Cat Financial Financing Activities (Details 7) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2019 USD ($) Contracts	Dec. 31, 2018 USD ($) Contracts	Dec. 31, 2017 USD ($) Customer Contracts
Finance Receivables | Customer
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	62	52	144
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 209	$ 186	$ 579
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 204	$ 152	$ 557
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	12	16	252
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 15	$ 44	$ 21
Finance Receivables | Customer | North America
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	15	38	43
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 11	$ 21	$ 34
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 11	$ 21	$ 35
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	11	10	4
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 5	$ 10	$ 3
Finance Receivables | Customer | EAME
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	19	0	4
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 17	$ 0	$ 1
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 17	$ 0	$ 1
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	0	1
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 0	$ 0	$ 0
Finance Receivables | Customer | Asia Pacific
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	0	10
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 0	$ 39
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 0	$ 31
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	0	4
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 0	$ 0	$ 1
Finance Receivables | Customer | Mining
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	2	1	2
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 8	$ 29	$ 57
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 8	$ 29	$ 56
Finance Receivables | Customer | Latin America
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	5	1	17
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 5	$ 3	$ 26
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 3	$ 3	$ 27
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	3	243
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 0	$ 1	$ 17
Finance Receivables | Customer | Caterpillar Power Finance
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	21	12	68
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 168	$ 133	$ 422
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 165	$ 99	$ 407
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	1	3	0
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default	$ 10	$ 33	$ 0
Finance Receivables | Dealer
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts)	0	0	0
Significant Amount of Amount Disclosed Represented by a Certain Number of Customers [Member] | Customer | Latin America
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts			238
Financing Receivable, Troubled Debt Restructuring, Subsequent Default			$ 16
Number of Significant Customers Disclosed			2
Significant Amount of Amount Disclosed Represented by a Certain Number of Customers [Member] | Customer | Caterpillar Power Finance
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts			48
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment			$ 265
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment			$ 258
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Significant Customers Disclosed | Customer			6