Affirm Holdings reported revenue of $1.12 billion for its fiscal second quarter of 2026, a 30% increase on the prior-year period, with gross merchandise volume reaching $13.8 billion, up 36% year on year. Both figures exceeded the company's own guidance for the period, according to results published on 5 February 2026, marking another quarter of accelerating growth for the buy-now-pay-later platform as it deepened its presence across the US retail and commerce market.
The company recorded net income of $129.6 million for the quarter, a significant result for a business that has historically operated at a loss as it invested in technology, merchant partnerships, and customer acquisition. Adjusted operating income reached $337 million, representing a 30% adjusted operating margin and a 42% increase on the comparable period in the prior year.
MERCHANT NETWORK EXPANSION AND TRANSACTION VOLUMES
Affirm's active merchant network reached 478,000 at the end of the quarter, a 42% increase year on year. The breadth and diversity of that merchant base is a central component of the company's value proposition: a larger network of retail and services partners increases the frequency with which consumers encounter Affirm as a payment option at the point of purchase, driving repeat usage and reducing the per-transaction cost of customer acquisition over time.
Total transactions processed during the quarter reached 54.9 million, representing a 44% increase from the same period a year earlier. Transaction growth outpacing GMV growth at a slightly higher rate implies a modest decline in average transaction value, which is consistent with Affirm's deliberate strategy of extending its product into lower-value everyday purchases alongside the higher-ticket consumer electronics, travel, and home furnishings categories where it first established scale.
The 42% rise in active merchants and the 44% jump in transaction volumes both point to the same underlying dynamic: Affirm's network is becoming more deeply embedded in consumer spending habits across a wider range of categories and price points. Higher transaction frequency from an established user base generates incremental revenue at relatively low marginal cost, which is the mechanism through which operating leverage accumulates in marketplace-style lending businesses as they reach scale.
PROFITABILITY AND THE PATH TO MATURITY
The $129.6 million net income figure is meaningful in the context of Affirm's financial history as a high-growth fintech operating in the competitive consumer lending space. The company has faced sustained pressure from investors and analysts to demonstrate that its buy-now-pay-later model can generate sustainable profits rather than merely impressive volume metrics. The fiscal Q2 2026 result provides concrete evidence that revenue expansion has reached a scale at which operating leverage is translating into meaningful and recurring bottom-line improvement, rather than episodic profitability driven by one-off items.
The 30% adjusted operating margin reflects the company's demonstrated ability to grow revenue faster than its cost base over the course of the year. With GMV expanding at 36% and revenue at 30%, the modest compression between volume and revenue growth may reflect evolution in product mix or changes in funding costs, but the overall picture presented by the quarterly results was one of a business increasingly exhibiting the financial characteristics associated with a maturing, sustainably profitable fintech lending platform operating at significant scale.