DoorDash reports Q2 2026 results after the close on August 5. The Street is carrying $0.50 of EPS on $4.32B of revenue — revenue up about 31.5% year over year, earnings down about 23% from the $0.65 posted a year ago.
Growth up, earnings down, at a company that has been profitable for seven straight quarters. That pairing is the whole preview.
What the record says
All figures below are from our stored DoorDash series through 2026 Q1.
| Quarter | Revenue | FCF | FCF margin | Gross margin | Diluted EPS | Revenue YoY | R40 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Q1 | $3,032M | $561M | 18.5% | 50.53% | $0.44 | +20.7% | 39.2 |
| 2025 Q2 | $3,284M | $438M | 13.3% | 50.79% | $0.65 | +24.9% | 38.20 |
| 2025 Q3 | $3,446M | $808M | 23.4% | 51.04% | $0.55 | +27.4% | 50.79 |
| 2025 Q4 | $3,955M | $367M | 9.3% | 51.07% | $0.48 | +37.7% | 46.94 |
| 2026 Q1 | $4,036M | $537M | 13.3% | 50.64% | $0.42 | +33.1% | 46.42 |
Two things stand out.
The score is stable and the composition is not. DoorDash's Rule of 40 score has sat between 46.4 and 50.8 for three consecutive quarters, but the halves have traded places twice: 23.4% of free-cash-flow margin with 27.4% growth in Q3, then 9.3% with 37.7% in Q4. On a trailing-twelve-month basis the business grew 30.96% with a 14.60% FCF margin, for a score of 45.56 — a comfortable pass that has been earned differently each quarter.
EPS is the line that keeps disappointing. Diluted EPS has fallen for three straight quarters — $0.65, $0.55, $0.48, $0.42 — while revenue grew every one of them. Against consensus, DoorDash missed by 20.3% in Q3 2025 and 18.5% in Q4 2025, then beat by 13.5% in Q1 2026. Tonight's $0.50 consensus asks for a sequential improvement off a base that has been declining.
What that means for tonight's numbers
If the consensus lands exactly — $4.32B of revenue at +31.5% — the growth half of the score comes in around 31.5. The cash half is the open question, and it is the one worth watching, because DoorDash's free cash flow has swung between 9.3% and 23.4% of revenue over the last four quarters without any comparable swing in the business underneath it.
Take the trailing 14.6% margin as the neutral case and the Q2 score lands near 46 — a third consecutive quarter in the mid-forties. It would take an unusually strong cash quarter (above 20% margin, which has happened once in five) to break 50, or an unusually weak one (below 9%, which has not happened in this series) to threaten 40.
Which is the useful thing to say in advance: the score is not where the information is tonight. The information is in why earnings are falling while revenue compounds at 30%+, and whether the answer is investment the company chooses or margin it is losing.
The three things to read the release for
- Gross margin against the 50–51% band. DoorDash has held between 50.53% and 51.07% for five straight quarters, and Q1's 50.64% was the second consecutive step down from the Q4 high. Note our recorded basis: DoorDash files no gross-profit line, so this site derives its gross margin from revenue less cost of revenue excluding depreciation and amortisation — the trend is sound, the level sits structurally above a D&A-inclusive margin, and it is not comparable to another company's number.
- Marketplace GOV against the $32.4–33.4B guide, and total orders against the roughly 974 million the Street expects, up 27.9%. Order growth running below GOV growth means basket size is doing the work; the reverse means DoorDash is still adding demand.
- What is consuming the earnings. Revenue up 31.5% with EPS down 23% is either a deliberate spend cycle — new verticals, international, autonomous delivery — or operating deleverage. The release's operating-expense lines answer it directly, and the answer determines whether the EPS series turns back up.
The bottom line
DoorDash goes into tonight with a Rule of 40 score that has been steady for three quarters and an earnings line that has fallen for the same three. Both are true, and the metric this site is built on is not the one under pressure here — the cash keeps coming, at a margin that bounces around but averages the mid-teens.
The number to check first tonight is not the score and not the revenue beat. It is whether diluted EPS breaks its three-quarter decline, and if it does not, what the operating-expense lines say about why.
DoorDash figures through 2026 Q1 are from our stored series: revenue, free cash flow, gross margin and diluted EPS. Free-cash-flow margin and Rule of 40 use the house definition in our Rule of 40 explainer — free cash flow as operating cash flow minus capital expenditure. DoorDash's gross margin is derived on the ex-D&A basis recorded for this site, which is why its level is not comparable across companies. The August 5 after-close report date is from our 2026 earnings schedule, listed as confirmed. Consensus figures ($0.50 EPS, $4.32B revenue, 974M orders) and the prior-quarter beat/miss percentages are Street numbers reported ahead of the print, not values stored in this repo; the $32.4–33.4B Marketplace GOV range is DoorDash's own guidance from its Q1 release.