Toast, Inc. (TOST) · Nov 3, 2026 · Earnings
Beat — Adjusted EBITDA $240M vs. $210–220M Q3 guide
Toast’s Q3 earnings beat its operating targets, with ARR and EBITDA accelerating as CFO Elena Gomez prepares to leave.
Toast is scaling from a restaurant point-of-sale and payments platform into a broader recurring-revenue operating system, with AI, enterprise, international, and retail expansion now layered onto its core business. Before this release, management had guided Q3 non-GAAP subscription and fintech gross profit to $615–625 million and adjusted EBITDA to $210–220 million, after raising full-year targets in August.
The quarter beat the operating bar, not just the prior year. Non-GAAP subscription and fintech gross profit reached $642 million, above the company’s $615–625 million Q3 range, while adjusted EBITDA reached $240 million, $20 million above the top of guidance. That is meaningful execution against the standing plan, especially because Toast’s prior Q3 guide already assumed continued profitability expansion.
| Metric | Q3 2026 | Q3 2025 | Prior guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue (Financial Statements) | $1,981M (+21%) | $1,633M | |
| GPV (Key Business Metrics) | $61.8B (+20%) | $51.5B | |
| Total ARR (Key Business Metrics) | $2,503M (+24%) | $2,016M | |
| Subscription + fintech gross profit (Non-GAAP reconciliation) | $642M (+27%) | $506M | $615–625M |
| Adjusted EBITDA (Adjusted EBITDA) | $240M (+36%) | $176M | $210–220M |
| Free cash flow (Free Cash Flow) | $181M (+18%) | $153M |
The underlying growth engine remains intact. GPV rose 20%, ARR rose 24%, and Toast added approximately 8,500 net locations, keeping the company’s expansion broadly consistent with the prior quarter’s roughly 22% location growth and $2.4 billion ARR base. The mix is also becoming more valuable: subscription ARR grew 28%, faster than payments ARR at 21%, while non-payments fintech gross profit increased to $69 million from $58 million. That supports Toast’s effort to make software and higher-margin services a larger part of the platform rather than relying only on payment volume. 〔0〕
The AI and retail story advanced, but remains an investment thesis rather than a proven financial driver. Toast expanded Toast IQ Grow, launched Toast IQ Team, introduced Toast Fuel for independent fuel and convenience operators, and entered Quebec. These launches widen the addressable market and reinforce the shift toward an agentic operating platform, but the filing gives no quantified revenue or adoption contribution from them yet. 〔1〕
The CFO departure is the main complication, but not an immediate operating break. Elena Gomez will leave the President and CFO roles on December 31, 2026, after leading Toast through its IPO and profitability transition; Michael Senno, an internal finance executive with institutional knowledge, takes over on January 1, 2027, while Gomez remains as an adviser through July 2, 2027. 〔2〕 The succession plan reduces execution risk, but losing a high-profile CFO still adds uncertainty around capital allocation and financial stewardship just as Toast is broadening beyond its core market.
Bottom line: Toast delivered a real operating beat, with profitability and recurring gross profit comfortably above its Q3 targets while growth stayed strong. The CFO handoff keeps this from being a clean all-clear, but it does not yet undermine the broader expansion story.**
Michael Senno becomes CFO on January 1, 2027
A buy-side analyst on every ticker — it reads every public company's filing the instant it drops and decodes it into plain English.
A buy-side analyst on every ticker — the whole market decoded the second it moves, before it's a headline. Free gives you a taste. Pro takes the cap off and opens the full read on every company.
by Signing in NOW, claim your FREE 14-day Pro trial!