Cloudflare Earnings: Q3 2026 Revenue Jumps 39% and Guidance Rises; Shares Climb Premarket
Cloudflare earnings topped Wall Street’s expectations on Thursday, and the company raised its outlook for the rest of 2026. Cloudflare, Inc. (NYSE: NET) reported third-quarter revenue of $782.5 million, up 39% from a year earlier, and said it now expects about $2.96 billion in revenue for the full year. Shares were up roughly 14% to 15% in Friday premarket trading, according to Investing.com and Seeking Alpha.
The report came after the market closed on Nov. 5, at the end of a day when the Nasdaq Composite fell 5.52% in a broad sell-off in technology stocks.
Cloudflare Earnings: Q3 2026 Results at a Glance
Verified figures from Cloudflare’s third-quarter 2026 earnings release:
| Metric | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $782.5 million | $562.0 million |
| Revenue growth (YoY) | 39% | — |
| Non-GAAP gross margin | 72.4% | 75.3% |
| Non-GAAP operating income | $137.1 million (17.5% of revenue) | $85.9 million (15.3%) |
| GAAP operating loss | $67.9 million (8.7% of revenue) | $37.5 million (6.7%) |
| Non-GAAP diluted EPS | $0.38 | $0.27 |
| GAAP EPS | $(0.10) | $(0.00) |
| Operating cash flow | $215.4 million | $167.1 million |
| Free cash flow | $82.1 million (10% of revenue) | $75.0 million (13%) |
Cloudflare also reported 37% year-over-year growth in current remaining performance obligations (RPO), meaning contracted revenue it expects to recognize over the next 12 months. It held $5.13 billion in cash and available-for-sale securities as of Sept. 30, 2026.
How the results compared with estimates
- Revenue: $782.5 million, against a consensus estimate of about $737 million to $738 million (Investing.com, 24/7 Wall St.).
- Adjusted EPS: $0.38, against a consensus of $0.34.
- Q4 revenue guidance: $845 million to $846 million. The consensus was about $798 million, according to Investing.com.
Updated 2026 Guidance
These figures are company guidance, not reported results.
| Guidance | Q4 2026 | Full-year 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $845.0M – $846.0M | $2,963.0M – $2,964.0M |
| Non-GAAP operating income | $156.0M – $157.0M | $462.0M – $463.0M |
| Non-GAAP EPS | $0.43 | $1.35 |
What Cloudflare Said
Company statement: Co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince called it “Cloudflare’s best quarter ever,” and said the company had crossed $3 billion in annualized revenue (earnings release). Management discussed the results on its earnings call at 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday (call transcript).
The release also listed restructuring and other charges of $11.0 million for the quarter and $161.7 million for the first nine months of 2026. The company tied the restructuring to what it calls an “agentic AI-first operating model.” Stock-based compensation and related payroll taxes were $174.1 million, up from $119.7 million a year earlier. 24/7 Wall St. reported that Christian Smith, formerly Splunk’s chief revenue officer, has been named President of Revenue.
Company Background
Cloudflare runs a global network that provides content delivery, security (DDoS protection, web application firewall, Zero Trust access), networking, and developer and AI services such as Workers. Its customers range from individual developers to large enterprises. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NET.
Why It Matters
Analysis: The report arrived as investors were reassessing AI infrastructure. On Nov. 5 the S&P 500 fell 4.36% and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped more than 12%, amid concerns about slower data-center buildouts (Fox Business). Cloudflare’s results show revenue growth speeding up to 39%, with non-GAAP operating margin rising 2.2 percentage points from a year earlier. GAAP results, however, still show a loss, and gross margin narrowed by about three points.
- Growth: 39% year-over-year revenue growth, with Q4 guidance implying another sequential increase.
- Profitability: Non-GAAP operating income rose about 60% from the prior year, while the GAAP operating loss widened, partly because of restructuring charges.
- Cash generation: Free cash flow rose in dollars but fell as a share of revenue, from 13% to 10%.
What to Watch Next
- How Friday’s premarket gain holds up after the open, and after the October U.S. jobs report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
- Cloudflare’s 10-Q filing with the SEC, which should give more detail on customer counts and net retention. Those figures were not in the sources reviewed for this article.
- The fourth-quarter report, expected in early 2027, which will show whether Cloudflare hit its $845 million to $846 million revenue guidance.
Related Company Alerts on Vanderbilt Report
- Amazon Earnings: AWS Grows 39% in Q3 2026
- RingCentral Earnings: Q3 Profit Beats Estimates, 2026 Outlook Raised
- Gamehaus Stock (GMHS): A Mobile Game Publisher Bets on AI Content
Sources
- Cloudflare Announces Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results (press release via StockTitan)
- Investing.com — Cloudflare shares soar after hours on Q3 results, forecast
- Seeking Alpha — Biggest stock movers Friday
- 24/7 Wall St. — Cloudflare Q3 2026 earnings
- The Motley Fool — Cloudflare Q3 2026 earnings call transcript
- Fox Business — Stock market, Nov. 5, 2026
Developing: premarket price moves are preliminary and can change after the market opens.
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