Instacart (Maplebear) (CART) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Instacart published the results on October 29, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• On October 28, 2026, Instacart (Maplebear Inc.) agreed to be acquired by DoorDash in a cash-and-stock deal valuing Instacart's equity at about $17 billion. Instacart expects it to close at the end of 2027 or in the first half of 2028, subject to stockholder and antitrust approvals.
• Because of the pending merger, Instacart cancelled its Q3 2026 earnings call, suspended its financial guidance and withdrew its previously issued long-term guidance.
• On October 25, 2026, Instacart's board decided to wind down Caper Cart operations, with expected pre-tax charges of about $55 million to $80 million, mostly in Q4 2026.

Source: Instacart Q3 2026 results, October 29, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How Instacart splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• Instacart's Transaction revenue was $764 million in Q3 2026, up 14% from $670 million in Q3 2025, 70% of total revenue.
• Instacart's Advertising and other revenue was $331 million in Q3 2026, up 23% from $269 million in Q3 2025, 30% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP revenue and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release or shareholder letter.

We do not hold a confirmed date for Instacart's next report. Companies post the date on their investor relations site a few weeks ahead, usually with the time of the conference call.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 29, 2026

Instacart reports two revenue lines. Transaction revenue, $764 million of the $1,095 million total in Q3 2026, is the fees it keeps from customers and retailers on orders, net of what it remits to retailers for the goods and pays shoppers, and after consumer incentives and refunds. Advertising and other revenue, $331 million, is mostly Instacart Ads sold to brands. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Instacart Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

Revenue grows with gross transaction value (GTV), the value of goods sold through Instacart including fees and tips. GTV was $10,528 million in Q3 2026, up 15%, on 91.4 million orders, up 10%. Total revenue equalled 10.4% of GTV: transaction revenue 7.3% and advertising and other 3.1%. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Instacart attributes the 14% rise in transaction revenue to GTV growth, fulfillment efficiencies and lower consumer incentives, partly offset by lower payment revenue. Advertising and other revenue rose 23% on higher advertising volume and strength across large, mid-size and emerging brands, and its share of GTV rose 21 basis points. The 10-K says advertising revenue is seasonally high in the fourth quarter and low in the first. (Instacart Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026; Instacart Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026)

Instacart's sales are concentrated among a few retailers: its top three accounted for about 43% of GTV in 2025. It partners with more than 2,200 retail banners representing nearly 100,000 stores. (Instacart Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 26, 2026; Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Instacart reports GAAP EPS only; its non-GAAP profit measure is Adjusted EBITDA, which was $342 million in Q3 2026, up 23%, against GAAP net income of $147 million. The gap is mainly $120 million of stock-based compensation, $35 million of depreciation and amortization and $34 million of income taxes, which Adjusted EBITDA excludes. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Diluted EPS rose to $0.60 from $0.51 while net income grew only 2%, because the share count fell. Diluted weighted-average shares were 247,591 thousand, against 283,176 thousand a year earlier. Instacart repurchased 4,885,941 shares for $231 million in the quarter and 22,085,858 shares for $959 million over nine months. Under the merger agreement it may not buy back stock without DoorDash's consent. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Instacart Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Interest income fell to $6 million from $16 million, and cash and cash equivalents were $830 million at September 30, 2026. The effective tax rate was 19.0%, against 20.6% a year earlier. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026; Instacart Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

Instacart gives no outlook with these results. Its release says that, as is customary while a merger is pending, it suspended its financial guidance, withdrew its previously issued long-term guidance and cancelled the earnings call it had scheduled for November 5, 2026. (Instacart Q3 2026 release, Oct 29, 2026)

Under the DoorDash merger agreement, each Instacart share can be exchanged, at the holder's election, for $65.00 in cash, 0.3372 shares of DoorDash Class A common stock, or $48.75 in cash plus 0.0843 DoorDash shares, with stock elections subject to proration. Instacart would owe DoorDash a $650 million termination fee in specified circumstances, and DoorDash would owe Instacart $1.25 billion in specified regulatory-related circumstances. (Instacart Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Nov 5, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Instacart, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones Instacart's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning CART is on is CART a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the CART forecast, and what the company does is on the Instacart (Maplebear) (CART) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Instacart published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.