Actual results may differ materially as a result of various factors, including those set forth in today's earnings press release and in our annual report on Form 10-K 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.atmeta.com. The trend over the last few years seems clear that we are seeing an increasing return on the amount that we can improve engagement for people and value for advertisers.

Of course, we will continue pushing to increase our efficiency as well, but overall, I think the future is about building many more higher quality things than we've ever built before. Absent these impacts, growth in family daily active people would have been positive quarter-over-quarter. Q1 total family of apps revenue was $55.9 billion, up 33% year-over-year. Q1 family of apps ad revenue was $55 billion, up 33%, or 29% on a constant currency basis.

Impression growth was healthy across all regions, driven primarily by growth in engagement and users, as well as ad load optimizations. This was partially offset by strong impression growth, including from lower monetizing regions. Family of apps other revenue was $885 million, up 74%, driven primarily by WhatsApp paid messaging and subscriptions revenue. Within our Reality Labs segment, Q1 revenue was $402 million, down 2% year-over-year due to lower Quest headset sales, which were partially offset by continued strong growth in AI glasses revenue.

What went well
  • Q1 total revenue of $56.3B, up 33% YoY (29% constant currency) - the strongest growth in years; Family of Apps revenue $55.9B (+33%).
  • Family of Apps ad revenue of $55B, up 33% (29% constant currency), with ad impressions +19% and price-per-ad +12% (broad-based).
  • Operating income of $22.9B at a 41% operating margin.
  • Released Muse Spark, the first model from Meta Superintelligence Labs, plus a significantly upgraded Meta AI; large increases in Meta AI use and double-digit-percent increases in sessions per user; the Meta AI app near the top of app stores.
  • Engagement gains: Instagram Reels time spent +10% in Q1; Facebook total video time +8% globally (largest QoQ gain in four years) and +9% US/Canada watch time; same-day posts now >30% of recommended Reels on both apps.
  • Ad-model gains: Lattice/GEM enhancements drove >6% conversion-rate increase for landing-page-view ads; the adaptive (LLM-scale) ranking model expanded to offsite conversions (+1.6% conversion rate across major FB/IG surfaces).
  • More than 8 million advertisers using at least one GenAI ad-creative tool; video-generation feature drove >3% higher conversion rates in tests.
  • Business AI weekly conversations grew 10x since the start of the year (over 10 million weekly); AI-translated videos watched weekly by over half a billion users on each of Facebook and Instagram.
  • Free cash flow of $12.4B; ended with $81.2B cash & marketable securities.
What went wrong
  • Family daily active people declined slightly QoQ to 3.56 billion due to internet outages in Iran and a WhatsApp access restriction in Russia (growth would have been positive absent these).
  • Total expenses rose 35% YoY to $33.4B on higher infrastructure costs (depreciation, data-center operating costs, cloud) and AI-talent compensation.
  • Reality Labs revenue fell 2% YoY to $402M on lower Quest headset sales, only partly offset by AI-glasses growth.
  • Interest and other income was -$1.1B due to unrealized losses on equity investments.
  • Reported tax rate of -23% reflected an $8.03B tax benefit partially relieving the prior $15.93B Q3 2025 non-cash charge; net income of $26.8B ($10.44 EPS) versus an underlying $18.7B ($7.31 EPS).
  • Raised the FY2026 infrastructure CapEx forecast, mostly due to higher component costs, particularly memory pricing.
  • Full-year 2026 revenue growth guided below the Q1 pace as FX tailwinds dissipate and stronger comps are lapped.
  • Headcount down 1% from Q4 to over 77,900 on headcount-optimization efforts in certain functions.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
Infrastructure capital expendituresFY2026Forecast increased, most of the increase due to higher component costs (particularly memory pricing); rolling out 1GW+ of custom Broadcom silicon plus significant AMD chips to complement new NVIDIA systems; no revised dollar figure stated in transcript
Total revenueQ2 2026A Q2 guide was provided embedding a range of macro outcomes plus ongoing engagement and ad-performance work (specific figures not stated in transcript)
Full-year revenue growthFY2026Expected to be below the Q1 2026 growth pace
Reality LabsFY2026Focused on making the VR business sustainable while investing more in AI and glasses; remaining the biggest VR investor
Business AI monetizationFutureExpect to work toward a longer-term monetization model as progress is made; personal-agent monetization could include commission structures or a premium offering

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Total revenue +33% $56.3B (+29% constant currency); strong ad performance, better macro versus Q1 2025, and currency tailwinds.
Family of Apps ad revenue +33% $55B (+29% constant currency), driven by ad-performance improvements, macro, and FX.
Ad impressions +19% Healthy across all regions, driven by engagement and user growth plus ad-load optimizations.
Average price per ad +12% Broad-based; ad-performance improvements, better macro versus Q1 2025, and currency tailwinds in international regions, partially offset by strong impression growth from lower-monetizing regions.
Family of Apps other revenue +74% $885M; WhatsApp paid messaging and subscriptions revenue.
Reality Labs revenue -2% $402M; lower Quest headset sales partially offset by continued strong AI-glasses revenue growth.
Total expenses +35% $33.4B; higher infrastructure costs (depreciation, data-center operating costs, third-party cloud) and employee compensation from AI hires.
Operating income $22.9B (41% margin) Strong revenue growth against 35% expense growth.
Net income / EPS $26.8B / $10.44 Boosted by an $8.03B tax benefit (tax rate -23%) partially relieving the Q3 2025 charge; underlying net income $18.7B / $7.31 EPS at a normalized 14% rate.
Capital expenditures $19.8B Investments in servers, data centers and network infrastructure.
Free cash flow $12.4B Ended with $81.2B cash & marketable securities and $58.7B debt.
Headcount -1% QoQ Over 77,900 employees; headcount optimization in certain functions partly offset by hiring in monetization and infrastructure.

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
Muse family / MSL first modelMSL rebuilding AI programReleased the Muse family and first model Muse Spark plus upgraded Meta AI; more advanced models already in training; leads in visual understanding, health, shopping, social content, local, and game creation.
Personal and business agentsPersonal superintelligence visionBuilding a personal agent and a business agent forming an ecosystem; early business-AI test conversations up 10x since the start of the year (over 10 million weekly).
Recommendations + LLMs / first-principles understandingStatistical engagement patternsUsing Muse/upcoming models to develop first-principles understanding of what users care about; doubled Instagram training interaction-sequence length in Q1; validating LLM-based recommender architectures before scaling.
Meta Compute and efficiency / custom siliconMeta Compute announced (Q4)Rolling out 1GW+ of custom Broadcom silicon plus significant AMD chips alongside new NVIDIA systems; efficiency of building compute framed as a strategic advantage; expects cost per gigawatt to fall.
Infrastructure CapEx / memory pricingPrior 2026 forecastRaised the 2026 infrastructure CapEx forecast, mostly on higher component costs (particularly memory pricing).
Adaptive/LLM-scale ads inferenceLightweight runtime modelsAdaptive ranking model (trillion-parameter, LLM-scale) rolled out from 2H2025, co-designed with silicon for sub-second latency; routes to more compute-intensive inference when conversion probability is higher; expanded to offsite conversions (+1.6%).
AI glassesSales tripled in 2025Daily users tripled YoY; released Ray-Ban Meta Optics for all-day wear; strong interest in Ray-Ban Meta Display with Neural Band; more brand partnerships/styles later this year.
AI transforming work / company structureAI-native tooling (Q4)Examples of one or two people building in a week what once took dozens over months; flattening teams, rewarding outsized-impact individuals; a ~10% RIF referenced by an analyst.

Q&A Summary

Brian Nowak (Morgan Stanley): Key signposts over the next 12-24 months to ensure healthy ROIC on the Muse/product and infrastructure investments?
Zuckerberg: the formula is build experiences that reach billions, then monetize at scale; milestones are (1) technical quality enabling a great product, (2) product scaling, (3) monetization, then (4) driving efficiency/profitability; comfortable the lab is on track to be leading and Muse Spark is high quality, with next training runs, product scaling and monetization ramp to watch.
Mark Shmulik (Bernstein): Team focus split between further model training/specialization versus shipping products; and any way to dimensionalize 2027 CapEx step-up?
Zuckerberg: roadmap consistent - a research team scaling increasingly intelligent models (next set already training) and a product team now unlocked to build on strong first-party models. Li: no 2027 CapEx outlook; a dynamic planning process; Meta has continually underestimated compute needs; compute increasingly central; building with flexibility to slow or reduce spend if needed.
Eric Sheridan (Goldman Sachs): Opportunity to put agentic compute in front of consumers and enterprises, and extensions of media/commerce to become more agentic?
Li: near-term focus on deepening engagement, more personalized/valuable ads, and helping SMBs; longer-term, agents that make people productive and business agents interacting to build a commerce ecosystem; personal-agent monetization via commission structures or premium offering; over 10 million weekly business-AI conversations (up from 1 million), currently free with a longer-term monetization model planned.
Youssef Squali (Truist): Gating factors to launch additional EssilorLuxottica glasses brands and what a successful 2026 looks like; and how much of the ~10% RIF is AI efficiency versus staying fit?
Li: strong AI-glasses growth in Q1 with demand shifting to the latest Ray-Ban Meta generation and encouraging Ray-Ban Meta Display/Neural Band interest. On sizing, the optimal future company size is unknown; leveraging AI tools to boost productivity with a bias toward building more products, while investing heavily in infrastructure and operating efficiently.
Justin Post (Bank of America): What does Muse Spark unlock for new products and what is the product cadence over the next nine months?
Zuckerberg: proud the lab went fastest from standing up to a widely accepted strong model - a significant validation; won't share competitively sensitive cadence and prioritizes quality over hitting a specific date ('agents I'd want to give to my mother'); teams make meaningful progress day over day; picture will come into focus over subsequent quarters.
Doug Anmuth (JPMorgan): The step-up from smaller ad models to Muse Spark/LLMs, and the strategic importance/status of Manus?
Li: on Manus, still working through details, no update. On ads, work already underway to advance the architecture to leverage larger models; historically GEM-class models are too costly for inference, so knowledge is transferred to lightweight runtime models; the new adaptive ranking model enables trillion-parameter LLM-scale complexity within sub-second latency and routes to more compute-intensive inference when conversion probability is higher.

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Reported 2026-04-29 · figures from the Meta Platforms, Inc. Q1 2026 earnings call.

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