Lyft Reports Strong Q1 2026 Financial Results

Active Riders growth of 17% year over year
Gross Bookings growth of 19% year over year

Lyft, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYFT) today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2026.

“Our customer-obsessed comeback continues,” said Lyft CEO David Risher. “We delivered on all our financial commitments, grew share in the United States, and deepened our global expansion. Looking ahead, our state-of-the-art Flexdrive AV operation in Nashville sets the stage for a hybrid AV future. Lyft is performing while transforming.”

“We’ve executed another strong quarter with double-digit year-over-year growth across Active Riders and Gross Bookings, while generating over $1 billion in cash for the trailing twelve months,” said CFO Erin Brewer. “These results reflect the strength of our foundation and drives confidence in our growth to accelerate in Q2.”

First Quarter 2026 Financial Highlights

• Gross Bookings of $4.9 billion, up 19% year over year.
• Revenue of $1.7 billion, up 14% year over year.
• Net income of $14.2 million compared to $2.6 million in Q1'25.
  • Net income as a percentage of Gross Bookings of 0.3% compared to 0.1% in Q1'25.
• Adjusted EBITDA up 25% year over year to $132.8 million compared to $106.5 million in Q1'25.
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin as a percentage of Gross Bookings of 2.7% compared to 2.6% in Q1'25.
• Net cash provided by operating activities of $307.7 million compared to $287.2 million in Q1'25.
  • For the trailing twelve months, net cash provided by operating activities was $1.2 billion.
• Free cash flow of $287.3 million compared to $280.7 million in Q1'25.
  • For the trailing twelve months, free cash flow was $1.1 billion, an all-time high.

First Quarter 2026 Operational Highlights

• Active Riders, our leading indicator of growth, was up 17% year over year to 28.3 million, a record Q1 and 6th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.
• This week, we closed our acquisition of Gett’s UK business, making Lyft one of London’s most comprehensive mobility platforms in Europe’s largest taxi and ride-hail market.
• Announced our Nashville Flexdrive AV operations will open this fall.
• Confirmed our first Baidu vehicles have been secured in the UK.
• Nearly 27% of rides in North America were linked to a partnership, an all-time high, and we have expanded offerings across some of our largest partnerships including Chase, DoorDash, and United Airlines.

Second Quarter 2026 Outlook

• Gross Bookings of approximately $5.30 billion to $5.43 billion, up approximately 18% to 21% year over year.
• Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $160 million to $180 million
  • Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) of approximately 3.0% to 3.3%.

We have not provided the forward-looking GAAP equivalent to our non-GAAP outlook or a GAAP reconciliation as a result of the uncertainty regarding, and the potential variability of reconciling items such as stock-based compensation and income tax. Accordingly, a reconciliation of these non-GAAP guidance metrics to their corresponding GAAP equivalent is not available without unreasonable effort. However, it is important to note that the reconciling items could have a significant effect on future GAAP results. We have provided historical reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP metrics in tables at the end of this release. For more information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this earnings release, please see “GAAP to non-GAAP Reconciliations” below.

Financial and Operational Results

Definitions of Key Metrics

Active Riders

The number of Active Riders is a key indicator of the scale of Lyft’s user community. Lyft defines Active Riders as all unique riders who have taken at least one ride during the quarter. If a ride is requested by another organization or person for the benefit of a rider, that rider is only included in the calculation of Active Riders if the ride is accessible in the rider’s Lyft App.

Rides

Rides represent the level of usage of our multimodal platform. Lyft defines Rides as the total number of rides completed using our multimodal platform that contribute to our revenue. These include any Rides taken through our Lyft App. If multiple riders take a private rideshare ride, including situations where one party picks up another party on the way to a destination, or splits the bill, we count this as a single rideshare ride. Each unique segment of a Shared Ride is considered a single Ride. For example, if two riders successfully match in Shared Ride mode and both complete their Rides, we count this as two Rides. We have largely shifted away from Shared Rides, and now only offer Shared Rides in limited markets. Lyft includes all Rides taken by riders via our Concierge offering, even though such riders may be excluded from the definition of Active Riders unless the ride is accessible in that rider’s Lyft App.

Gross Bookings

Gross Bookings is a key indicator of the scale and impact of our overall platform. Lyft defines Gross Bookings as the total dollar value of transactions including any applicable taxes, tolls and fees, for rides and other offerings provided by Lyft, excluding tips to drivers.

Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings)

Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA for a period by Gross Bookings for the same period. For the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, refer to “Non-GAAP Financial Measures”.

Webcast

Lyft will host a webcast today at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time (5:00 p.m. Eastern Time) to discuss these financial results and business highlights. Supplemental materials, including management’s prepared remarks, will be available on the Company’s Investor Relations page in advance of the call. To listen to a live audio webcast, please visit our Investor Relations page at https://investor.lyft.com/. The archived webcast will be available on our Investor Relations page shortly after the call.

About Lyft

Whether it’s an everyday commute or a journey that changes everything, Lyft is driven by our purpose: to serve and connect. Founded in 2012, Lyft has grown into a global mobility platform offering a mix of rideshare, taxis, private hire vehicles, executive chauffeur services, car sharing, bikes, and scooters across six continents and thousands of cities. Millions of drivers have chosen to earn on billions of rides - helping to create a more connected world, with transportation options for everyone.

Available Information

Lyft announces material information to the public about Lyft, its products and services and other matters through a variety of means, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, public conference calls, webcasts, the investor relations section of its website (investor.lyft.com), its X accounts (@lyft and @davidrisher), its Chief Executive Officer’s LinkedIn account (linkedin.com/in/jdavidrisher) and its blogs (including: lyft.com/blog, lyft.com/hub, and eng.lyft.com) in order to achieve broad, non-exclusionary distribution of information to the public and for complying with its disclosure obligations under Regulation FD.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Lyft’s future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify forward looking statements because they contain words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “going to,” “could,” “intends,” “target,” “projects,” “contemplates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential” or “continue” or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern Lyft’s expectations, strategy, priorities, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, Lyft’s guidance and outlook, including expectations for the second quarter of 2026, and the trends and assumptions underlying such guidance and outlook, Lyft’s expectations regarding its share repurchase program, including the timing of repurchases thereunder, Lyft’s plans and expectations regarding its new and existing strategic partnerships and the benefits such partnerships will provide, Lyft’s expectations regarding its products and features, Lyft’s expectations regarding AV technology, including the deployment of AVs, and Lyft’s expectations regarding its acquisitions and their anticipated impacts on Lyft’s international operations and financial results, and risks related to their integrations and operations. Lyft’s expectations and beliefs regarding these matters may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, including risks related to the macroeconomic environment and risks regarding our ability to forecast our performance due to our limited operating history and the macroeconomic environment and the risk that our partnerships may not materialize as expected. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Lyft’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to Lyft as of the date hereof, and Lyft disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. This press release discusses “customers”. For rideshare in North America, there are generally two customers in every car - the driver is Lyft’s customer, and the rider is the driver’s customer. We care about both.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement Lyft's financial information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States of America, or GAAP, Lyft considers certain financial measures that are not prepared in accordance with GAAP, including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) and free cash flow. Lyft defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) adjusted for interest expense, other income (expense), net, provision for (benefit from) income taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation expense, payroll tax expense related to stock-based compensation, as well as, if applicable, sublease income, gain from lease termination, restructuring charges, costs related to acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate matters, and certain legal, tax, and regulatory reserve changes and settlements. Adjusted EBITDA margin (calculated as a percentage of Gross Bookings) is calculated by dividing Adjusted EBITDA for a period by Gross Bookings for the same period and is considered a key metric. Lyft defines free cash flow as GAAP net cash provided by (used in) operating activities less purchases of property and equipment and scooter fleet.

Lyft subleases certain office space and earns sublease income. Sublease income is included within other income, net on the condensed consolidated statement of operations, while the related lease expense is included within operating expenses and loss from operations. Lyft believes the adjustment to include sublease income in Adjusted EBITDA is useful to investors by enabling them to better assess Lyft’s operating performance, including the benefits of recent transactions, by presenting sublease income as a contra-expense to the related lease charges that are part of operating expenses.

Lyft excludes certain costs related to acquisitions including due diligence costs, professional fees in connection with an acquisition, certain financing costs, and certain integration-related expenses. These expenses are unpredictable, and depend on factors that may be outside of our control and are not reflective of our ongoing core operations. In addition, the size and complexity of an acquisition, which often drives the magnitude of costs related to acquisitions, may not be indicative of such future costs. We believe excluding costs related to acquisitions, divestitures and other corporate matters facilitates the comparison of our financial results to our historical operating results and to other companies in the industry.

Certain legal, tax, and regulatory reserve changes and settlements are primarily related to certain reserves and/or settlements for significant legal proceedings or governmental investigations and the associated fees. These matters have limited precedent, cover extended historical periods and are unpredictable in both magnitude and timing, therefore are distinct from normal, recurring legal, tax and regulatory matters and related expenses incurred in our ongoing operating performance.

Lyft uses its non-GAAP financial measures in conjunction with GAAP measures as part of our overall assessment of our performance, including the preparation of our annual operating budget and quarterly forecasts, to evaluate the effectiveness of our business strategies, and to communicate with our board of directors concerning our financial performance. Free cash flow is a measure used by our management to understand and evaluate our operating performance and trends. We believe free cash flow is a useful indicator of liquidity that provides our management with information about our ability to generate or use cash to enhance the strength of our balance sheet, further invest in our business and pursue potential strategic initiatives. Free cash flow has certain limitations, including that it does not reflect our future contractual commitments and it does not represent the total increase or decrease in our cash balance for a given period. Free cash flow does not necessarily represent funds available for discretionary use and is not necessarily a measure of our ability to fund our cash needs.

Lyft’s definitions may differ from the definitions used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. In addition, other companies may not publish these or similar metrics. Furthermore, these measures have certain limitations in that they do not include the impact of certain expenses that are reflected in our consolidated statement of operations that are necessary to run our business. Thus, our non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as substitutes for, or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

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