Adobe (ADBE) Q3 FY26 earnings call

Earnings call· Aug 2026 (Q3 FY26)· Information Technology· Sep 10, 2026

Source: earnings call transcript

Adobe delivered a strong third quarter, driven by AI-powered innovation across its creative, productivity, and customer experience platforms. The company is strategically expanding its user base through a freemium model, particularly in AI-first offerings, while preparing for a leadership transition with Anil Chakravarthy taking over as CEO. Management remains confident in its long-term growth trajectory and market leadership in agentic software.

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ADBE operating KPIs by quarter

ADBE operating KPIs stated on its earnings calls, by fiscal quarter
KPI	Feb 2025 Q1 FY25	Aug 2025 Q3 FY25	Nov 2025 Q4 FY25	Feb 2026 Q1 FY26	May 2026 Q2 FY26	This call Aug 2026 Q3 FY26	Change vs prior quarter
Annual recurring revenue (ARR) Digital Media	$17.63B We exited the quarter with $17.63 billion of Digital Media ARR, growing our ending ARR book of business 12.6% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	$18.59B We exited the quarter with $18.59 billion of Digital Media ARR, growing ending ARR 11.7% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	$19.2B We exited the quarter with $19.2 billion of Digital Media ARR, growing ending ARR 11.5% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—	+3.3%
Annual recurring revenue (ARR) GenStudio	$1B+ First quarter Digital Experience growth drivers included: momentum for product offerings across content, data and journeys; AEP and app subscription revenue growing nearly 50% year-on-year; GenStudio Solutions surpassing $1 billion in ending ARR book of business; early momentum in GenStudio for Performance Marketing and adoption and pipeline; and improvements in overall enterprise retention. Source: earnings call transcript	$1B+ Our Workfront, Frame, AEM Assets, Firefly Services and GenStudio for performance marketing products, which are key components of the integrated GenStudio solution now exceed $1 billion in ARR growing over 25% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—	—	—
Remaining performance obligation (RPO)	$19.69B Q1 business and financial highlights included: Digital Media revenue of $4.23 billion; Digital Media ending ARR of $17.63 billion, growing 12.6% year-over-year; Digital Experience revenue of $1.41 billion; cash flows from operations of $2.48 billion; and exiting the quarter, remaining performance obligations were $19.69 billion, growing 12% year-over-year and cRPO growing 11%. Source: earnings call transcript	$20.44B And exiting quarter remaining performance obligations were $20.44 billion, growing 13% year-over-year or 12% in constant currency and CRPO growing 10% as reported and in constant currency. Source: earnings call transcript	$22.52B FY '25 business and financial highlights included: Digital Media revenue of $17.65 billion, growing 11% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency; Digital Experience segment revenue was $5.86 billion, growing 9% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency, Digital Experience subscription revenue was $5.41 billion, growing 11% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency; Digital Media ending ARR was $19.2 billion, growing 11.5% year-over-year, exceeding our prior target of 11.3%, over 75% of Digital Media net new ARR was driven by continued growth in subscriptions and cross-sell and up-sell, with the remainder from value-based pricing, reflecting the success of our customer acquisition strategy; Total Adobe ending ARR, across Business Professionals and Consumers and Creative and Marketing Professionals, of $25.2 billion, growing 11.5% year-over-year; cash flows from operations of $10.03 billion, and ending cash and short-term investment position of $6.6 billion; RPO of $22.52 billion exiting the year, growing 13% year-over-year, or 12% in constant currency, and cRPO growing 11% as reported or 10% in constant currency; and repurchasing approximately 30.8 million shares of our stock during the year. Source: earnings call transcript	$22.22B RPO of $22.22 billion exiting the quarter, growing 13% year-over-year or 12% in constant currency and cRPO growing 12% as reported or 11% in constant currency. Source: earnings call transcript	$22.27B RPO of $22.27 billion, exiting the quarter with RPO and cRPO, both growing 13% year-over-year or 12% in constant currency. Source: earnings call transcript	$22.16B Q3 financial highlights included: total Adobe ending ARR of $27.5 billion, growing 11.2% year-over-year; total customer group subscription revenue of $6.56 billion, growing 14% year-over-year or 13% in constant currency; RPO of $22.16 billion exiting the quarter growing 8% year-over-year and cRPO growing 9% year-over-year, both as reported and in constant currency; cash flows from operations were a Q3 record at $2.52 billion and ending cash and short-term investments exiting Q3 were $5.64 billion; and repurchasing approximately 9.5 million shares of our stock during the quarter. Source: earnings call transcript	-0.5%
New Express business customers	<6,000 Strong business and student adoption, Express onboarded nearly 6,000 new businesses in Q1, representing approximately 50% quarter-over-quarter growth. Source: earnings call transcript	14K+ Over 14,000 organizations added Express in Q3 alone, a 4x increase in the quarter versus a year ago. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—	—	—	—
Annual recurring revenue (ARR)	—	—	$25.2B FY '25 business and financial highlights included: Digital Media revenue of $17.65 billion, growing 11% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency; Digital Experience segment revenue was $5.86 billion, growing 9% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency, Digital Experience subscription revenue was $5.41 billion, growing 11% year-over-year as reported and in constant currency; Digital Media ending ARR was $19.2 billion, growing 11.5% year-over-year, exceeding our prior target of 11.3%, over 75% of Digital Media net new ARR was driven by continued growth in subscriptions and cross-sell and up-sell, with the remainder from value-based pricing, reflecting the success of our customer acquisition strategy; Total Adobe ending ARR, across Business Professionals and Consumers and Creative and Marketing Professionals, of $25.2 billion, growing 11.5% year-over-year; cash flows from operations of $10.03 billion, and ending cash and short-term investment position of $6.6 billion; RPO of $22.52 billion exiting the year, growing 13% year-over-year, or 12% in constant currency, and cRPO growing 11% as reported or 10% in constant currency; and repurchasing approximately 30.8 million shares of our stock during the year. Source: earnings call transcript	$26.06B Q1 financial highlights included total Adobe ending ARR of $26.06 billion, growing 10.9% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	$27.1B Q2 financial highlights included: total Adobe ending ARR of $27.1 billion, growing 12.5% year-over-year, including approximately $480 million from the acquisition of Semrush.Total Customer Group subscription revenue of $6.39 billion, growing 14% year-over-year or 12% in constant currency, including approximately $40 million from the addition of Semrush. Source: earnings call transcript	$27.5B Q3 financial highlights included: total Adobe ending ARR of $27.5 billion, growing 11.2% year-over-year; total customer group subscription revenue of $6.56 billion, growing 14% year-over-year or 13% in constant currency; RPO of $22.16 billion exiting the quarter growing 8% year-over-year and cRPO growing 9% year-over-year, both as reported and in constant currency; cash flows from operations were a Q3 record at $2.52 billion and ending cash and short-term investments exiting Q3 were $5.64 billion; and repurchasing approximately 9.5 million shares of our stock during the quarter. Source: earnings call transcript	+1.5%
Monthly active users (MAU) Acrobat and Express	—	—	750M+ Q4 growth drivers for Business Professionals and Consumers included: double digit ending ARR growth, with strength across digital, SMB and enterprise and across all geographies; mobile ending ARR grew greater than 30% year-over-year; monthly active users of Acrobat and Express surpassed 750 million, growing 20% year-over-year; and strong customer reception of Acrobat Studio, with nearly 50% of Acrobat commercial ETLAs renewed in Q4, already upgrading to this offering. Source: earnings call transcript	—	850M+ Acrobat and Express MAU surpassed 850 million, growing approximately 20% year-over-year. Source: earnings call transcript	900M+ Q3 growth drivers for Business Professionals and Consumers included: Double-digit ending ARR year-over-year growth across all geographies; Acrobat+ Express MAU surpassed 900 million, growing more than 25% year-over-year; Acrobat AI Assistant MAU doubled quarter-over-quarter; and strong performance in SMB across inside sales and the reseller channel. Source: earnings call transcript	—
Monthly active users (MAU) Creative freemium offerings	—	—	70M+ The tremendous innovations we showcased earned over 2,000 articles and garnered 820 million video views; growing our base of creative users across Firefly, Express, Premiere Mobile and other freemium offerings, MAU for these offerings surpassed 70 million in Q4, growing over 35% year over year; accelerating adoption of Firefly Services within enterprises with over 100 new deals signed in Q4; accelerating Generative Credit consumption in Creative Cloud, Firefly and Express by individuals and enterprises, which grew approximately 3x quarter-over-quarter; strength across all routes to market and geographies, with particular strength in SMB, Enterprise and emerging markets; and key enterprise wins include Coca Cola, HUMAIN, IKEA, JPMorganChase, Lowe's, Nintendo and Sony. Source: earnings call transcript	80M+ Notably, creative freemium MAU crossed 80 million, growing 50% year-over-year and includes web and mobile versions of Firefly, Express, Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom. Source: earnings call transcript	90M+ Creative freemium MAU, which includes web and mobile versions of Firefly, Express, Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom, crossed 90 million, growing over 70% year-over-year, continued strong generative credit consumption driven by video and audio. Source: earnings call transcript	100M+ Q3 growth drivers for Creative and Marketing Professionals included: Continued strength in Creative Cloud across our teams and enterprise offerings; creative freemium MAU, which includes Firefly Express and web and mobile versions of Premiere, Photoshop and Lightroom, crossed 100 million, growing over 70% year-over-year; Firefly ending ARR across Firefly apps and Firefly credit packs grew 40% quarter-over-quarter; customer growth in Firefly Enterprise with accelerating usage quarter-over-quarter; ending ARR growth of greater than 20% year-over-year for each of Adobe Experience Manager and agentic web apps, Adobe GenStudio and Adobe Experience Platform and apps; doubled the number of paid customers quarter-on-quarter for brand visibility solutions, helping brands optimize visibility across traditional and generative search; and continued strength in retention across the enterprise customer base. Source: earnings call transcript	—
Daily profile activations Adobe Experience Platform	—	—	70B+ Our platform operates at scale with over 35 trillion segment evaluations and more than 70 billion profile activations per day. Source: earnings call transcript	70B+ The scale of our platform has grown to over 35 trillion segment evaluations and more than 70 billion profile activations per day. Source: earnings call transcript	70B+ AEP delivers over 70 billion profile activations and 35 trillion segment evaluations per day, as well as more than 1 trillion experiences per year. Source: earnings call transcript	—	—

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