Instacart achieved two first-time financial milestones in the first quarter, chalking them up to “continuously improving what matters most to consumers: selection, quality, affordability and convenience.”
GTV, or gross transaction value, was up 13 percent to hit $10.29 billion on 91.2 million orders (up 10 percent), and total revenue reached $1.02 billion, an increase of 14 percent.
“Q1 was a milestone quarter, surpassing $10 billion in GTV and $1 billion in total revenue for the first time,” said Chris Rogers, CEO of San Francisco-based Instacart. “Each part of our platform is getting stronger, and they’re compounding together.”
The Instacart platform currently is in use at 2,200 retail companies representing nearly 100,000 stores. It offers e-commerce, fulfillment, in-store technology, AI offerings and advertising for retailers.
Other first quarter measures include GAAP net income rising 36 percent to $144 million and adjusted EBITDA increasing 23 percent to $300 million.
Advertising and other revenue grew 16 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2026 to $286 million – the company’s fastest ad revenue growth since the third quarter of 2023, it said.
Quarterly developments
Several retailers now are on price parity on the platform, including Hy-Vee, Raley’s, Fareway and several independent grocers. Instacart also became the exclusive fulfillment partner on Aldi’s redesigned website and mobile app during the quarter.
Instacart’s advertising network now includes more than 310 Carrot Ads partners and 9,000-plus brand partners. Carrot Ads are being expanded at new accounts including Aldi, Dierbergs, Fareway and Jerry’s Foods, Instacart added.
Brands using Carrot Ads can now launch campaigns using automated tools within the company’s self-service Ads Manager platform.
Instacart also expanded its AI Solutions suite during the quarter with Cart Assistant, its conversational shopping tool. Retailers including Food Bazaar, Heritage Grocers, Restaurant Depot, The Save Mart Companies and Woodman’s have adopted that tool.
On the fuel side, Instacart increased per-gallon cash back through its Upside partnership and introduced a new weekly fuel stipend for high-mileage shoppers.
On the manufacturer side, new measurement case studies were released regarding brands such as Avaline, Bachan’s, Deep Indian Kitchen (Deep Brands), Good Peeps and Saffron Road, “demonstrating the impact of Instacart Ads on driving consumer demand,” the company said.
AI assistance integration, acquisition
Instacart also launched an integration with Anthropic’s Claude AI assistant, enabling users to build grocery carts with personalized results within the AI platform.
In addition, Instacart acquired Instaleap, a fulfillment and enablement solutions platform with retailer relationships in nearly 30 countries, to support international expansion of its enterprise platform.
Cash flow down, but growth planned
Instacart generated $268 million in operating cash flow and $253 million in free cash flow during the first quarter of 2026, both of which were down 10 percent from the 2025 quarter – $298 million and $280 million, respectively.
“We started the year with strong momentum, delivering a ninth consecutive quarter of double-digit GTV growth and our fastest advertising and other revenue growth since Q3 2023,” said Emily Reuter, CFO. “Our operating fundamentals are solid and give us the flexibility to reinvest to further accelerate growth, pursue strategic M&A and opportunistically return capital through share repurchases.”
The company repurchased $349 million in shares and ended the period with approximately $880 million in cash and similar assets.
For the second quarter of 2026, the company projects GTV growth of 11 to 13 percent year-over-year and Adjusted EBITDA growth of 11 to 15 percent year over year.
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