Spotify's ad revenue grows 1% to €446M in Q2 2026 as free-tier impressions climb 14%
Active advertisers on Spotify grew 60% year over year to 33,000 in the second quarter of 2026, while total advertising revenue rose 1% to €446 million, or 3% at constant currency, the company said in its earnings report. Free-tier ad impressions climbed 14% to 494 million and remained the largest driver of ad growth. Automated sales channels rose to nearly 40% of ad revenue, up from just over 30% in the first quarter, as Spotify said 99% of all ad impressions are now served through its own advertising stack. For the third quarter, Spotify guided to revenue of about €5 billion and operating profit of €670 million.
Programmatic buying now makes up close to 40% of Spotify's ad revenue, a signal that agencies can plan campaigns through automated pipelines with less manual negotiation as the platform consolidates inventory into its own stack. Reach in India and Indonesia will shrink for campaigns built around Spotify's free tier, since the company has started deliberately limiting free access in those markets to push listeners toward paid subscriptions.