A quarter of $370.9 billion
How busy is the Fed’s instant payment rail three years after its July 20, 2023 launch? The Federal Reserve’s statistics page, last updated October 20, 2026, counts only settled customer transfers.
| Quarter | Settled payments | Value | Average payment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third quarter of 2025 | 2,506,002 | $307.3 billion | $122,616 |
| Second quarter of 2026 | 4,997,811 | $274.7 billion | $54,957 |
| Third quarter of 2026 | 6,376,467 | $370.9 billion | $58,161 |
Volume rose about 2.5 times in a year while the average payment fell by roughly half, so the mix has shifted toward smaller payments. In the third quarter the system settled 69,309 a day, counted over calendar days.
Size is less of a limit than it was. Federal Reserve Financial Services said on September 9, 2025 that the network limit would rise from $1 million to $10 million per payment, effective November 2025, while each bank stays free to set a lower one.
Where you will and won’t see it
You won’t find a FedNow button. “There is no FedNow app,” the Fed’s FAQ says, and customers may never see the name, since banks build instant payments into their own apps.
Whether you can use it depends on your bank. The participant list dated November 9, 2026 holds 1,979 institutions, a count made for this entry, including JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank and PNC Bank. The FAQ puts the number of US banks and credit unions at about 9,000.
For the bank, the price is small. The 2026 fee schedule charges 4.5 cents for each credit transfer sent, with the first 2,500 a month discounted to zero this year.
The law behind the speed
FedNow runs under subpart C of the Fed’s Regulation J. Section 210.44 obliges the receiving bank to credit the customer immediately after it accepts a payment order. There is an exit. A bank with reasonable cause to believe the recipient is not entitled to the money may tell its Reserve Bank that it needs more time before accepting.
Two mistakes worth avoiding
The first is to confuse FedNow with a central bank digital currency. The Fed’s FAQ answers that directly, saying FedNow “is not related to a digital currency” and that the Fed would only issue a CBDC with an authorizing law.
The second is to assume every instant payment in the US is FedNow. The Clearing House runs its own RTP network, which its RTP page says carried 150 million transactions worth $621 billion in the third quarter of 2026. Exchange Kraken’s withdrawal page lists RTP, at 1.50% with a $50 cap, not FedNow, and warns that the receiving bank must support it. Ask your bank which network it has joined before counting on an instant off-ramp.