Digital analytics platform Amplitude (NASDAQ: AMPL) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 16.9% year on year to $93.49 million. Guidance for next quarter’s revenue was better than expected at $98 million at the midpoint, 1.8% above analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP loss of $0.02 per share was $0.01 below analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Amplitude (AMPL) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $93.49 million vs analyst estimates of $92.94 million (16.9% year-on-year growth, 0.6% beat)
- Adjusted EPS: -$0.02 vs analyst estimates of -$0.01 ($0.01 miss)
- Adjusted Operating Income: -$3.12 million vs analyst estimates of -$3.29 million (-3.3% margin, relatively in line)
- The company lifted its revenue guidance for the full year to $400 million at the midpoint from $394 million, a 1.5% increase
- Management lowered its full-year Adjusted EPS guidance to $0.05 at the midpoint, a 57.1% decrease
- Operating Margin: -25.8%, up from -30.3% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow was -$13.18 million, down from $11.18 million in the previous quarter
- Customers: 727 customers paying more than $100,000 annually
- Net Revenue Retention Rate: 106%, up from 104% in the previous quarter
- Annual Recurring Revenue: $374 million vs analyst estimates of $372.7 million (16.9% year-on-year growth, in line)
- Market Capitalization: $1.05 billion
Company Overview
Born from the realization that companies were flying blind when it came to understanding user behavior in their digital products, Amplitude (NASDAQ: AMPL) provides a digital analytics platform that helps businesses understand how people use their digital products to improve user experiences and drive revenue growth.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Luckily, Amplitude’s sales grew at a solid 25.8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. Its growth beat the average software company and shows its offerings resonate with customers.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within software, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. Amplitude’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed as its annualized revenue growth of 12.4% over the last two years was below its five-year trend. We’re wary when companies in the sector see decelerations in revenue growth, as it could signal changing consumer tastes aided by low switching costs. 
This quarter, Amplitude reported year-on-year revenue growth of 16.9%, and its $93.49 million of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 0.6%. Company management is currently guiding for a 17.7% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.
Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 14.6% over the next 12 months. Although this projection implies its newer products and services will fuel better top-line performance, it is still below average for the sector.
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Annual Recurring Revenue
While reported revenue for a software company can include low-margin items like implementation fees, annual recurring revenue (ARR) is a sum of the next 12 months of contracted revenue purely from software subscriptions, or the high-margin, predictable revenue streams that make SaaS businesses so valuable.
Amplitude’s ARR punched in at $374 million in Q1, and over the last four quarters, its growth slightly outpaced the sector as it averaged 16.5% year-on-year increases. This performance aligned with its total sales growth and shows the company is securing longer-term commitments. Its growth also contributes positively to Amplitude’s revenue predictability, a trait long-term investors typically prefer. 
Customer Retention
One of the best parts about the software-as-a-service business model (and a reason why they trade at high valuation multiples) is that customers typically spend more on a company’s products and services over time.
Amplitude’s net revenue retention rate, a key performance metric measuring how much money existing customers from a year ago are spending today, was 103% in Q1. This means Amplitude would’ve grown its revenue by 2.8% even if it didn’t win any new customers over the last 12 months.
Trending up over the last year, Amplitude has an adequate net retention rate, showing us that it generally keeps customers but lags behind the best SaaS businesses, which routinely post net retention rates of 120%+.
Key Takeaways from Amplitude’s Q1 Results
We were impressed by how significantly Amplitude blew past analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also glad its revenue guidance for next quarter exceeded Wall Street’s estimates. On the other hand, its full-year EPS guidance missed and its EPS guidance for next quarter fell short of Wall Street’s estimates. Overall, this was a softer quarter. The stock traded down 11.8% to $6.63 immediately following the results.
Is Amplitude an attractive investment opportunity at the current price? We think that the latest quarter is only one piece of the longer-term business quality puzzle. Quality, when combined with valuation, can help determine if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
