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# Duolingo Retires Its Top-Priced Max Tier As Daily Users Grow 29% And Full-Year Outlook Rises
- URL: https://www.bullished.co/duolingo-retires-its-top-priced-max-tier-as-daily-users-grow-29-and-full-year-outlook-45bae198/
- Published: 2026-11-03T21:29:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T21:29:26.000Z
- Description: The language-learning app will stop selling Max this month, while third-quarter adjusted EBITDA margin narrowed to 25.5% from 29.5%.
- Author: Matteo Parrino
- Tags: Earnings, DUOL, Industry: Consumer Discretionary

Duolingo, which makes the free-to-use language-learning app, will stop selling new Max subscriptions this month and fold unlimited AI Video Call into its cheaper Super plan, the company said in a [shareholder letter](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026069474/q3fy26duolingo9-30x26share.htm?ref=bullished.co) released Tuesday with third-quarter results. Daily active users grew 29% from a year earlier, and the company raised its full-year outlook.

## Max goes, Super absorbs Video Call

Existing individual Max subscribers will move to a Super family plan at the same price, with the same features plus the ability to share the subscription with family or friends. The company said the effect on bookings, the amounts customers pay in a period, should be minimal and is built into its fourth-quarter guidance.

The company is still weighing options for legacy subscribers on the Max family plan and said it will address them in 2027\. Unlimited Video Call, the AI conversation-practice feature, went to new Super subscribers last quarter, and the company is on track to extend it to all Super subscribers by the end of this year.

Duolingo's app is best known for language courses and earns most of its money from subscriptions. Max was its higher-priced, AI-powered tier.

## Users accelerate, margins narrow

Daily active users reached 64.9 million, up 29% from 50.5 million a year earlier. Growth in the second quarter was 23%. Paid subscribers rose 14% to 13.1 million.

Revenue rose 14% to $309.0 million and bookings rose 12% to $316.1 million. Subscription bookings climbed 16%.

Adjusted EBITDA slipped to $78.7 million from $80.0 million, a 25.5% margin against 29.5%. Operating expenses grew 24%, or $39.2 million, and included an $11.4 million accrual for a company-wide bonus tied to hitting fourth-quarter daily user growth of 25% or more.

Net income was $27.2 million, versus $292.2 million a year earlier, when a one-time $222.7 million tax benefit lifted results. Cash and short-term investments rose to $1.4 billion.

## Guidance and the buyback

For the fourth quarter, Duolingo guided to bookings of $382 million and revenue of $322 million, and expects daily user growth similar to the third quarter. It expects full-year adjusted EBITDA of $323 million, up $3 million from its prior forecast, and said it will finish the year at the high end of its bookings growth range of 10% to 12% and its revenue growth range of 15% to 18%.

Through October 30, the company had repurchased 781,439 shares for $82.0 million under its $400 million buyback program, which it said offsets all dilution from 2024 and 2025.

Duolingo will present its 2027 outlook when it reports fourth-quarter results in February.

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### Sources

- [8-K Filing — Duolingo, Inc. (DUOL)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026069474/duol-20261103.htm?ref=bullished.co) — SEC EDGAR
- [Exhibit q3fy26duolingo9-30x26xpres.htm — Duolingo, Inc. 8-K exhibit](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026069474/q3fy26duolingo9-30x26xpres.htm?ref=bullished.co) — SEC EDGAR
- [Exhibit q3fy26duolingo9-30x26share.htm — Duolingo, Inc. 8-K exhibit](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001562088/000162828026069474/q3fy26duolingo9-30x26share.htm?ref=bullished.co) — SEC EDGAR