Futures
Access hundreds of perpetual contracts
TradFi
Gold
One platform for global traditional assets
Options
Hot
Trade European-style vanilla options
Unified Account
Maximize your capital efficiency
Demo Trading
Introduction to Futures Trading
Learn the basics of futures trading
Futures Events
Join events to earn rewards
Demo Trading
Use virtual funds to practice risk-free trading
Launch
CandyDrop
Collect candies to earn airdrops
Launchpool
Quick staking, earn potential new tokens
HODLer Airdrop
Hold GT and get massive airdrops for free
Pre-IPOs
Unlock full access to global stock IPOs
Alpha Points
Trade on-chain assets and earn airdrops
Futures Points
Earn futures points and claim airdrop rewards
More
Duolingo tumbles 22% on weak guidance, slowing user growth
Duolingo tumbles 22% on weak guidance, slowing user growth
Luke Juricic
Fri, February 27, 2026 at 8:31 AM GMT+9 2 min read
In this article:
DUOL
+5.19%
Investing.com – Duolingo Inc (NASDAQ:DUOL) reported fourth-quarter results that exceeded analyst expectations but issued disappointing guidance for 2026, sending shares down 22.9% in after-hours trading Thursday as the company shifts strategy to prioritize user growth over near-term profitability.
The language-learning platform reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.84 for the fourth quarter, beating the analyst estimate of $0.83. Revenue rose 35% YoY to $282.9 million, surpassing the consensus estimate of $275.74 million. However, the company’s outlook for 2026 fell significantly short of Wall Street expectations, with first-quarter revenue guidance of $288.5 million below the $291.8 million consensus and full-year revenue guidance of $1.20-$1.22 billion trailing the $1.26 billion estimate. The midpoint of $1.21 billion represents approximately 17% growth, well below analyst expectations.
Daily active users grew 30% YoY to 52.7 million in the fourth quarter, while paid subscribers increased 28% to 12.2 million. However, CEO Luis von Ahn acknowledged that DAU growth decelerated throughout 2025 and expects approximately 20% DAU growth in 2026, down from growth rates exceeding 40% in prior periods.
“We closed 2025 with strong momentum, surpassing 50 million daily active users and generating more than $1 billion in bookings for the first time,” said von Ahn. “In 2026, we are deliberately prioritizing user growth and teaching better. We’ll focus on improving the free learner experience to grow word of mouth and feed our next user growth engines like chess, math and music, even though that moderates near-term financial growth.”
The company expects bookings growth of approximately 11% in 2026, compared to the nearly 20% it believes it could achieve with its previous strategy. Adjusted EBITDA margin is projected to decrease to about 25% from 29.5% in 2025, as Duolingo moves its Video Call feature from the premium Max tier to the standard Super Duolingo subscription and reduces friction for free users. The company estimates it is investing more than $50 million of foregone bookings into the free user experience.
Duolingo’s Board authorized a $400 million share repurchase program. The company ended the quarter with $1.04 billion in cash and generated $93.7 million in free cash flow.
Related articles
Duolingo tumbles 22% on weak guidance, slowing user growth
Goldman expects lower but still attractive stock market returns in 2026
As Claude disrupts stock market, Anthropic researcher warns ’world is in peril’
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy Dashboard
More Info