Energy customers appear greater than prepared to pay for AI-powered results.
Greater than 30 million energy customers are paying for one in every of Snap’s subscription plans, together with Snapchat+ and its ad-free “platinum” tier. The corporate announced the milestone as a part of its third-quarter earnings, saying that its non-advertising “different” income grew 84 p.c in contrast with final yr.
Snap launched Snapchat+, which affords customers bonus options like the power to see which pals re-watched your Story, in 2022. Since then, the corporate has added Lens+, a subscription for AI-powered AR results; Platinum, which eliminates promoting; and paid storage for the app’s Reminiscence function.
The corporate did not share a breakdown of subscribers throughout all of the plans, however famous that Lens+ “has grown practically 600% since January 2026.” That progress suggests not less than a few of Snapchat’s customers are significantly enthusiastic concerning the app’s AI-powered options, like its AI photo editing function known as AI Photoshoot. “AI-powered options have helped Lens+ exceed our expectations, demonstrating how new artistic experiences can drive demand for our paid merchandise,” CEO Evan Spiegel stated throughout the firm’s earnings name.
Whereas Snap is not as related to AI as a few of its social media friends, it is notable that AI has helped it drive paid subscribers. X revealed earlier this yr that it had about 6.3 million paid subscribers throughout X Premium and Grok.
Subscriptions had been a shiny spot for Snap. Spiegel stated that promoting income was rising “under our ambitions” and the corporate solely added 2 million new day by day customers since final quarter. Snap stated that it will concentrate on reporting month-to-month lively customers quite than day by day customers, starting in 2027. Snapchat at the moment has 977 million month-to-month customers.
The corporate additionally warned that its authorized challenges and “elevated regulatory scrutiny on youth-related points” might have an effect on its prospects. The corporate is coping with numerous lawsuits over alleged issues of safety and state attorneys basic have pushed for Snap to undertake further security options following Meta’s high-profile settlement.
