Snap Q3 Earnings: Global MAUs Grow to 977 Million, Performance Advertising Business Sees Strong Growth

【Ebrun Original】November 6 news: Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) recently released its Q3 2026 financial results. The report shows that the company's Q3 revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $1.722 billion, with net income of $56 million. Snapchat's global monthly active users increased to 977 million, and daily active users rose to 495 million. The total number of paid subscribers across Snapchat, Memories Storage, and Lens exceeded 30 million, driving other revenue up 84% year-over-year.

Evan Spiegel, co-founder and CEO of Snap, said that in Q3 the company's revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $1.72 billion and achieved net income, reflecting progress in improving business profitability. AI is becoming a significant advantage for teams and the advertising platform. The company will continue to strengthen its business foundation and, with the launch of SPECS smart glasses, continue investing in its long-term vision for augmented reality.

From user growth and engagement metrics, in Q3 Snap's daily active users increased to 495 million and monthly active users to 977 million; average daily messages sent grew 8% year-over-year, and the number of users engaging in two-way communication increased 6%. Paid subscribers exceeded 30 million, with Snapchat, Memories Storage, and Lens driving other revenue up 84% year-over-year.

Snap stated that paid subscribers still represent a relatively low proportion of monthly active users, and in the future it will further expand growth space by broadening subscription product coverage and launching more premium features and experiences.

Meanwhile, Spotlight, a short video feature that Snap has focused on building in recent years, is increasingly becoming an important part of the Snapchat user experience. During the reporting period, the number of users posting Spotlight short video content grew 130% year-over-year, and daily active viewers increased 40%.

On the revenue side, Q3 Snap revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $1.722 billion, with total costs increasing only 1%.

Advertising revenue grew 4% year-over-year, with performance advertising showing strong growth and contributing a significant share, but brand advertising at the upper funnel declined year-over-year, putting some pressure on overall growth.

Specifically, Sponsored Snaps advertising revenue grew 56% quarter-over-quarter, and Promoted Places advertising revenue and the number of advertisers using this ad product both more than doubled quarter-over-quarter. Ad campaigns optimized for in-app purchases saw purchase volume more than double year-over-year, average cost per purchase decrease by about 24%, and related advertising revenue grow by over 54%.

Snap disclosed that its current focus has shifted from improving ad performance to attracting more advertisers to adopt its ad products and expanding advertisers' budget share to drive sustained business growth.

The company expects Q4 revenue of $1.950 billion to $1.985 billion, representing 14% to 16% year-over-year growth, with the midpoint of that range corresponding to growth higher than the market consensus.

In terms of profitability, thanks to revenue growth and strict cost control, Snap significantly improved this quarter: net income reached $56 million, an improvement of $160 million from the same period last year; adjusted EBITDA increased by about $201 million year-over-year to $383 million; free cash flow grew 76% year-over-year to $164 million.

New market moves also emerged in the AI hardware business.

The SPECS First Look pop-up experience store for Snap's AR smart glasses SPECS has opened in Los Angeles, where users can experience SPECS on site, talk with the team, and learn more about augmented reality technology.

In addition to embedding AI technology in hardware, AI is also being used to improve Snap's operational efficiency. For example, on the advertiser service side, AI search currently resolves issues in more than 92% of help center sessions, with customer service requests down 35% year-over-year.

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