Coursera NYSE: COUR reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $196 million, up 9% year-over-year, as the company highlighted continued consumer momentum, improving platform economics, and ongoing preparation for its planned combination with Udemy.
President and CEO Greg Hart said the quarter represented “a strong start to the year,” driven by “double-digit growth in our consumer segment for the fourth consecutive quarter.” Coursera also added 7.6 million new registered learners—its strongest first quarter on record—bringing its cumulative learner base to more than 200 million. Hart later cited 205 million cumulative registered learners as a “meaningful milestone.”
Results show higher margins and profitability
Chief Financial Officer Mike Foley said gross profit was $111 million, up 11% year-over-year, with non-GAAP gross margin expanding to 57%, which he called “the highest gross margin in three years.” Foley attributed margin expansion to early benefits from a platform fee introduced at the start of the year and higher engagement with Coursera-produced content, which he said carries “more favorable economics.”
On profitability, Foley reported net income of $12 million, or 6.3% of revenue, and adjusted EBITDA of nearly $14 million, or 6.9% of revenue. Total operating expense was $103 million, or 53% of revenue, which Foley said reflected planned early-year investments in product, data, and go-to-market capabilities.
Coursera generated $3 million of free cash flow in the quarter. Foley said results included approximately $6 million in purchases of content assets treated similarly to capital expenditures, as well as more than $11 million in cash payments tied to one-time M&A transaction costs. Excluding those one-time M&A costs, Foley said free cash flow “would have been approximately $14 million.”
As of March 31, Coursera had approximately $790 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and no debt. Foley said the balance sheet provides flexibility for growth investments and other shareholder-return actions, including “the anticipated announcement of a sizable share repurchase program in short order following the close of the proposed transaction with Udemy,” pending authorization by the newly formed board.
Consumer growth continues while enterprise demand remains “mixed”
In the Consumer segment, revenue rose 10% year-over-year to $130 million. Foley said growth reflected record new learner additions and “strong adoption of Coursera Plus,” the company’s consumer subscription offering. He noted the company saw strong uptake of an annual Coursera Plus promotion early in Q1, which supported higher lifetime value and retention, while also creating “a modest timing effect on near-term revenue recognition.”
Consumer segment gross profit increased 13% to $82 million, and segment gross margin was 63%, up 160 basis points. Foley said an improvement of about 250 basis points in the core consumer subscription and courses category was partially offset by “the lower contribution from our high-margin degrees.”
In Enterprise, revenue increased 7% to $66 million, but both Hart and Foley described uneven conditions. Foley called the environment “mixed,” and said Coursera for Business remained below the company’s long-term expectations. Growth was driven by the campus vertical and a “meaningful contribution from a large government expansion” discussed previously. Paid enterprise customers increased 5% year-over-year, and net retention rate was 90%.
Enterprise segment gross profit was $47 million, up 9%, with segment gross margin of 71%, up 80 basis points. Hart said the company is seeing pressure particularly among larger enterprises “where they’re downscaling in some cases, their commitment versus necessarily churning,” which he tied to L&D budgets being under pressure.
AI content, credentials, and “learning in the flow of work”
Hart framed Coursera’s strategy around evolving labor-market demand for skills—particularly AI—alongside human skills and skills verification. He cited Coursera’s job skills report, based on insights from nearly 6 million enterprise learners across 7,000 organizations, and pointed to rising enrollments in critical thinking courses, which he said grew 120% year-over-year.
Hart said demand for professional certificates has increased, with “enrollments and professional certificates” growing by an average of 91% across the career areas Coursera analyzed. He also said Coursera now offers more than 1,300 AI courses, “nearly double from a year ago,” and that AI engagement accelerated to more than 20 enrollments per minute in Q1 (up from 15 per minute last year and eight per minute in 2024).
The company highlighted several partner and product initiatives:
- Google AI certificate launch: Hart said Google launched its first AI professional certificate on Coursera in February, expanding a generative AI portfolio that has attracted more than 3 million enrollments. Google is offering learners three months of no-cost access to Google AI Pro as part of the launch.
- Microsoft expansion: Hart said Coursera launched 11 new professional certificates with structured learning pathways across AI, data, and software development, expanding Microsoft’s professional certificate portfolio on Coursera by more than 50%.
- Credit recognition and government frameworks: Hart said more than 50 certificates have ACE recommendations in the U.S. and over 40 have ECTS recognition in Europe. He also said Coursera tripled the number of certificates aligned to India’s NSQF framework to 30.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot learning agent: Hart said Coursera launched the first learning agent built for Microsoft 365 Copilot, designed to deliver learning “directly into the context of day-to-day work.”
- Workday integration: Hart said Coursera launched the next phase of its Workday Learning and Skills Cloud integration and onboarded 10 initial customers by the end of Q1.
- Voice-enabled role play: Hart said Coursera launched an updated role play experience enabling “real-time, voice-to-voice simulations,” and that early consumer experiments showed a “meaningful increase in engagement” for learners selecting the voice-enabled experience.
In Q&A, Hart told JPMorgan’s Brian Smilek that Coursera is developing a more “AI-centric” discovery experience, including AI-enabled search that is “more conversational,” alongside interactive features like voice role play and “dialogue,” which he described as instructor-created AI-driven back-and-forth conversations embedded within courses. He added that Coursera aims for learning to become “much more deeply personalized,” starting from a learner’s background and skills.
Responding to Goldman Sachs’ Eric Sheridan, Hart said a key focus is expanding “skill assessment and skill verification,” including understanding a learner’s starting point relative to career goals and making Coursera’s AI tutor less reactive and more proactive. He said the company believes improved interactivity can drive stronger outcomes, higher engagement, and better retention—benefiting consumer lifetime value—while enterprise adoption could become “stickier” as learning becomes more integrated into work.
Udemy transaction: timing, synergies, and enterprise platform direction
Management repeatedly referenced the planned combination with Udemy as a way to accelerate product velocity and strengthen enterprise capabilities. Hart said the planned combination would broaden Coursera’s data advantage, citing Udemy’s 17,000 enterprise customers.
During Q&A with Needham’s Ryan MacDonald, Hart said both companies received shareholder approval on April 9, and that Coursera was still awaiting regulatory approval in one country. He said the company was “very confident” approval would come in the near term and expects the deal to close by the end of Q2.
On integration, Foley reiterated Coursera’s synergy target of approximately $115 million of annual run-rate cost synergies within 24 months of closing, primarily driven by go-to-market optimization and G&A efficiencies. He added the company now expects to realize a “significant majority” of those synergies within the first year after close. Foley said potential revenue dis-synergies are already factored into the synergy expectations.
Foley also provided detail on enterprise overlap, saying that on the enterprise side there is “about 20% overlap” in combined enterprise ARR dollars, leaving 80% not overlapping. He said the company sees cross-sell opportunity that is not included in the $115 million synergy figure, while acknowledging some risk of revenue dis-synergies within the overlap as contracts come up for renewal.
Asked by Morgan Stanley’s Josh Baer whether the pending merger is affecting enterprise performance, Foley said he did not believe the merger is causing customers to hesitate, calling macro pressures the larger driver. Hart added that enterprise customers are at different levels of readiness for “flow of work” integrations, with more advanced enterprises showing more interest. He pointed to Udemy’s “Altus” initiative as aligning with where enterprises want learning to go—embedded in the flow of work—and said Udemy planned to pilot Altus with enterprise partners in the coming quarter.
Guidance reaffirmed amid cautious enterprise outlook
For the second quarter, Foley guided to revenue of $196 million to $200 million, representing 5% to 7% year-over-year growth, and adjusted EBITDA of $12 million to $16 million. He said Q2 free cash flow is expected to be impacted by approximately $13 million of transaction-related cash payments.
For full-year 2026, Coursera reaffirmed its standalone guidance for revenue of $805 million to $815 million (approximately 6% to 8% growth) and adjusted EBITDA of $70 million to $76 million, implying an adjusted EBITDA margin of about 9%.
In response to RBC’s Rishi Jaluria on confidence in the outlook, Foley said Coursera continues to see strong momentum in subscription and course revenue, but is “more cautious” on Enterprise, particularly Coursera for Business, due to ongoing macro impacts including tech stack consolidation and L&D budgets under pressure.
About Coursera NYSE: COUR
Coursera, Inc NYSE: COUR operates a leading online learning platform that delivers courses, specializations, professional certificates and fully accredited degree programs in collaboration with top universities and industry partners. Founded in 2012 by Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, Coursera's mission is to provide universal access to world-class education and bridge skill gaps in a rapidly evolving job market.
The platform features more than 6,000 offerings created by over 275 academic institutions and corporate entities, spanning fields such as data science, business, technology, health care and the arts.
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