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Sentiment · FY2026 Q2
Duolingo delivered a strong first quarter of 2026, with GAAP revenue up 26.5% year-over-year and operating income up roughly 89% as gross margin expanded and operating leverage kicked in; adjusted EBITDA reached $83 million, about 29% of revenue. Daily active users grew 21% year-over-year, and the company published 20.5 thousand course units in the quarter, more than ten times its pace of two years ago, reaching B2 professional proficiency across its nine most learned languages as AI accelerated content generation. GAAP diluted EPS rose 23.6%, trailing operating-income growth because the prior-year quarter carried outsized below-the-line income, but the operating line confirms the genuine margin expansion. Management reiterated its full-year 2026 framework of 15% to 18% revenue growth, 10% to 12% bookings growth, and a roughly 25% adjusted EBITDA margin, framing 2026 as a deliberate investment year that trades some near-term monetization and gross margin, guided toward 69% by year-end, for durable long-term growth. The soft spots, a flat top of funnel, decelerating MAU, and a tough Q2 bookings comp of about 6% growth, are largely deliberate consequences of the DAU-first monetization reset rather than signs of deterioration.
Subscriber Growth | Demand | Cloud & AI | Pricing | Margin | Product Launch | Competitive Dynamics | Innovation & R&D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024Q4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2025Q1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| 2025Q2 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025Q3 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| 2025Q4 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| 2026Q1 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| '24Q4 | '25Q1 | '25Q2 | '25Q3 | '25Q4 | '26Q1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscriber Growth | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| Demand | 3 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| Cloud & AI | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Pricing | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Margin | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| Product Launch | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Competitive Dynamics | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | |
| Innovation & R&D | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Quarter | Revenue | Rev YoY | EPS | EPS YoY | Op margin | Net margin | FCF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2024 Q4 | $210M | +38.8% | $0.28 | +12.0% | 6.7% | 6.6% | $81M |
| FY2025 Q1 | $231M | +37.7% | $0.72 | +26.3% | 10.3% | 15.2% | $104M |
| FY2025 Q2 | $252M | +41.5% | $0.91 | +78.4% | 13.5% |
| 17.8% |
| $89M |
| FY2025 Q3 | $272M | +41.1% | $5.95 | +1114.3% | 14.6% | 107.5% | $79M |
| FY2025 Q4 | $283M | +35.0% | $0.84 | +200.0% | 15.5% | 14.8% | $97M |
| FY2026 Q1 | $292M | +26.5% | $0.89 | +23.6% | 15.4% | 14.9% | $151M |
| FY2026 Q2 | $298M | +18.3% | $0.66 | -27.5% | 11.4% | 11.1% | $79M |
Management’s own words, often on a non-GAAP, constant-currency, or adjusted basis — so these can differ from the GAAP figures above (e.g. constant-currency revenue growth excludes currency swings).
What DUOL and other companies said about each other on FY2026 Q1 earnings calls — extracted verbatim from public transcripts. Mentions from the newest quarter are a Pro feature.
“There have been two successful brand tie-ins over the last 12 months—Luckin Coffee last year and Meituan in March.”
An analyst cited Meituan as one of Duolingo's successful China brand tie-ins (March), implying Meituan uses co-branded app partnerships for consumer engagement.
“There have been two successful brand tie-ins over the last 12 months—Luckin Coffee last year and Meituan in March.”
An analyst cited Luckin Coffee as one of Duolingo's successful China brand tie-ins over the past year, implying Luckin uses co-branded app partnerships as a marketing channel.
“For example, we very soon have a partnership with McDonald’s in China.”
Duolingo cited an upcoming brand partnership with McDonald's in China, a read-through on McDonald's using tie-ins with a high-engagement consumer app to build brand relevance in that market.
“If you look at other freemium models, they are much higher—Spotify is close to 50%.”
Von Ahn benchmarks Duolingo's roughly 12% paid conversion against Spotify's near-50% freemium conversion, implying Spotify monetizes its free base far more heavily.
| Analyst | Firm | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Ryan MacDonald | Needham | 8 (13%) |
| Bryan Smilek | JPMorgan | 8 (0%) |
| Mark Mahaney | Evercore ISI | 7 (43%) |
| Justin Patterson | KeyBanc Capital Markets | 7 (0%) |
| Andrew Boone | Citizens JMP Securities | 7 (14%) |
| Nathan Feather | Morgan Stanley | 7 (29%) |
| Wyatt Swanson | D.A. Davidson | 7 (29%) |
| Shweta Khajuria | Wolfe Research | 6 (0%) |
| Ralph Schackart | William Blair | 6 (33%) |
| Alex Sklar | Raymond James | 5 (0%) |
| Firm | Analysts | Questions (Challenge)Percentage of questions scored as challenging — where the analyst pushed back, pressed for specifics, or questioned management's assumptions. |
|---|---|---|
| Needham | 1 | 8 (13%) |
| JPMorgan | 1 | 8 (0%) |
| D.A. Davidson | 1 | 7 (29%) |
| Evercore ISI | 1 |
| 7 (43%) |
| Wolfe Research | 2 | 7 (0%) |
| Citizens JMP Securities | 1 | 7 (14%) |
| KeyBanc Capital Markets | 1 | 7 (0%) |
| Morgan Stanley | 1 | 7 (29%) |
| Company | Score | Trend | Rev YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
DUOL Duolingo, Inc. | 9 | +26.5% | |
| ADSK Autodesk | 10 | +19.8% | |
| AI C3.ai, Inc. | 1 | -46.1% | |
| APP Applovin Corp | 9 | +59.0% | |
| CDNS Cadence Design Systems | 9 | +18.7% | |
| CHYM Chime Financial, Inc. Class A Common Stock | 10 | +24.8% | |
| CRM Salesforce, Inc. | 9 | +12.1% | |
| DDOG Datadog | 10 | +32.1% | |
| FICO Fair Isaac | 9 | +38.7% | |
| FIG Figma, Inc. | 9 | +46.1% | |
| INTU Intuit | 9 | +17.4% | |
| MSTR MicroStrategy Inc. | 7 | +11.9% | |
| NOW ServiceNow | 7 | +22.1% | |
| PTC PTC Inc. | 9 | +21.7% | |
| SHOP Shopify | 8 | +34.3% | |
| SNOW Snowflake Inc. | 9 | +30.1% | |
| SOUN SoundHound AI, Inc. | 8 | +51.7% | |
| TEAM Atlassian | 7 | +31.7% | |
| TTD The Trade Desk, Inc. | 8 | +11.8% | |
| TYL Tyler Technologies | 8 | +8.6% | |
| U Unity Software Inc. | 9 | +16.8% | |
| UBER Uber | 8 | +14.5% | |
| WDAY Workday, Inc. | 7 | +14.5% |