Actual results may differ materially as a result of various factors, including those set forth in today's earnings press release and in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in today's earnings press release. The earnings press release and an accompanying investor presentation are available on our website at investor.meta.com. Our business also performed very well, thanks to record-breaking holiday demand and AI-driven performance gains.
Our world-class recommendation systems are already driving meaningful growth across our apps and ads business, but we think that the current systems are primitive compared to what will be possible soon. Q4 total Family of Apps revenue was $58.9 billion, up 25% year-over-year. Q4 Family of Apps ad revenue was $58.1 billion, up 24% or 23% on a constant currency basis. Impression growth was healthy across all regions, driven primarily by engagement and user growth and, to a lesser degree, ad load optimizations.
The average price per ad increased 6% year-over-year, benefiting from increased advertiser demand, largely driven by improved ad performance. Family of Apps other revenue was $801 million, up 54%, driven by WhatsApp paid messaging revenue growth, as well as Meta Verified subscriptions. Within our Reality Labs segment, Q4 revenue was $955 million, down 12% year-over-year. Q4 total revenue was $59.9 billion, up 24% or 23% on a constant currency basis.
| Metric | Period | Current guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | Q1 2026 | Outlook embeds accelerated growth underpinned by strong end-of-Q4 demand continuing into 2026, including a ~4-point FX tailwind (3 points larger than Q4 2025); specific range referenced but figures not stated in transcript |
| Full-year revenue growth | FY2026 | Expected to be below Q1 2026 growth levels as FX tailwinds dissipate, stronger 2025 comps are lapped, and the revised less-personalized EU ads offering creates a headwind |
| Operating income (absolute dollars) | FY2026 | Expected to be above 2025 operating income (absolute dollars, not growth rate), per the framework of growing consolidated operating profit over time |
| Reality Labs operating loss | FY2026 | Expected to be similar to 2025 and likely the peak, with losses gradually reduced going forward |
| Tax rate | Q1 2026 | Prior outlook was 12%-15% for the quarter |
| GEM ads model training | FY2026 | Plan to meaningfully scale up GEM training to an even larger cluster with greater model complexity and data, leveraging the new sequence-learning architecture |
| Metric | YoY | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | +24% | $59.9B (+23% constant currency); record holiday demand and AI-driven ad performance gains. |
| Family of Apps ad revenue | +24% | $58.1B (+23% constant currency); online commerce the largest contributor, followed by professional services and technology; all verticals healthy except politics (lapping the 2024 US election). |
| Ad impressions | +18% | Driven primarily by engagement and user growth and, to a lesser degree, ad-load optimizations. |
| Average price per ad | +6% | Increased advertiser demand from improved ad performance. |
| Family of Apps other revenue | +54% | $801M; WhatsApp paid-messaging revenue growth and Meta Verified subscriptions. |
| Reality Labs revenue | -12% | $955M; lapping the Q4 2024 Quest 3S launch and Q3 2025 retail Quest procurement pull-forward. |
| Total expenses | +40% | $35.1B; employee compensation (AI hires), higher legal expenses (lapping 2024 accrual reversals plus 2025 charges), and infrastructure (depreciation, cloud, operating costs). |
| Operating income | $24.7B (41% margin) | Strong revenue growth against 40% expense growth. |
| Net income / EPS | $22.8B / $8.88 | 10% tax rate (below the 12%-15% outlook) due to settlement of matters with tax authorities. |
| Capital expenditures | $22.1B | Investments in data centers, servers and network infrastructure. |
| Free cash flow | $14.1B | Ended with $81.6B cash & marketable securities and $58.7B debt; no buybacks in the quarter. |
| Headcount | +6% | Over 78,800 employees; hiring in monetization, infrastructure, Meta Superintelligence Labs and regulation/compliance. |
| Topic | Previous mention | Current period | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI acceleration and agents | Building MSL / front-loading compute | Zuckerberg: 'major AI acceleration' underway; agents starting to work; 2026 to bring first MSL models/products showing rapid trajectory. | — |
| Personal superintelligence and recommendations + LLMs | Separate recommendation systems | Merging LLMs with the recommendation systems powering Facebook, Instagram, Threads and ads; new architectures built to work on top of LLMs; personalized/agentic shopping tools planned. | — |
| Meta Compute and infrastructure efficiency | Data-center JV (Blue Owl) | Announced Meta Compute; Dina Powell McCormick joined as President/Vice Chairman for government/sovereign/capital partnerships; investing in silicon and energy; expect cost per gigawatt to decline over time. | — |
| Ads ranking (GEM, Lattice, sequence learning) | Model consolidation under Lattice | Doubled GPUs training GEM and adopted a new sequence-learning architecture (+3.5% FB ad clicks, >1% IG conversions); new runtime model (+3% conversions); consolidated Facebook Stories/other surfaces into the overall Facebook model. | — |
| Reality Labs strategy shift | Broad RL investment | Directing most investment to glasses/wearables; making Horizon a mobile success and VR a profitable ecosystem; 2026 losses similar to 2025 and likely the peak. | — |
| AI content generation | Vibes / media generation launched | Nearly 10% of daily Reels views created in the Edits app (nearly tripling QoQ); Meta AI daily actives generating media tripled YoY; AI dubbing in nine languages. | — |
| New-surface monetization | Threads/WhatsApp ads ramping | Expanding Threads ads to remaining countries (UK, EU, Brazil) this month; WhatsApp Status ads rollout to complete over the year at low levels. | — |
| AI transforming how Meta works | n/a | 2026 expected to dramatically change work; investing in AI-native tooling, elevating individual contributors and flattening teams; single talented people now doing former big-team work. | — |