Klarna lowered its full-year 2026 gross merchandise volume outlook while raising its transaction margin expectations, signaling that the company expects stronger economics from a somewhat smaller volume base. Meanwhile, Klarna Membership revenue rose more than 600% year over year as paying subscribers grew eightfold to 2 million, adding a rapidly expanding recurring-revenue component to its broader payments and lending platform.
Klarna now expects full-year GMV of $149 billion to $151 billion, down from its previous expectation of more than $155 billion. The company attributed the adjustment partly to approximately $600 million of currency translation and a more measured view of volumes in Germany, its largest market by volume. Its U.S. assumptions remain unchanged, with the U.S. continuing to be Klarna’s fastest-growing large region.
Despite the lower volume forecast, Klarna raised its expected transaction margin dollars to $1.62 billion to $1.65 billion, equivalent to about 1.09% of GMV, up from more than 1.04% previously. Excluding an approximately two-basis-point benefit from a change in the accounting presentation of certain Fair Financing originations, Klarna expects transaction margin of approximately 1.07% of GMV.
The company characterized the change as generating more margin on less volume, supported by a favorable product mix and continued growth of the Klarna Card. Transaction margin dollars are a key operating metric for Klarna because they represent revenue after transaction-related costs, including processing and servicing, credit-loss provisions, and funding costs.
Klarna’s Q2 results already showed that pattern developing. GMV increased 18% year over year to $36.6 billion, while revenue increased 27% to $1.042 billion. Transaction margin dollars grew considerably faster, rising 42% to $446 million, while adjusted operating income increased 214% to $91 million.
Transaction margin dollars reached 42.8% of revenue, improving by more than 4.5 percentage points year over year. Klarna noted that transaction margin growth exceeded revenue growth, while revenue itself grew faster than GMV, indicating progressively stronger monetization and economics across the platform.
The company also returned to GAAP profitability during the quarter. Operating income reached $27 million compared with a $46 million loss in Q2 2025, while net income reached $9 million compared with a $53 million loss. Earnings per share improved to $0.01 from a loss of $0.14 per share.
Improving credit performance accompanied the higher transaction volumes. Provisions for credit losses declined to 0.52% of GMV from 0.56%, while U.S. Fair Financing delinquencies of more than 30 days declined 20 basis points sequentially. Klarna also said about 90% of its funding comes from low-cost consumer deposits.
Alongside improving transaction economics, Klarna is building a larger recurring consumer business. Klarna Memberships reached 2 million paying subscribers, approximately eight times the year-earlier level, while subscription revenue increased more than 600%. The company recently introduced new Membership plans focused on cashback and other consumer benefits.
The growth of Memberships is part of a broader effort to increase the frequency with which consumers use Klarna. The company had more than 120 million active consumers, up 8% year over year, while average revenue per active consumer increased 24%. Klarna said consumers are increasingly using its network for a greater share of their everyday spending rather than only using the service for individual installment purchases.
The Klarna Card is another contributor to that strategy. Active Card users increased to 6.5 million across 16 countries from 1.3 million a year earlier, a fivefold increase. The expansion gives Klarna another recurring touchpoint with customers beyond traditional buy-now-pay-later transactions at checkout.
Merchant distribution is also expanding quickly. More than 1.2 million merchants are now live on Klarna, up 54% year over year. J.P. Morgan Payments recently activated Klarna across its merchant platform, allowing merchants to offer Klarna’s pay-in-full, interest-free installment and longer-term financing products without building a separate integration.
The number of merchants offering Klarna’s Fair Financing product increased 107% to 256,000, providing another avenue for monetization as the company moves customers and merchants toward a broader mix of payment, lending, card and subscription products.
For the full year, Klarna continues to expect adjusted operating income of $280 million to $300 million, equivalent to 6.9% to 7.2% of revenue. That compares with only $65 million in adjusted operating income for all of 2025. Klarna had already generated $159 million during the first half of 2026.
The combination of lower expected GMV, higher transaction margin guidance and rapidly growing Membership revenue illustrates Klarna’s effort to shift the focus away from payment volume alone. The company is increasingly emphasizing the profitability of each transaction and the amount of recurring consumer engagement it can generate through products such as Memberships and the Klarna Card.
KEY QUOTE:
“Over 120 million consumers now use Klarna, and each is using it for more of their everyday spend — revenue per active consumer grew 24%. That deepening engagement is why transaction margin dollars grew 42%, well ahead of revenue and volume. We measure our progress in transaction margin dollars.”
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO & Co-Founder of Klarna
