Cat Financial Financing Activities (Details 7) $ in Millions	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2018 USD ($) Customer Contracts	Dec. 31, 2017 USD ($) Contracts	Dec. 31, 2016 USD ($) Contracts
Finance Receivables | Customer
Loan and finance lease receivables
Loans and leases receivable, impaired, commitment to lend	$ 0
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	52	144	574
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 186	$ 579	$ 454
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 152	$ 557	$ 387
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	16	252	15
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 44	$ 21	$ 5
Finance Receivables | Customer | North America
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	38	43	25
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 21	$ 34	$ 25
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 21	$ 35	$ 25
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	10	4	5
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 10	$ 3	$ 2
Finance Receivables | Customer | Europe
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	4	43
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 1	$ 12
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 1	$ 9
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	1	5
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 0	$ 2
Finance Receivables | Customer | Asia Pacific
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	10	31
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 39	$ 29
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 31	$ 28
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	0	4	1
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 0	$ 1	$ 0
Finance Receivables | Customer | Mining
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	1	2	4
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 29	$ 57	$ 74
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 29	$ 56	$ 66
Finance Receivables | Customer | Latin America
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	1	17	437
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 3	$ 26	$ 118
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 3	$ 27	$ 82
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	3	243	4
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 1	$ 17	$ 1
Finance Receivables | Customer | Caterpillar Power Finance
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	12	68	34
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 133	$ 422	$ 196
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 99	$ 407	$ 177
TDRs with a payment default which had been modified within twelve months prior to the default date
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	3	0	0
Financing Receivable, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment	$ 33	$ 0	$ 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
Loan and finance lease receivables modified as TDRs
Number of Contracts (in contracts) | Contracts	321
Pre-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 94
Post-TDR Outstanding Recorded Investment	$ 64
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, Modifications, Subsequent Default, Recorded Investment		$ 16
Number of Significant Customers Disclosed	4	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