet share starts to move faster than online share did in its early years.
