Meta reported third-quarter 2026 results on Oct. 21. Revenue was $64.60 billion, up 26% from a year earlier. Costs and expenses rose much faster, and the earnings call gave usage figures for Muse, Meta's new AI agent.

The numbers

  • Revenue: $64.60 billion, up 26% year over year.
  • Costs and expenses: $51.61 billion, up 68%, including a $9.9 billion legal charge.
  • Daily active people: 3.64 billion, up 3%.
  • Ads: impressions up 10%, price per ad up 14%.
  • Capital spending: $34.91 billion.
  • Headcount: 66,775, down 15% from a year earlier.

Ad impressions rose 10% and price per ad rose 14%, while daily active people increased 3%.

What Meta said about Muse

In the release, Mark Zuckerberg describes launching "Muse and Muse Wonder, our first frontier model." The release gives no Muse usage figures. Those came from the earnings call, as TechCrunch reported.

  • More than 10 million users.
  • About 25% of people who set up Muse use it daily.
  • Among engaged users who shopped through the agent, over a quarter had an average purchase above $200.
  • Muse stays free for most users. Power users who want advanced models or more tokens will pay.
  • A planned "Muse Confidential VM" is meant to keep even Meta from seeing user content.

For background on the models, see Muse Wonder, the API and Muse Code and Muse Spark on a Mac Studio.

Spending and the legal charge

Meta raised its full-year 2026 expense outlook to $175-179 billion. For the fourth quarter it guides revenue of $73-76 billion. It also expects Reality Labs losses of $18-19 billion.

The release lists a $9.9 billion legal charge inside costs. Separately, a New Mexico court ordered Facebook to pay $25 billion, which we cover in our New Mexico penalty story. Meta's release does not tie the two together.

A new class of shares

The same 8-K filing that carries the results release (Exhibit 99.1) covers Meta's stock. On Oct. 19 the board approved a restated charter creating non-voting Class C common stock. Shareholders approved it by written consent on Oct. 20. It takes effect Jan. 19, 2027.

  • Dividend: a one-time stock dividend of 1 Class C share for each Class A and Class B share. The board will set record and payment dates later.
  • Founder agreement: Mark Zuckerberg signed a "Founder Alignment Agreement". He generally cannot get liquidity from most of his Class C shares without a matching cut in his voting power.

Meta's release says a Special Committee of disinterested directors recommended the new class. It lists capital raising, employee compensation, potential acquisitions and other general corporate purposes among the reasons.

Why it matters

Revenue is growing fast, but costs are growing faster, and the plan is to keep spending. Headcount fell 15% while capital spending reached $34.91 billion.

Muse is still free for most users. For context on privacy, Meta earlier paused Muse chat sharing after a DNS leak.