Spotify hits 290m paid subscribers in Q4, as streaming giant posts $2.5bn annual operating profit for 2025

Spotify saw its global Premium Subscriber base grow to 290 million paying users in Q4 – and achieved its second consecutive full year of operating profit in 2025.

That’s according to Spotify’s investor filing published today (February 10). The filing shows that the streaming company’s global Premium Subscriber base of 290 million paying users in Q4 2025 (ending December 31) was up 10% year over year.

SPOT’s paid user base of 290 million subs was up by 3%, or 9 million net subscribers, on the 281 million the company counted at the end of the prior quarter (Q3 2025).

The music streaming company says that its 9 million net subscriber additions in Q4 exceeded guidance by 1 million subs.

In the 12 months to the end of December 2025, Spotify added +27 million net paying subscribers. (It finished 2024 with 263 million paying subs.)

Spotify also reports that its operating income finished at €701 million (USD $816m) in Q4, driving the company’s full year 2025 Operating Income to €2.2 billion (USD $2.5bn).

Commenting on the company’s results, Daniel Ek, Founder and Executive Chairman, said: “Today, what we’ve really built is a technology platform for audio – and increasingly, for all the ways creators connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward. The next wave of technology shifts – AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content – these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media.”

“The hard problems ahead – in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven’t built yet – we’re going to keep building the technology to solve them.”

Daniel Ek, Spotify 

He added: “The hard problems ahead – in music, in podcasts, in books, in video, in live, and in things we haven’t built yet – we’re going to keep building the technology to solve them.”

Alex Norström, Co-CEO, added: “We closed out what we dubbed as the Year of Accelerated Execution with another solid quarter, delivering a strong finish to 2025. In Q4, we met or exceeded guidance across all key metrics. We marked our highest quarter ever for MAU net additions.

“It’s incredible to think that we now serve over three quarters of a billion people around the world.…We’re framing 2026 as the Year of Raising Ambition. We were founded to solve what felt like the impossible, and ambition has been the driving force behind our success from our earliest days. And ambition will be a guiding principle of our next chapter.”

“We’re framing 2026 as the Year of Raising Ambition.”

Alex Norström, Spotify

Gustav Söderström, Co-CEO, said: “We consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry. Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we’ve done time and again. The entire industry stands to benefit from this [AI] paradigm shift but we believe those who embrace this change and move fast, will benefit the most.”

Monthly Active Users

Spotify’s total global Monthly Active Users (MAUs) grew 11% YoY to 751 million in Q4 2025 and by 5% (38m) compared to the previous quarter (Q3 2025) when the platform counted 713 million MAUs.

The company’s 751 million MAUs in Q4 were 6 million above guidance, with SPOT noting that Q4 2025 “delivered the highest MAU net adds in Spotify history”.

SPOT reports that its quarterly MAU performance reflected growth across all regions, led by Rest of World (37% of MAUs), Latin America (21%) and Europe (26%).

The company also cites “strong holiday and Wrapped campaigns” and the “global launch of mobile free tier enhancements” as drivers of MAU growth.

Premium revenue

In terms of finances, Spotify reports that its Premium subscriber growth translated into Premium revenue of €4.013 billion (USD $4.67bn) in Q4 2025.

Spotify’s Premium revenue was up 14% YoY at constant currency.

Premium revenues were driven by subscriber growth of 10% YoY. The company’s Premium ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) was up 2% YoY at constant currency.

Excluding the impact of FX, SPOT reports that its ARPU performance was driven by “price increase benefits, partially offset by product/market mix”.

In terms of subscriber performance geographically, Spotify reports growth across all regions with “outperformance” led by “Rest of World” and North America.

North America and Europe accounted for 25% and 36% of SPOT’s global Premium subscriber base at the end of Q4, respectively, down from 26% and 37% respectively in Q4 2024.

Ad-supported revenue

Spotify’s ad-supported revenue, meanwhile, hit €518 million (USD $603m) in Q4, up 4% YoY at constant currency.

Spotify reports that on a constant currency basis, “growth in music advertising was driven by growth in impressions sold, partially offset by softness in pricing” and that “podcasting growth was led by sponsorship gains, partially offset by optimization of our podcasting inventory in our Owned & Licensed portfolio”.

SPOT notes in its investor presentation that its “automated sales channels remained the largest contributors to overall advertising growth”.

Profitability

The company’s Gross Margin finished at a record high of 33.1% in Q4, up 83 bps YoY.

Meanwhile, Spotify posted a quarterly operating income of €701 million ($816m) in the quarter – a 15.5% operating margin.

Spotify noted that Operating Income “outperformed due to lower Social Charges and Gross Margin strength”. Social Charges were €67 million below forecast at (€50) million “due to share price movement during the quarter”.

Spotify reports that its workforce consisted of 7,323 full-time employees globally at the end of 2025.

SPOT’s Q4 2025 Operating Income of €701 million was €81 million above guidance of €620 million (see below).

In terms of guidance for Q1 2026, Spotify forecasts reaching 759 million MAUs, an addition of around 8 million net new MAUs in the quarter.

The company projects its total Premium Subscriber base to hit 293 million in Q1, an addition of approximately 3 million net new subscribers in the quarter.

Spotify forecasts an operating income of €660 million for Q1, and total revenue of €4.5 billion.

All annual EUR-USD conversions made at the average rate of the relevant period according to the IRS.

All Q4 EUR-USD conversions made at the average rate of the relevant period according to the ECB.Music ComeOn