Uber said its gross bookings reached $59.8 billion in the third quarter, up 20% from a year earlier, on revenue of $14.8 billion. The company reported the results Nov. 4 and forecast fourth-quarter gross bookings of $63.25 billion to $65.25 billion. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi called it the fifth straight quarter of gross bookings growth of 20% or more.
Gross bookings count the total dollars customers spend on Uber rides, food and grocery deliveries and freight shipments, before Uber takes its share. Revenue is what Uber keeps, which is why it is so much smaller. Revenue rose 10%, and the company said changes to the way it books some of its business cut that growth rate by 8 percentage points.
Riders and diners drove the quarter. Uber counted 4.1 billion trips, up 16%, and 215 million monthly active platform consumers, up 14%. The second figure counts the different people who used any Uber service in a month, in every country where it operates.
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Where did the $59.8 billion come from?
Mobility, the rides business, booked $29.5 billion, up 18%. Delivery booked $28.5 billion, up 22%, and its revenue grew 23% to $5.5 billion. Freight, the smallest unit, booked $1.8 billion, up 35%. Rides and delivery together made up about 97% of the total, and they split it almost evenly. Spread across the quarter’s 92 days, 4.1 billion trips works out to roughly 45 million a day.
Mobility is the one place where the money Uber keeps went the other way. Its revenue was $7.5 billion, down 2%, even as bookings climbed 18%. Mobility still produced the most profit of the three, with segment operating income of $2.36 billion, up 27%.
Why did net income fall 92%?
Uber’s reported net income was $512 million, down from $6.6 billion a year earlier. The drop does not come from weaker rides or deliveries. The year-earlier quarter included a $4.9 billion tax benefit, and this quarter included a $476 million pre-tax loss from revaluing Uber’s equity investments, according to the company’s release as summarized by Stock Titan.
The operating numbers moved up. Income from operations rose 30% to $1.45 billion, and non-GAAP operating income, which excludes certain costs, rose 38% to $2.3 billion, or 3.9% of gross bookings, up from 3.4% a year earlier. CFO Balaji Krishnamurthy called that a record margin. Free cash flow was $2.5 billion, up 14%. Adjusted EBITDA came to $3.0 billion, up 31%, though Uber’s release says it no longer treats that measure as a key management yardstick.
How much did Uber earn, and what did it spend?
On an adjusted basis Uber did well. Non-GAAP net income, which strips out items like the investment revaluation, was $1.8 billion, up 29%, or $0.88 a share, up 35%. Under standard accounting rules the company earned $0.25 a share, compared with $3.11 in the third quarter of 2025.
Delivery produced segment operating income of $1.06 billion, up 30%, and Freight lost $33 million, narrower than its $40 million loss a year earlier. Corporate overhead and platform research and development cost $1.08 billion, up 13%. Uber ended the quarter with $10.1 billion in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
Share buybacks slowed. The $750 million Uber spent in the third quarter compares with $1.46 billion in the same quarter of 2025, and the nine-month total stands at $4.28 billion.
What is the fourth-quarter forecast?
For the last three months of 2026, Uber guided to gross bookings of $63.25 billion to $65.25 billion, which is 18% to 22% growth on a constant-currency basis. The company assumes about a one-point currency headwind. It also expects adjusted EBITDA of $3.13 billion to $3.23 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $0.95 to $0.99 a share, which would be 34% to 39% growth.
Uber gave no net income forecast for the quarter. It said gains and losses on its investments are too hard to predict, the same swings that pulled down the third-quarter figure.
Are riders booking Uber through AI assistants yet?
Not in any real numbers. Krishnamurthy told TechCrunch that only four rides were booked through an AI agent in Uber’s busiest October week, the week of Halloween, out of about 320 million trips and orders across Uber and Uber Eats. About 500 Uber Eats orders came from agents. Khosrowshahi called the traction “very, very early and very limited.” He noted that booking a ride in the Uber app takes about 50 seconds and reordering a favorite meal about 90, so an assistant does not clearly save anyone time, and he said “every single AI system company is talking to us.”
Driverless cars are further along. Khosrowshahi said about 700 fully driverless vehicles are expected on Uber’s platform by the end of 2026 and more than 2,000 in 2027. Krishnamurthy said the company keeps “a high bar for investments in our core businesses and autonomy.”
Are ride and delivery charges one of the leaks in your budget?
Uber’s $59.8 billion quarter is built from millions of small charges: a ride to an appointment, a delivery fee, a tip. For anyone living on Social Security or a pension, a handful of recurring leaks like these can add up before the month ends, and most of them go unexamined.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
