Klarna vs Affirm
Last updated: September 3, 2026
Klarna
B
Klarna is a Swedish-founded, UK-parented digital bank and flexible payments provider that listed on the New York Stock Exchange in September 2025. Its full year 2025 results put it at $127.9 billion of gross merchandise volume, $3.5 billion of revenue, 118 million active consumers and 966,000 merchants. For a retailer it is not a merchant account — it is an additional payment method that sits alongside card acceptance, sold on the promise of higher conversion and larger baskets, and priced far above card interchange. Klarna publishes no US rate card, its dispute process runs on its own rules rather than the card networks', and it is defending a securities class action filed after its IPO.
Affirm
B-
Affirm is a buy-now-pay-later provider founded in 2012 by Max Levchin, Nathan Gettings, Jeffrey Kaditz and Alex Rampell, headquartered at 221 Main Street in San Francisco and listed on Nasdaq as AFRM since January 2021. For the fiscal year ended 30 June 2026 it reported $50.2 billion of gross merchandise volume, up 37%, across approximately 571,000 active merchants and 27.8 million active consumers. Merchants integrate Affirm as a checkout option, Affirm underwrites and funds the consumer, and the merchant is paid in full up front minus a fee. Two things make it materially different from card acceptance: Affirm bears the consumer fraud risk on transactions it approves, and the merchant fee is several times a card rate — third-party surveys of mid-market merchants report 2% to 8%, while Affirm's own filings put blended merchant network revenue at 2.3% of GMV in FY2026. Its BBB profile is A+ and accredited; its consumer Trustpilot score is 1.7 across roughly 7,700 reviews.
VS
Overview
Klarna and Affirm both let a shopper split a purchase and both pay the merchant up front, but they are built around different baskets. Klarna's volume is short-term - pay in four, pay in thirty days - and it publishes a US rate card at 5.99% + $0.30. Affirm's is long-term: 70% of its FY2026 volume was interest-bearing monthly installments where the shopper pays the interest, which is why its blended merchant take is low even though its 0% APR promotions are the most expensive thing either company sells. Klarna is far larger in reach, with 120 million consumers and 1.2 million merchants against Affirm's 27.8 million and 571,000. Affirm charges a dispute fee only when you lose; Klarna charges one either way.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Klarna publishes a US rate card at 5.99% + $0.30; Affirm publishes nothing and negotiates per merchant.
- ✓Affirm charges its $15 dispute fee only when the merchant loses; Klarna charges $15 on every closed case, win or lose.
- ✓Klarna reaches 120 million consumers and 1.2 million merchants against Affirm's 27.8 million and 571,000.
- ✓70% of Affirm's FY2026 volume was interest-bearing, where the shopper - not the merchant - carries the cost.
- ✓Affirm settles daily by ACH with funds landing 3-5 days after capture; Klarna's payout schedule and delay are set in your contract.
Klarna
Klarna suits merchants selling everyday and mid-ticket baskets, anyone selling outside the US, and anyone who wants a published price and a distribution network measured in nine figures of shoppers.
Affirm
Affirm suits US merchants selling big-ticket goods where a 12- to 36-month plan is what closes the sale, and who would rather let the customer pay interest than pay a high promotional rate themselves.
The Verdict
It Depends on Your Needs
Why?
Klarna wins most of what can actually be measured: it publishes a rate where Affirm publishes nothing, it reaches four times the consumers and twice the merchants, and it carries a vastly better consumer reputation that a merchant does not have to absorb as support load. Affirm wins the two rows a finance team notices - a dispute fee charged only when you lose, and a settlement clock you can predict without reading your contract. What the tables cannot show is the thing Affirm is actually bought for: on a $2,000 purchase a 24-month plan closes sales that a four-instalment plan does not, and neither company publishes conversion data to settle that. So the verdict turns on ticket size rather than on price. Below a few hundred dollars Klarna is the stronger choice on every visible measure; above roughly a thousand, Affirm's longer terms are worth paying for, and the fact that 70% of its volume is interest-bearing means much of that cost lands on the shopper rather than on you.
Feature by feature
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
Merchant pricing
| Feature | Klarna | Affirm |
|---|---|---|
| Published US rate card | Yes - 5.99% variable + $0.30 fixed Winner | No - negotiated per merchant |
| Klarna's own pricing annex for merchants in the United States and Canada sets the Klarna Payments service charge at a 5.99% variable fee plus a $0.30 fixed fee for US customers; the document is dated 5 September 2023 and is the most recent US annex published on Klarna's CDN. Klarna's current developer documentation describes rates as plan-specific and delivered through a Price Plans API, so a negotiated rate may differ. Affirm publishes no merchant pricing at all; third-party surveys place mid-market merchants somewhere between 4% and 8% on 0% APR promotional financing. | ||
| Total company revenue as a share of GMV | 2.8% of GMV, all revenue (Q2 2026) | 8.5% of GMV, all revenue (FY2026) |
| Neither number is a merchant fee, and both are quoted here only to show how differently the two monetise. Klarna's is $1.042bn of revenue on $36.6bn of GMV for the June 2026 quarter; Affirm's is $4.26bn on $50.2bn for the year to 30 June 2026. Affirm's figure is inflated by consumer interest on the interest-bearing loans that make up most of its book; Klarna's includes consumer fees, interest and advertising. Affirm's merchant network revenue alone was $302.4m on $14.1bn of Q4 GMV, about 2.1%. | ||
| Dispute fee (US) | $15 per closed case, win or lose | $15, only when the merchant loses Winner |
| Klarna's documentation is explicit that the fee applies regardless of outcome and is not refunded when the dispute resolves in the merchant's favour, and it rises to $30 per case if your dispute rate exceeds 1.5% for three consecutive months on more than 100 orders. Affirm's dispute page states the merchant pays a $15 dispute fee only where Affirm resolves in the customer's favour, and that a merchant who wins is not liable for any amount. An unsuccessful appeal of a Klarna pre-arbitration decision costs a further $600. | ||
Published US rate card
Klarna
Yes - 5.99% variable + $0.30 fixed
Winner
Affirm
No - negotiated per merchant
Klarna's own pricing annex for merchants in the United States and Canada sets the Klarna Payments service charge at a 5.99% variable fee plus a $0.30 fixed fee for US customers; the document is dated 5 September 2023 and is the most recent US annex published on Klarna's CDN. Klarna's current developer documentation describes rates as plan-specific and delivered through a Price Plans API, so a negotiated rate may differ. Affirm publishes no merchant pricing at all; third-party surveys place mid-market merchants somewhere between 4% and 8% on 0% APR promotional financing.
Total company revenue as a share of GMV
Klarna
2.8% of GMV, all revenue (Q2 2026)
Affirm
8.5% of GMV, all revenue (FY2026)
Neither number is a merchant fee, and both are quoted here only to show how differently the two monetise. Klarna's is $1.042bn of revenue on $36.6bn of GMV for the June 2026 quarter; Affirm's is $4.26bn on $50.2bn for the year to 30 June 2026. Affirm's figure is inflated by consumer interest on the interest-bearing loans that make up most of its book; Klarna's includes consumer fees, interest and advertising. Affirm's merchant network revenue alone was $302.4m on $14.1bn of Q4 GMV, about 2.1%.
Dispute fee (US)
Klarna
$15 per closed case, win or lose
Affirm
$15, only when the merchant loses
Winner
Klarna's documentation is explicit that the fee applies regardless of outcome and is not refunded when the dispute resolves in the merchant's favour, and it rises to $30 per case if your dispute rate exceeds 1.5% for three consecutive months on more than 100 orders. Affirm's dispute page states the merchant pays a $15 dispute fee only where Affirm resolves in the customer's favour, and that a merchant who wins is not liable for any amount. An unsuccessful appeal of a Klarna pre-arbitration decision costs a further $600.
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
Apparel, beauty, homeware and other everyday retail
Recommended
Klarna
Baskets in the $50-$300 range are what pay-in-four was built for, and Klarna's 120 million shoppers and app-based discovery make it a distribution channel as well as a payment method. Affirm's longer plans add nothing at this ticket size.
High-ticket goods - furniture, fitness equipment, electronics, elective medical
Recommended
Affirm
A $500-$3,000 purchase is where 12- to 36-month terms change the conversion rate, and Affirm's book is built around exactly that. With 70% of its volume interest-bearing, much of the financing cost is carried by the customer rather than charged to you.
Merchant selling outside the United States
Recommended
Klarna
Klarna publishes pricing annexes and fixed fees across Europe, the UK, the Nordics, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Mexico, and prices cross-border transactions explicitly. Affirm's disclosed business is overwhelmingly North American.
Merchant with a high dispute or return rate
Recommended
Affirm
Affirm charges its $15 dispute fee only on cases the merchant loses. Klarna charges $15 on every closed case regardless of outcome and doubles it to $30 if your dispute rate stays above 1.5% for three months, so a returns-heavy category pays for disputes it wins.
Large retailer building a full pay-later shelf
Both. The two are complements rather than substitutes: Klarna converts the everyday basket and Affirm the big-ticket one. Both are pre-integrated with the major acquirers and gateways, so running them side by side is a configuration exercise rather than a second build.
Klarna: Best for 2 use cases
Affirm: Best for 2 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
Klarna's published US rate is 5.99% + $0.30, which is high but knowable. Affirm publishes nothing, and what you pay depends entirely on the product mix: its 0% APR promotions are reported in the 4% to 8% range, while its interest-bearing monthly plans cost the merchant far less because the shopper pays the interest. Across all of Affirm's FY2026 volume, merchant network revenue worked out at roughly 2.1% of GMV - but that average is not a rate anyone is quoted.
Yes, in a pricing annex for merchants in the United States and Canada, which sets a 5.99% variable fee plus a $0.30 fixed fee for US customers. The current annex on Klarna's CDN is dated September 2023, and Klarna's developer documentation now describes rates as plan-specific and served through an API, so a negotiated agreement may sit below the published figure. Merchants above roughly $5m in annual revenue are reported to negotiate down toward 3.29% + $0.30.
Both hold the disputed funds while they investigate and both make the merchant reimburse the amount if the customer wins. The difference is the fee. Affirm charges $15 only where it resolves in the customer's favour. Klarna charges $15 on every closed case whatever the outcome, and $30 per case if your dispute rate exceeds 1.5% for three consecutive months on more than 100 orders. An unsuccessful appeal of a Klarna pre-arbitration decision costs a further $600.
Affirm settles daily: it initiates a batch ACH the day after capture and the transfer clears in 24 to 72 hours, so funds usually land three to five days after the sale, with weekend charges paid on Monday. Klarna's schedule and payout delay are set in your contract rather than published - its own example is a weekly Wednesday payout with a one-week delay, which is materially slower than Affirm.
Klarna, by a wide margin. It reported more than 120 million active consumers and more than 1.2 million live merchants in the quarter to June 2026, against Affirm's 27.8 million consumers and 571,000 merchants for the year to the same date. Klarna is also growing merchant count faster, at 54% against 50%, largely through acquirer distribution deals rather than direct sales.
For a large retailer with a wide price range, often yes. They convert different baskets - Klarna the everyday one, Affirm the big-ticket one - and both are pre-integrated with the major acquirers and gateways, so adding the second is usually configuration rather than a new build. For a small store with a narrow price range, pick the one that matches your ticket size and avoid splitting volume across two agreements you cannot negotiate down.