Opera NASDAQ: OPRA reported first-quarter 2026 results that exceeded management’s guidance, driven by strength in both advertising and query revenue as the company highlighted new AI-related product initiatives and continued user growth.
Quarterly results topped guidance as advertising hit a record
CEO Song Lin said first-quarter revenue surpassed the high end of guidance by $4 million and adjusted EBITDA beat the high end by $2 million. Total revenue rose 23% year over year to $176 million, while adjusted EBITDA was $42 million, representing a 24% margin.
Lin said revenue growth was “comparable across advertising and query revenue, 24% and 23% respectively,” helping offset typical seasonal softness following the holiday-driven fourth quarter. Advertising revenue reached “a new all-time high of $117 million,” he said.
CFO Frode Jacobsen added that the company’s underlying momentum “overpowered” seasonality and pushed sequential advertising revenue higher. He also noted that the quarter marked Opera’s “20th consecutive quarter as a Rule of 40 company,” and said the company is “well on track for 2026 to be the 6th consecutive year” meeting that standard.
Query revenue accelerated, with AI viewed as a monetization tailwind
Opera reported first-quarter query revenue of $58 million, representing 33% of total revenue. Lin said growth in query revenue was supported by improvements in “non-search query revenue,” which he described as “multiple times larger than the year ago quarter,” while the company also saw expansion in search-related query growth.
Jacobsen said year-over-year “pure search revenue” grew about 14% in the quarter, which he called “very strong” and higher than growth seen throughout 2025. Combined with non-search query revenue, total query revenue growth reached 23% year over year.
Management repeatedly tied these trends to product changes and the integration of AI features across Opera’s browsers. Lin said the “AI age comes with completely new querying monetization potentials,” including conversational interactions with Opera’s AI assistant and better “back-end understanding of a user’s intentions,” enabling relevant products and services to be presented within the browser interface. He also said AI can improve advertising performance through better targeting of user intent, potentially increasing conversion rates for partners.
AI product updates focus on user choice and “bring your own AI”
Opera emphasized a strategy of integrating AI at multiple points in the browsing experience while preserving user choice. Lin said the company has embedded AI into various parts of the browser, including the URL bar/omnibox and the sidebar-based Opera AI assistant.
Lin highlighted a new feature called Browser Connector, which is available in Opera Neon (its subscription-based agentic browser) as well as Opera One and Opera GX. According to Lin, Browser Connector lets users connect third-party AI tools into live browsing sessions through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), giving AI models “full real-time context of open tabs and active content.” He described it as a “bring your own AI” approach and said it reduces the need for users to copy and paste context into AI tools.
On the call, Lin argued that making Browser Connector broadly available is economically attractive for Opera because it does not require the company to bear token costs associated with AI usage when users bring their own subscriptions. He said Opera’s business model allows it to focus on monetization through advertising rather than relying primarily on subscription revenue.
When asked about AI adoption metrics, Lin said the company has not disclosed the percentage of users engaging with AI because there are “so many touch point and entry point of AI” that defining AI usage has become difficult. He added that Opera expects “the majority of the interactions within the browser will encounter AI in one form or another” over time.
Lin also shared engagement metrics in Western markets, saying users who engage with AI in Opera’s browsers spend “over an hour more per day” in the browser and perform “50% more traditional searches” than users not yet engaging with AI—factors he said contribute to ARPU growth.
User growth, ARPU gains, and MiniPay scale
Opera ended the quarter with 288 million monthly average users after adding 4 million during the period, Lin said. He added that the company gained 400,000 Western users despite a “seasonally strong” quarter, supported by Android adoption, PC growth, and “one million new Opera GX users globally.” Annualized ARPU rose 25% year over year to $2.43.
Lin also highlighted MiniPay, Opera’s non-custodial stablecoin wallet, describing it as “the leading stablecoin wallet in Africa.” He said MiniPay has “activated over 15 million wallets and processed over 430 million total transactions.” Lin also pointed to a newly announced $1 million incentive aimed at local developers building Mini Apps that leverage MiniPay transactions, with Opera providing in-person support in Africa and Latin America.
Jacobsen said MiniPay is “already meaningfully contributing,” stating that Opera generates “about $20 million of revenue from the broader ecosystem around it.” He also discussed Opera’s 9.5% stake in OPay, which Opera founded in 2017, saying it is carried on Opera’s balance sheet at “about $300 million of book value.” Jacobsen said OPay now operates independently and that Opera expects an eventual IPO could help make OPay’s market value—and Opera’s stake—more visible.
Margins, cash flow, shareholder returns, and updated guidance
Jacobsen said Opera improved gross margin by about 60 basis points versus the prior quarter, with cost of revenue representing 36.8% of revenue compared to 37.4% in Q4. Marketing spend was $38.5 million, and cash-based compensation was $21.5 million, down slightly from Q4. Operating cash flow matched adjusted EBITDA at $42 million, which Jacobsen said represented a “100% conversion,” while free cash flow from operations was $35.5 million, or 85% of adjusted EBITDA.
On capital returns, Jacobsen reiterated the company’s $0.80 annual dividend and its $300 million buyback program. Opera paid a $0.40 semiannual dividend in January totaling $36 million. In March, the company repurchased 1.14 million shares for $17 million at $14.88 per share, split between public buybacks and repurchases from its majority shareholder at the same price. Shares outstanding were reduced to 89.55 million as of March 31, he said.
Management raised full-year guidance following the first-quarter beat. Jacobsen lifted 2026 revenue guidance to $727 million to $740 million, representing 18% to 20% growth, and updated adjusted EBITDA guidance to $170 million to $174 million, implying a 23.4% margin at the midpoint. For Q2, Opera guided revenue of $176 million to $178 million (23% to 25% growth) and adjusted EBITDA of $40 million to $42 million.
During Q&A, Lin also addressed questions about the company’s Google relationship, saying Opera renewed the agreement for the year due to U.S. DOJ requirements and that the dialogue remains strong. He said Opera does not expect “any surprises” and that renewal discussions typically occur in the second half of the year.
About Opera NASDAQ: OPRA
Opera Limited NASDAQ: OPRA is a global software and internet services company best known for its cross-platform web browsers, including the flagship Opera Browser, Opera Mini for mobile devices and Opera GX designed for the gaming community. The company integrates features such as ad blocking, built-in VPN services and a cryptocurrency wallet into its desktop and mobile applications, aiming to deliver fast, secure and feature-rich browsing experiences to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
Beyond its consumer-facing browsers, Opera operates Opera News, a personalized content and news aggregation platform with a strong presence in Africa and Asia, and Opera Ads, a digital advertising network that leverages user-behavior data to provide targeted ad placements across devices.
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