--- title: "Coursera's revenue jumps 94% on the Udemy merger, and it guides next quarter below the one just printed" description: "Coursera's first quarter with Udemy consolidated prints 94% revenue growth and a 16.3% adjusted EBITDA margin built from cost cuts, and guides fourth-quarter revenue below the quarter just printed. Shares fell 8% to $4.27 after hours; the AI-skills demand the merger was meant to capture remains a 2027 promise." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Applications" published: 2026-10-29T23:14:59.847Z modified: 2026-10-29T23:14:59.847Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/coursera-s-revenue-jumps-94-on-the-udemy-merger-and-it-guides-next-quarter-below-the-one-just-printed language: en keywords: "Earnings, Guidance, EdTech, Mergers" --- # Coursera's revenue jumps 94% on the Udemy merger, and it guides next quarter below the one just printed > Coursera's first quarter with Udemy consolidated prints 94% revenue growth and a 16.3% adjusted EBITDA margin built from cost cuts, and guides fourth-quarter revenue below the quarter just printed. Shares fell 8% to $4.27 after hours; the AI-skills demand the merger was meant to capture remains a 2027 promise. [Coursera](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/coursera), the NYSE-listed online-learning company, nearly doubled revenue in its first quarter carrying Udemy, and most of the doubling is the merger itself: $376.7 million, up 94% from a year ago, with the rival platform consolidated only from [the May 11 close of last December's all-stock combination](https://www.techinasia.com/news/coursera-udemy-to-merge-in-2-5b-all-stock-deal) [1][2]. The profit story is cost cuts delivered early [1]. [Shares fell 8% to $4.27 in after-hours trading](https://markets.financialcontent.com/stocks/article/stockstory-2026-10-29-coursera-nysecour-exceeds-q3-2026-expectations-but-stock-drops-on-weak-guidance) on the outlook [3]. Coursera [guided fourth-quarter revenue to $358-366 million](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/coursera-reports-third-quarter-2026-201000665.html), a $362 million midpoint below the $372 million analysts expected on average and below the quarter just printed [1][3]. Underneath the headline growth, the demand numbers did not move. *Chart: **Two years near $180 million, then Udemy doubled the top line; Q4 guides below Q3** Column chart of Coursera quarterly revenue from Q3 2024 through the Q4 2026 guidance midpoint: roughly $176 million to $197 million for two years, a jump to $298.6 million and then $376.7 million with Udemy consolidated, and a Q4 2026 guide of $362 million below the Q3 print.* *Coursera quarterly revenue, US$ millions. Q3 2024 to Q2 2026 from SEC filings; Q3 2026 actual and the Q4 2026 guidance midpoint from the Q3 2026 results release. Sources: Coursera SEC filings; Coursera Q3 2026 press release. [6][1]* ## The growth is consolidation; the profit is cuts The segment arithmetic shows the booking. Enterprise revenue printed $200.9 million, up 214%, because Udemy's contracts arrived with the consolidation, while the enterprise customer count fell 4% over the year, to 11,897 [1]. Management now expects to bank its full $115 million synergy target by year-end, eight months after closing instead of the planned 24, on more than $150 million of annualized gross cost cuts [1]. The 16.3% adjusted EBITDA margin is made of them [1]. Under GAAP, the standard accounting rules, the quarter still lost $25.6 million, and free cash flow fell 83% to $4.6 million [1]. *Chart: **One quarter, three answers: $61.5M adjusted EBITDA, a $25.6M GAAP loss, $4.6M of free cash** Column chart comparing Coursera's third-quarter 2026 adjusted EBITDA of $61.5 million, GAAP net loss of $25.6 million and free cash flow of $4.6 million.* *Three accounting lenses on the same quarter, Coursera Q3 2026, in millions of dollars. Source: Coursera Q3 2026 press release. [1]* ## Retention reads better on the new ruler Enterprise net retention, which tracks whether existing customers spend more or less each year, printed at 93%, [up from 91% in June](https://theinference.org/article/coursera-s-enterprise-base-is-shrinking-at-91-retention-as-its-first-udemy-quarter-lands-thursday) [1][4]. Both readings sit below 100, so the enterprise base is still shrinking in net terms, and the year-ago comparison on the new unified ruler is also 93% [1]. Standalone Coursera had reported 89% on its own ruler, which is why a flat year can read like an improvement [1]. *Chart: **The new ruler turns flat retention into a two-point gain** Column chart of Coursera enterprise net retention: 89% a year ago on the old standalone basis, 93% a year ago on the unified post-merger basis, 91% in June 2026 and 93% in Q3 2026, against a 100% reference line marking flat customer spend.* *Enterprise net retention by measurement basis. The old ruler is standalone Coursera's year-ago report; the unified ruler is the year-ago comparison recomputed after the Udemy merger. Sources: Coursera Q3 2026 press release; Coursera investor relations. [1]* ## The cash went to buybacks and Andrew Ng's new company Coursera bought back $102 million of its own stock in the quarter under a $500 million authorization running since May, while the GAAP loss widened [1]. In July it [put $100 million into LearnVector](https://investor.coursera.com/financials/quarterly-results/default.aspx), an AI-native learning company founded by Andrew Ng, Coursera's co-founder and chairman, to build AI agents that tutor learners one-to-one [4]. The in-house answer, [Project Helix, an AI-native platform pairing trusted learning with verified proof of skills](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/could-coursera-cour-change-project-031950692.html), reaches enterprise customers broadly only in the first half of 2027 [1][5]. ## Watch the customer count, because the synergy line is booked Chief executive Greg Hart framed the bet in the release: organizations are investing at extraordinary scale in AI infrastructure, but the return on that investment depends on the people who know how to use it, and closing that skills gap is the opportunity Coursera and Udemy are positioned to address [1]. Cost savings land on management's timetable; customer counts and retention depend on buyers choosing to spend. Watch whether the enterprise customer count stabilizes and whether retention crosses 100, because the synergy line is already booked [1]. ## Takeaway The doubling is the merger, the margin is cost cuts, and the Q4 guide of $358-366 million lands below the quarter just printed with the enterprise customer base still shrinking. ## Sources 1. [Business Wire via Yahoo Finance, Coursera Reports Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results, 29 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/coursera-reports-third-quarter-2026-201000665.html) 2. [Tech in Asia, Coursera, Udemy to merge in $2.5b all-stock deal, 17 December 2025](https://www.techinasia.com/news/coursera-udemy-to-merge-in-2-5b-all-stock-deal) 3. [StockStory via FinancialContent, Coursera (NYSE:COUR) exceeds Q3 2026 expectations but stock drops on weak guidance, 29 October 2026](https://markets.financialcontent.com/stocks/article/stockstory-2026-10-29-coursera-nysecour-exceeds-q3-2026-expectations-but-stock-drops-on-weak-guidance) 4. [Coursera Investor Relations, Quarterly results page carrying the Q3 2026 and Q2 2026 reports, fetched 29 October 2026](https://investor.coursera.com/financials/quarterly-results/default.aspx) 5. [Simply Wall St via Yahoo Finance, What Could Coursera (COUR) Change With Project Helix?, 19 September 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/could-coursera-cour-change-project-031950692.html) 6. [Coursera, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 29 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001651562) --- Coursera's revenue jumps 94% on the Udemy merger, and it guides next quarter below the one just printed — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/coursera-s-revenue-jumps-94-on-the-udemy-merger-and-it-guides-next-quarter-below-the-one-just-printed