Duolingo dives on Q3 user growth miss, uninspiring guidance
Duolingo has run into stiff headwinds this year.
Duolingo reported Q3 earnings after the close on Wednesday.
The language-learning app posted:
Q3 adjusted EBITDA of $80 million vs. Wall Street expectations for $71.2 million.
Q3 sales of $271.1 million vs. estimates for $260.3 million.
Daily active users of 50.5 million vs. expectations for 51.1 million.
Full-year sales guidance of between $1.028 billion and $1.032 billion vs. expectations for $1.018 billion.
The company’s net income benefited from a one-time tax-related gain of $223 million, which pushed its earnings per share to $5.95. That was far in excess of expectations for $0.76 a share, but not particularly informative.
Duolingo has struggled to regain the market momentum it started the year with. The stock was up nearly 70% for the year by May, before a company memo posted on LinkedIn about Duolingo’s AI-first strategy, which laid out plans to replace some outside contractors with AI, provoked a social media backlash.
The stock began to sputter amid signs that user activity was slowing. Shares got a brief respite after Duolingo posted a strong earnings report for Q2, but the sell-off soon resumed. Through the end of the daily session on Wednesday, the stock was down nearly 20% for the year and at its lowest level of 2025.
From Wall Street’s perspective, the epicenter of concern seems to surround Duolingo’s ability to recover its former growth in daily active users, a key measure of user engagement.
