Snap Inc. reported second quarter 2026 results on August 3, 2026 showing total revenue up 19% to $1.599 billion, but the advertising line grew 9% and the entire increase came from a roughly 10% rise in the average cost per advertising impression rather than from more inventory sold.

The gap between those two numbers is the quarter's central fact for media buyers. Total revenue reached $1,598,993 thousand against $1,344,930 thousand a year earlier, according to the earnings release. Within that, advertising revenue was $1,282.5 million, up 9% from $1,173.5 million. Other revenue, which covers subscriptions and partnership fees, climbed 85% to $316.5 million. Advertising now accounts for roughly 80% of the company's top line, down from 87% in 2025 by the company's own disclosure in its quarterly report.

Snap reported a net loss of $164.0 million against $262.6 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA reached $249.6 million versus $41.3 million, a 505% increase flattered by an unusually weak comparison base. Operating cash flow was $176.2 million and Free Cash Flow $120.5 million. Diluted net loss per share was $0.10.

"We grew revenue by 19%, expanded margins, and generated positive free cash flow while improving advertising performance and rapidly growing our direct revenue business," said Evan Spiegel, co-founder and chief executive, in the earnings release.

Price did the work, not volume

The mechanism behind the advertising number is disclosed in the Form 10-Q rather than the slides. For the three months ended June 30, 2026, the increase in advertising revenue is attributed to a year-over-year increase in the average cost per advertising impression of approximately 10%, according to Snap's quarterly report. No impression-volume figure is given for the quarter in isolation.

The six-month picture points the other way. Across the first half, advertising revenue rose $141.6 million on global impression volume growth of roughly 8%, partly offset by a decrease in average cost per impression of approximately 2%. That first-half impression growth is described as driven by expanded advertising delivery with Sponsored Snaps.

Read together, the two disclosures describe a reversal inside a single quarter. Snap's first-quarter results showed advertising revenue growing 3% while supply expanded faster than demand. In the second quarter, pricing turned. Chief financial officer Doug Hott attributed part of that to a specific and temporary source of demand.

"Our guidance reflects the expected normalization of World Cup related spending and a more difficult year-over-year comparison in Q3 following the easier comps we had in Q2 as our ad platform stabilized last year at the end of Q2 2025," Hott said on the earnings call.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup ran from June 11 to July 19, sitting almost entirely inside Snap's second quarter. iSpot measured more than 25 billion television ad impressions across the tournament's US broadcast rights holders, a scale of concentrated demand that pushed pricing across multiple channels during the same weeks. Hott declined to size Snap's share of it.

Regional revenue diverges from regional users

Europe produced the fastest revenue growth of any Snap region at 33%, reaching $353.8 million, while European daily active users fell 2% to 98 million. European average revenue per user rose 36% to $3.62. North America generated $942.9 million, up 15%, on daily active users of 92 million, down 7% year over year but flat against the first quarter. North American ARPU reached $10.26, a 23% increase.

Rest of World inverted the pattern: revenue of $302.3 million on 303 million daily users, with ARPU falling back to $1.00 from $1.20 in the first quarter. Global ARPU was $3.25.

Monthly active users reached 971 million, up 39 million or 4%. Daily active users averaged 493 million, up 23 million or 5%. The North American stabilisation followed several quarters of decline that began when the company deliberately reduced community growth marketing.

"We're definitely encouraged by the stabilization in North America DAU on a quarter-over-quarter basis," Spiegel said in response to an analyst question, adding that the company is "closely monitoring the regulatory environment including age assurance, privacy, and online safety requirements, which may affect the product experiences or our user growth and engagement over time."

Performance metrics advertisers can check

Snap disclosed a set of campaign outcome figures in its prepared remarks. Cost per install for app advertisers declined 8% year over year. Cost per purchase declined 18%. App purchase volume increased 128%. Revenue from Dynamic Product Ads grew 43%, which the company attributed to greater adoption by retailers.

On the earnings call Spiegel put a platform-wide number on it. "All these improvements resulted in a 56% year-over-year increase in conversions across the platform, including app and pixel purchase goals," he said.

For Sponsored Snaps, Snap stated that roughly one-third of the Snapchatters reached were incremental to other surfaces on Snapchat. An independent study from Measured, cited in the prepared remarks, found that for the brands in that firm's portfolio Snapchat delivered approximately 19.3% higher incremental return on ad spend than the blended incremental return from their social advertising overall. That is a portfolio-specific finding rather than a market-wide one, and the sample is not disclosed.

The company also described a broadening advertiser mix in the United States, led by users aged 35 and older, with named growth in automotive, healthcare, home goods, financial services, insurance and business-to-business services.

The cost structure after the April restructuring

Full-time headcount stood at 4,723 at the end of the quarter, down from 5,381 three months earlier and 5,206 a year earlier. The quarter-over-quarter decline is 658 positions, a 12% reduction. In the second quarter Snap announced a plan to reduce global headcount by approximately 16% of global full-time employees, according to the quarterly report, following headcount reduction and reorganisation plans announced in April 2026.

Restructuring charges totalled $128.5 million: $74.4 million in severance and related charges, $26.5 million in stock-based compensation and $27.6 million in other charges, primarily lease exit costs. Those charges are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA. By function, research and development absorbed $48.5 million, general and administrative $42.0 million, sales and marketing $29.4 million and cost of revenue $8.6 million. Remaining charges are expected to be immaterial.

GAAP gross margin reached 58%, up seven percentage points. Content and developer partner costs fell to $115.1 million from $152.4 million, the largest single contributor to that improvement. Infrastructure costs rose only 2.6% to $403.5 million. Advertising partner and other costs rose to $137.5 million from $104.4 million.

"We grew revenue 19% year-over-year and we only grew cost 4%," Hott said on the call, referring to the adjusted cost base. "I think comes a lot from the restructuring that we did at the beginning of the quarter."

Guidance raises infrastructure spending

Snap guided third-quarter revenue to a range of $1.70 billion to $1.74 billion and Adjusted EBITDA to $300 million to $350 million. Full-year infrastructure costs were raised to $1.65 billion to $1.70 billion from prior guidance of $1.60 billion to $1.65 billion, an increase the company attributed to additional investment in AI and machine learning infrastructure needed to support revenue growth.

Asked about the return on that spending, Hott framed it as optionality rather than commitment. "This gives us a little bit of flexibility to make those investments as we see fit through the back half of the year," he said. "Doesn't mean we'll have to do that."

All other cost of revenue excluding infrastructure is still expected at 16% to 17% of revenue for the full year. Full-year adjusted operating expenses remain at approximately $2.75 billion and stock-based compensation at approximately $1.05 billion. Personnel savings from the restructuring are expected to appear more fully from the third quarter.

Snap repurchased 48.6 million shares during the quarter, leaving $150 million under the existing authorisation, and 128 million shares over the trailing twelve months. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities stood at $2.66 billion. Following completion of the current programme, expected in the fourth quarter, the company plans a multi-year dilution management programme beginning in 2027, funded primarily through Free Cash Flow. Management stated an expectation of sustained positive net income beginning in 2027.

The subscription engine and its ceiling

Other revenue growth of 85% was attributed to Snapchat+, Memories Storage and Lens+, the premium tier introduced in June 2025. Snap disclosed on July 16, 2026 that its subscription business had passed 25 million subscribers.

Less than 3% of monthly active users are paying subscribers. Asked where that could go, Spiegel offered a benchmark rather than a target. "It seems like penetration is typically around seven to let's call it 12% over the long-term," he said of app-based subscription products generally, adding that it is "still early days" for Snap's own products.

At 971 million monthly users, each percentage point of penetration represents roughly 9.7 million subscribers. The arithmetic explains why direct revenue is expected to keep growing materially faster than the overall business.

Litigation and regulation as scheduled costs

Snap's quarterly report lists a dense calendar. The next two JCCP bellwether trials involving Snap are scheduled to begin in October 2026. The next school district trials are set for February 2027, after Snap settled the first such case in June 2026. Trials in the Nevada and New Mexico attorneys general actions are scheduled for August 2027.

On March 26, 2026 the European Commission initiated proceedings under the Digital Services Act to investigate Snap's compliance with obligations applicable to very large online platforms, including systemic risk assessments and protections for minors. The proceeding is at an early stage. Snap states it cannot predict the outcome or estimate a range of possible loss. Regulatory action against attention-based design has been accelerating across both European and US jurisdictions.

The prepared remarks flag these matters as capable of producing significant changes to products and business practices, increased compliance requirements and legal costs, and negative impacts to user growth and engagement.

Specs and the capital allocation argument

Spiegel devoted a substantial share of the prepared remarks to Specs, the see-through glasses unveiled at Augmented World Expo in June. A launch event is scheduled for Los Angeles on September 16. On the call Spiegel disclosed the price point: $2,195. Earlier reporting had placed the figure at around $2,500.

Planned Specs investment sits inside the existing operating expense outlook. Spiegel set expectations on timing well beyond the current guidance horizon. "I think it will be towards the end of the decade before we see mass market consumer adoption," he said, citing weight and cost as the constraints on unit volumes.

Why this matters for the marketing community

Three practical points follow from the disclosures.

First, the pricing signal. A 10% year-over-year rise in average cost per impression on a platform whose eCPMs had been falling means budgets set on first-quarter benchmarks will have bought less reach in the second quarter. Whether that persists depends on how much of the demand was tournament-linked, and Snap's own guidance assumes normalisation.

Second, the composition of growth. Snap's advertising business grew 9% in a quarter when Meta grew advertising revenue 27% to $59.36 billion and Reddit grew 64% to $762 million. Snap is not competing for incremental budget on growth rate. It is competing on measured lower-funnel outcomes, and the cost-per-purchase and conversion figures are the argument it is making.

Third, the platform investment path. Raised infrastructure guidance, a 16% headcount reduction and continued Specs spending sit inside the same operating expense envelope. Advertisers evaluating roadmap commitments on Smart Campaign Solutions, agentic integrations and measurement tooling are reading a company that has chosen to fund those things out of margin expansion rather than incremental headcount.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP), the Santa Monica company behind Snapchat and Specs Inc., with results presented by co-founder and chief executive Evan Spiegel and chief financial officer Doug Hott. Analysts from JP Morgan, Barclays, New Street Research, LightShed Partners, MoffettNathanson, Jefferies, Bernstein, Goldman Sachs, Wolfe Research and Mizuho asked questions on the call.

What: Second quarter 2026 results showing revenue of $1.599 billion, up 19%, comprising advertising revenue of $1,282.5 million, up 9%, and other revenue of $316.5 million, up 85%. The advertising increase is attributed to a roughly 10% rise in the average cost per advertising impression. Net loss narrowed to $164.0 million, Adjusted EBITDA reached $249.6 million and Free Cash Flow was $120.5 million. Full-time headcount fell to 4,723 with restructuring charges of $128.5 million.

When: The quarter ended June 30, 2026. Results were released on August 3, 2026, with the earnings call held the same afternoon.

Where: Snap is headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Revenue by region was $942.9 million in North America, $353.8 million in Europe and $302.3 million in Rest of World, with daily active users of 92 million, 98 million and 303 million respectively.

Why: The results matter to media buyers because Snap's advertising growth in the quarter came from higher prices rather than more inventory, against a backdrop of World Cup demand the company expects to normalise. They matter to the wider market because subscriptions supplied the majority of incremental revenue, because a 16% headcount reduction is now funding raised AI infrastructure spending and continued Specs investment, and because a litigation and Digital Services Act calendar running from October 2026 to August 2027 sits against the company's stated expectation of sustained positive net income from 2027.