Meta Platforms (META) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and Meta published the results on October 21, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison.

• Q3 2026 costs include a $9.89 billion charge for Meta's agreement with 52 attorneys general to resolve litigation related to teen mental health and social media. Meta says diluted EPS would have been $7.40 excluding it.

Source: Meta Q3 2026 results (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), October 21, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 8, 2026.

How Meta 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.

• Meta's Family of Apps revenue was $64.2 billion in Q3 2026, up 26% from $50.8 billion in Q3 2025, 99% of total revenue.
• Meta's Reality Labs revenue was $443 million in Q3 2026, down 6% from $470 million in Q3 2025, under 1% 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.

From the earnings release

In its Q3 2026 release (CFO outlook commentary), Meta said:

“We expect fourth quarter 2026 total revenue to be in the range of $73-76 billion.”

“We now expect full year 2026 total expenses to be in the range of $175-179 billion.”

“At a segment level, we now expect Reality Labs losses to decline compared to 2025 to a range of $18-19 billion.”

“We anticipate 2026 capital expenditures, including principal payments on finance leases, to be in the range of $135-145 billion, narrowed from our prior outlook of $130-145 billion.”

Source: Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 21, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the META forecast page.

Meta's next report is expected around January 27, 2027, a date estimated from its reporting history that the company has not yet confirmed. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

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 21, 2026

Meta generates substantially all of its revenue from advertising on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and third-party mobile apps. Marketers pay based on the number of impressions delivered or the number of actions, such as clicks, taken by users. (Meta Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Ad revenue therefore depends on two figures Meta reports each quarter: the number of ads shown and the average price per ad. In Q3 2026 ad impressions rose 10% and the average price per ad rose 14%, and advertising revenue was $63,061 million, up 26%. Family daily active people averaged 3.64 billion in September 2026, up 3%. (Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Reality Labs, Meta's virtual and augmented reality hardware, software and content, brought in $443 million of revenue and an operating loss of $4,129 million in the quarter. Family of Apps operating income was $17,117 million. (Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026; Meta Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026)

Meta reports one EPS figure, on a GAAP basis, and both quarters in the comparison include a large one-time item. Q3 2026 costs include a $9.89 billion charge for its agreement with 52 attorneys general; Meta says diluted EPS of $3.83 would have been $7.40 without it. The year-ago $1.05 came with an 87% effective tax rate, against 24% in Q3 2026. (Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

Meta did not repurchase any shares in the first nine months of 2026, and $25.03 billion remained authorized. Diluted shares were 2,573 million, against 2,572 million a year earlier. It paid a quarterly dividend of $0.525 per share. (Meta Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 22, 2026; Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 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.

Meta gives a revenue range for the next quarter and full-year ranges for expenses and capital spending. In its Q3 2026 release: fourth-quarter revenue of $73 billion to $76 billion, 2026 total expenses of $175 billion to $179 billion, 2026 capital expenditures of $135 billion to $145 billion, and Reality Labs losses for 2026 of $18 billion to $19 billion. (Meta Q3 2026 release, Oct 21, 2026)

On November 2, 2026, the Yahoo Finance consensus for Q4 2026 was EPS of $8.33 (40 analysts) and revenue of $75,155 million (44 analysts). (Yahoo Finance consensus, Nov 2, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover Meta, 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 Meta'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 META is on is META a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the META forecast, and what the company does is on the Meta Platforms (META) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document Meta 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.