DASH · Q4 2025 Earnings

Bullish

DoorDash

Reported February 18, 2026

30-second summary

DoorDash printed Q4 Marketplace GOV of $29.68B (+39% YoY, beating the $28.9–29.5B guide by $183M above the high end) with adjusted EBITDA of $780M (2.6% of GOV) landing at the upper half of the $710–810M guide. The forward setup is what matters: Q1 2026 GOV guided $31.0–31.8B and EBITDA $675–775M (midpoint $725M, below Q4's $780M actual), while FY2026 D&A jumps to $1.1–1.2B (vs. $747M FY2025 actual, +47–61%) and SBC to $1.3–1.4B (vs. $1.05B FY2025 actual, +24–33%). Management explicitly told investors they are not running the business for incremental margin — the 2026 print is platform investment first, with grocery/retail unit economics guided to turn positive in 2H 2026 as the proof point.

Headline numbers

EPS

Q4 FY2025

$0.48

Revenue

Q4 FY2025

$3.96B

+38.0% YoY

Gross margin

Q4 FY2025

48.3%

Free cash flow

Q4 FY2025

$0.25B

Operating margin

Q4 FY2025

3.7%

Key financials

Q4 FY2025

Metric	Q4 FY2025	YoY	Q3 FY2025	QoQ
Revenue	$3.96B	+38.0%	$3.45B	+14.8%
EPS	$0.48	—	$0.55	-12.7%
Gross margin	48.3%	—	49.0%	-70bps
Operating margin	3.7%	—	7.5%	-380bps
Free cash flow	$0.25B	—	$0.72B	-64.9%

Guidance

Q4 FY2025 beats on both Marketplace GOV and Adjusted EBITDA; company guides FY2026 with higher operating expenses (SBC +18-27%, D&A +57-71%) but expects modest margin expansion, signaling continued investment and platform maturation.

Guidance is issued for both next quarter and the full year. Both may appear below.

Actuals vs prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	Actual	Δ	Result
Marketplace GOV	Q4 FY2025	$28.9 billion - $29.5 billion	$29.683 billion	+$0.183 billion above guide high end	Beat
Adjusted EBITDA	Q4 FY2025	$710 million - $810 million	$780 million	in-line with midpoint, within upper half of range	Beat

New guidance

Metric	Period	Guide	YoY
Stock-based compensation expense	FY 2026	$1.3 billion to $1.4 billion	—
Depreciation and amortization expense	FY 2026	$1.1 billion to $1.2 billion	—
Marketplace GOV	Q1 FY2026	$31.0 billion - $31.8 billion	—
Adjusted EBITDA	Q1 FY2026	$675 million - $775 million	—
Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of Marketplace GOV	FY 2026	expected to increase slightly compared to 2025, excluding Deliveroo impact in both periods	—

Changes to prior guidance

Metric	Period	Prior guide	New guide	Δ	Result
Stock-based compensation expense	FY 2025	approximately $1.1 billion	Withdrawn — no replacement	—	Withdrawn
Depreciation and amortization expense	FY 2025	approximately $700 million	Withdrawn — no replacement	—	Withdrawn

Reaffirmed unchanged this quarter: Deliveroo Adjusted EBITDA contribution (approximately $45 million), Deliveroo Adjusted EBITDA contribution (approximately $200 million)

Platform metrics

Q4 FY2025

Segment	Q4 FY2025	YoY
Marketplace GOV	$29.683B	+39.0%
Monthly Active Users (MAUs)	56 million	—
DashPass/Wolt+/Deliveroo Plus Members	35 million	—
Merchant Sales Generated	$75 billion (full year 2025)	—

Profitability

Q4 FY2025

Segment	Q4 FY2025
Adjusted EBITDA	$780 million
Adjusted EBITDA Margin (% of GOV)	2.6%
Contribution Profit	$1,405 million
Contribution Margin (% of Revenue)	35.5%
Net Revenue Margin (% of GOV)	13.3%

Management tone

Q2 "very, very early" → Q3 "platform of the next decade" → Q4 "operating system for local commerce."

The strategic frame has hardened from "build the platform" to "we are the platform." Last quarter management telegraphed 2026 as the year of the tech rebuild; this quarter Tony positions DoorDash explicitly as "the operating system for local commerce" — quote from the call: "our goal has always been to maximize long-term free cash flow…these investments are the right investments, especially as we think about becoming the operating system for local commerce." The shift matters because the cost guide (D&A +47–61% and SBC +24–33% vs. FY2025 actuals) is no longer being framed as discretionary growth investment but as the architectural commitment of the franchise. There is no "lite" version of this plan management can fall back to if 2026 cohorts disappoint.

Margin focus was openly demoted as a target. For three quarters running, management has walked investors away from incremental-margin framing. Ravi made it explicit in Q&A: "Our focus has always been on overall profit dollar production. We're not guiding the business towards incremental margins. We're not operating the business towards incremental margin." Paired with the qualitative FY2026 guide of "increase slightly" ex-Deliveroo, this is a deliberate rewiring of the analyst conversation. The signal: bring a long-duration, free-cash-flow-yield model, not a margin-expansion model.

Agentic AI shifted from passive risk to actively-rebutted thesis. In Q3 the topic was barely raised; this quarter Tony spent meaningful airtime positioning execution as the moat: "we're actually solving the end-to-end job for a customer, which is to get them some item brought to them in the condition they expect on time every time. That's actually really hard to do." This is the first quarter management has directly addressed the "LLM agents will disintermediate the marketplace" bear case, and the rebuttal — physical fulfillment is the irreducible job — is more confident than defensive.

New verticals went from "scaling, unit economics are fine" to a dated profitability commitment. Q3 dropped the unit-economic qualifier; Q4 puts a date on the next milestone — grocery and retail expected to turn unit-economic positive in 2H 2026. That is a falsifiable forward commitment, and represents a notable willingness to be measured against a specific number on a specific timeline. The trade-off: U.S. restaurant unit economics will improve "at a slower pace than the average pace over the last three years" — management is openly signaling that the easy gains in the core are behind.

Platform replatforming reframed from cost to weapon. Ravi: "velocity of feature development…you're going to become more efficient as developers work on the same tech stack." Tony added that features built in one market are now shipping into others — i.e., the unified stack is already producing cross-geography leverage in 2025 ahead of the full 2026 spend. The bull read: the ROI is visible before the bill is fully paid.

Recurring themes management leaned on this quarter:

Operating system for local commerce expansionPlatform modernization driving developer velocity and feature leverage across geographiesNew verticals inflection and path to profitabilityDurability against agentic AI disruption through end-to-end job completionDashPass ecosystem expansion and frequency growth potentialAutonomous vehicle orchestration platform as long-term value creation

Risks management surfaced:

Winter storms impacting Q1 performance (~$20M EBITDA headwind)Competitive intensity from Amazon in grocery and perishablesTech stack migration execution risk and parallel cost burden in 2026-2027Dasher cost inflation seasonality, particularly in Q1Agentic commerce and AI assistants potentially compressing transaction economics

Q&A highlights

Andrew Boone · Citizens Bank

On R&D and G&A intensity at 211 basis points of GOV against a 2% historical target, how should investors think about fixed cost leverage going forward? Also, provide details on grocery customer graduation to Sunday shop and basket size evolution.

Management expects 2026 OPEX to be roughly 2% of GOV, maintaining discipline on investment efficiency. Confirmed seeing customer behavior evolution in grocery with both mid-week quick runs and weekend large basket purchases, with each successive cohort adopting faster and increasing spend/wallet share.

2026 OPEX expected at ~2% of GOVQ4 2025 OPEX included Roo impactGrocery customers showing both mid-week and weekend purchasing patternsSuccessive cohorts adopting faster and increasing wallet share

Lloyd Walmsley · Mizuho

Beyond Q1 guidance, what framework should be used to think about GOV growth for the remainder of the year?

Management confident in strong ongoing GOV growth driven by both existing and new consumers, with strong MAU growth, frequency, and DashPass momentum. Improvement in product and positive cohort response gives confidence for growth throughout the year beyond Q1.

DashPass had a record year in 2025Strong MAU growth continuingStrong frequency metricsProduct improvements driving cohort engagement and attention

Lee Horowitz · Deutsche Bank

What are the natural adjacencies beyond the 2026 merchant software and services stack that can drive value for both merchants and consumers?

Three major missions identified: (1) expanding beyond restaurants into grocery, convenience, retail with fulfillment services and autonomous tech; (2) building omnichannel software for merchants via storefronts, Drive delivery-as-a-service; (3) driving in-store traffic through discovery products and reservation services. Framed as building an operating system for local commerce.

Three core missions: bring everything inside cities, omnichannel software, drive in-store trafficExpanding fulfillment services with forward-deployed inventoryDoorDash Drive as delivery-as-a-service offeringRestaurant discovery and reservation products in early stages

Justin Patterson · KeyBank

How is the ad product evolving in 2026, and what steps are being taken to capture more grocery and retail advertising dollars? Also, what efficiencies are being realized from agentic coding?

Ads business had strong 2025 growth. Symbiosis acquisition performing well with doubled advertiser count and tripled spend. Smart Campaigns product (AI agent for ROI-positive restaurant ads) is fastest-growing product. Grocery/retail ads earlier in maturation with significant runway. Engineering teams using coding agents with 90%+ daily active usage driving productivity gains, but optimal new environment still being determined.

Symbiosis doubled advertiser count and tripled spendSmart Campaigns is fastest-growing restaurant ad productGrocery and retail ads earlier in maturation cycle90%+ daily active usage of coding agents among engineers

Mark Mahaney · Evercore ISI

How did Deliveroo accelerate year-over-year order growth faster than expected in Q4, and what suggests this acceleration can continue?

Acceleration driven by continuous product improvements with no single step-function change. Strong partnership with Deliveroo team enabled execution. Identified significant additional opportunity by shipping products known to be broken and replicating successful initiatives from other parts of DoorDash business. Team confident more acceleration opportunities exist.

Deliveroo orders accelerated YoY in December quarter faster than expectedProduct improvements focus on on-time delivery and conditionStrong partnership and execution with Deliveroo teamSignificant pipeline of additional improvement opportunities identified

Answers to last quarter's watch list

Q4 FY2025 GOV print vs. $28.9–29.5B guide — Printed $29.68B, $183M above the high end. Total orders +32% YoY headline (accelerating from Q3's +21%), but ex-Deliveroo orders +20% YoY — essentially in line with Q3's organic pace. Ex-Deliveroo GOV grew 25% YoY. The headline beat is real but heavily attributable to Deliveroo consolidation; underlying momentum is steady rather than accelerating. Status: Resolved positively (with the caveat that organic acceleration was not the driver)

Q4 FY2025 adjusted EBITDA margin — Printed at 2.6% of GOV, in the upper half of the guide range. EBITDA of $780M came in the upper half of the $710–810M range; ex-Deliveroo (~$45M) implied ~2.4%, slightly above the ~2.3% we modeled — investment intensity is running as guided, not hotter. Status: Resolved positively

Any hard ads disclosure — Still no ads revenue line item or take-rate disclosure. Partial offset: Symbiosis advertiser count doubled and spend tripled; Smart Campaigns called out as fastest-growing product. These are directional confirmations, not the line item investors want. Status: Continue monitoring

2026 OpEx guide specifics — Partially answered. Hard numbers on SBC ($1.3–1.4B) and D&A ($1.1–1.2B) plus an OpEx guide of ~2% of GOV from Andrew Boone's Q&A exchange. The "several hundred million more" framing is now quantifiable: D&A alone steps up ~$350–450M YoY off FY2025's $747M actual. Status: Resolved positively (the disclosure investors asked for arrived)

Autonomy commercialization concrete milestones — No specific partnership, geography, or unit-economics disclosure for autonomy in this print. Tony referenced autonomous fulfillment in the strategic framing but did not put dates or numbers on commercial launches. The Q3 "2026 will be the year we commercialize" framing is not yet substantiated. Status: Not resolved

Deliveroo organic growth disclosure — Management confirmed Deliveroo orders accelerated YoY in Q4 faster than expected (per Mahaney exchange) and the ~$200M FY2026 EBITDA contribution was reaffirmed. Standalone GOV/order growth rates were not quantified — the "growing double digits" callout was not restated with a specific number. Status: Continue monitoring

What to watch into next quarter

Q1 FY2026 EBITDA print vs. $675–775M guide — midpoint $725M is below Q4 actual; a print at or above midpoint despite the ~$20M winter storm headwind would suggest the seasonal dip is shallower than guided. A low-end print resurfaces the "investment intensity > guide" concern.

Grocery/retail unit-economic disclosure progress — management committed to "positive in 2H 2026." First Q1 print is the opening data point; watch for any directional commentary on category contribution margins, especially given the 2H deadline now hard-coded.

Ads as a percentage of revenue or hard take-rate disclosure — Symbiosis metrics are partial; the contribution-margin sequential decline to 35.5% (from 36.8%) means ads-as-margin-engine framing now requires harder numbers to sustain.

Deliveroo standalone GOV/order growth quantified — management has acknowledged acceleration twice without quantifying it; the longer this goes undisclosed, the more the bear inference (integration noise > organic) gains weight.

2026 FY revenue or GOV bracket disclosure — DoorDash does not formally guide FY GOV, but management's "well over $100B" merchant sales + Dasher earnings framing implies a derivable range. Any tightening of that band — or a hard FY GOV growth comment in Q1 prepared remarks — is the next major information event.

Symbiosis disclosure depth — doubled advertisers, tripled spend is a teaser. If the next print quantifies Symbiosis revenue contribution or a take-rate impact, the ads SOTP debate moves forward materially.

Sources

DoorDash Q4 2025 press release, filed 2026-02-18 — https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1792789/000179278926000012/prodq4dashex991-pressrelea.htm
DoorDash Q4 2025 earnings call commentary (Q&A excerpts cited inline)

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