Business
Instacart Announces First Quarter 2026 Financial Results
Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) today released financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2026.
About this update from Maplebear Inc.
GTV grew 13% year-over-year and total revenue grew 14% year-over-year GAAP net income of $144 million, up 36% year-over-year; Adjusted EBITDA of $300 million, up 23% year-over-year SAN FRANCISCO , May 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart (NASDAQ: CART) today released financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2026. "Q1 was a milestone quarter — surpassing $10 billion in GTV and $1 billion in total revenue for the first time. These results prove that our strategy is working. We're the leading grocery technology platform, delivering a best-in-class consumer experience, powering retailers across marketplace and enterprise, and operating a scaled ads ecosystem," said Chris Rogers, CEO. "Each part of our platform is getting stronger — and they're compounding together. That foundation positions us to invest in new initiatives like AI Solutions, international expansion, and in-store technologies that will help accelerate our growth over time." "We started the year with strong momentum, delivering a ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit GTV growth and our fastest advertising and other revenue growth since Q3 2023. We also continued to expand profitability year-over-year while generating meaningful free cash flow," said Emily Reuter, CFO. "Our operating fundamentals are solid and give us the flexibility to reinvest to further accelerate growth, pursue strategic M&A, and opportunistically return capital through share repurchases as we focus on maximizing long-term shareholder value." First Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights Operational Highlights Second Quarter 2026 Financial Outlook This GTV outlook represents year-over-year growth between 11% to 13% with GTV expected to continue to outpace orders growth. Our Adjusted EBITDA outlook represents year-over-year growth between 11% to 15%. For fiscal 2026, we remain committed to steady annual Adjusted EBITDA year-over-year growth at a rate that outpaces GTV growth. Similar to prior years, we expect this rate of expansion to moderate year-over-year as we reinvest to accelerate across our multiple growth engines and lap some of the more significant operating expense efficiencies realized in 2024 and 2025. We have not provided the forward-looking GAAP equivalent to our Adjusted EBITDA or a GAAP reconciliation as a result of the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of, reconciling items such as stock-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses, certain legal and regulatory accruals and settlements, and reserves for sales and other indirect taxes. Accordingly, a reconciliation of this non-GAAP guidance metric to its corresponding GAAP equivalent is not available without unreasonable effort. However, it is important to note that these reconciling items could have a significant effect on future GAAP results. Webcast and conference call information Instacart management will host a conference call to discuss the company's results at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Time (8:30 a.m. Eastern Time) today. An audio webcast of the conference call will be available on the company's Investor Relations website at https://investors.instacart.com/ . About Instacart Instacart is a leading grocery technology company that partners with more than 2,200 retail banners – representing nearly 100,000 stores – to transform how people shop for the groceries they need from the retailers they trust, while creating flexible earning opportunities for shoppers. Through the Instacart Marketplace, Instacart Enterprise platform, and Instacart Ads ecosystem, the company powers ecommerce, fulfillment, in-store technology, AI offerings, and advertising for partners. For more information, visit www.instacart.com/company . Maplebear Inc. is the registered corporate name of Instacart. Forward-Looking Statements This letter and the accompanying oral presentation contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact could be deemed forward-looking, including without limitation statements regarding our financial outlook, including GTV, Adjusted EBITDA, transaction revenue, advertising and other revenue, cost of revenue, stock-based compensation expense, cash flow, and orders, trends in our business and industry, impacts from macroeconomic conditions, our plans and expectations regarding growth, products, features, and partnerships, including expansion of our capabilities, services, and solutions, the expected benefits of AI, our strategic priorities, investments, and initiatives, including international expansion and M&A activity, our ability to drive sales and growth for our partners, and activity under our share repurchase program. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipate," "believe," "contemplate," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "target," "toward," "will," or "would," or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. The forward-looking statements contained in this letter and the accompanying oral presentation are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause actual results or outcomes to be materially different from any future results or outcomes expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to forecast our performance; our ability to attract and increase engagement of customers, retailers, brands, and shoppers; the increasing scale, scope, and complexity of our business; evolving and uncertain macroeconomic conditions; our ability to achieve and maintain profitability and profitable growth; competition; and legal and regulatory developments; as well as other risks described from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 filed with the SEC on February 26, 2026. You should not rely on forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We have based the forward-looking statements contained in this letter and the accompanying oral presentation on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Key Business Metrics We use the following key business metrics to help us evaluate our business, identify trends affecting our performance, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions: Non-GAAP Financial Measures We use the following non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with GAAP measures to assess performance, to inform the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to discuss our business and financial performance with our board of directors. We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors about our business and financial performance, enhance their overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to metrics used by our management in their financial and operational decision making. We are presenting these non-GAAP financial measures to assist investors in seeing our business and financial performance through the eyes of management, and because we believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in comparing results of operations of our business over multiple periods with other companies in our industry. Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA as a Percent of GTV, and Adjusted EBITDA Margin. We define Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude (i) provision for (benefit from) income taxes, (ii) interest income, (iii) other (income) expense, net, (iv) depreciation and amortization expense, (v) stock-based compensation expense, (vi) payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation, (vii) certain legal and regulatory accruals and settlements, net, (viii) reserves for sales and other indirect taxes, net, (ix) acquisition-related expenses, and (x) restructuring charges. We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of total revenue. Adjusted Cost of Revenue and Adjusted Cost of Revenue as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted cost of revenue as cost of revenue excluding depreciation and amortization expense and stock-based compensation expense. Adjusted Operations and Support Expense and Adjusted Operations and Support Expense as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted operations and support expense as operations and support expense excluding depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, and payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation. Adjusted Research and Development Expense and Adjusted Research and Development Expense as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted research and development expense as research and development expense excluding depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, and payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation. Adjusted Sales and Marketing Expense and Adjusted Sales and Marketing Expense as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted sales and marketing expense as sales and marketing expense excluding depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, and payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation. Adjusted General and Administrative Expense and Adjusted General and Administrative Expense as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted general and administrative expense as general and administrative expense excluding depreciation and amortization expense; stock-based compensation expense; payroll taxes related to stock-based compensation; certain legal and regulatory accruals and settlements, net; reserves for sales and other indirect taxes, net; and acquisition-related expenses. Adjusted Total Operating Expenses and Adjusted Total Operating Expenses as a Percent of GTV. We define adjusted total operating expenses as the sum of adjusted operations and support expense, adjusted research and development expense, adjusted sales and marketing expense, and adjusted general and administrative expense. We exclude depreciation and amortization expense and stock-based compensation expense from our non-GAAP financial measures as these are non-cash in nature. We exclude payroll taxes related to the vesting and settlement of certain equity awards; certain legal and regulatory accruals and settlements, net; reserves for sales and other indirect taxes, net; acquisition-related expenses; and restructuring charges as these are not indicative of our operating performance. Free Cash Flow. We define free cash flow as net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of property and equipment, including capitalized internal-use software. Non-GAAP financial measures are not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for comparable GAAP financial measures and should be read only in conjunction with our condensed consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Our presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similar measures used by other companies, which reduce their usefulness as comparative measures. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar measures. Further, these measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our condensed consolidated statements of operations. We encourage investors and others to review our business, results of operations, and financial information in their entirety, not to rely on any single financial measure, and carefully consider our results under GAAP, as well as our supplemental non-GAAP information and the reconciliation between these presentations, to more fully understand our business. Please see the tables included at the end of this press release for the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/instacart-announces-first-quarter-2026-financial-results-302763379.html