How Will Snap Turn Creators Into Recurring Revenue?

As Snap Inc. moves into 2026, the parent company of Snapchat is combining new creator monetisation tools with improved financial performance, following a year of revenue growth and margin expansion.

Snap reached 946 million global monthly active users in Q4 2025, up 6% year-over-year, while engagement on Spotlight, a short-form video feed within the app, continued to climb, with the number of US Snapchatters posting to Spotlight rising 47% year-over-year.

Against that backdrop, the company is expanding how creators can earn on the platform.

Creator subscriptions roll out

On 17 February, Snap has announced Creator Subscriptions, designed to deepen fan engagement and unlock scalable creator revenue. Alpha testing begins on 23 February with a select group of US-based Snap Creators, with plans to expand to additional Snap Stars in Canada, the UK and France in the weeks ahead.

The product introduced a premium layer across Stories, Chat and replies. Subscribers receive exclusive content, including subscriber-only Snaps and Stories, priority replies to a creator's public Stories and an ad-free experience within that creator's Stories feed.

Creators can set their own monthly pricing within Snap-recommended tiers. The company said the launch builds on existing monetisation offerings such as the Unified Monetisation Programme and Snap Star Collab Studio, and forms part of its broader creator-first monetisation ecosystem.

The addition of subscriptions also complements growth in Snap's "Other Revenue" category, which increased 62% year-over-year to US$232m in Q4.

Snapchat+ subscribers grew 71% year-over-year to reach 24 million during the quarter.

Financial results show margin expansion

Earlier in February, Snap reported fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results reflecting stronger profitability and cash generation.

Fourth quarter revenue rose 10% year-over-year to US$1.716bn, while full-year revenue increased 11% to US$5.93bn. Net income in Q4 reached US$45m, compared with US$9m in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA climbed 30% year-over-year in the quarter to US$358m.

Operating cash flow was US$270m in Q4 and free cash flow totalled US$206m. For the full year, free cash flow reached US$437m, double the US$219m reported in 2024.

Snap ended the year with US$2.9bn in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.

In a statement accompanying the results, CEO Evan Spiegel said: "Our Q4 results began to reflect the impact of our strategic pivot toward profitable growth, translating into revenue diversification and meaningful margin expansion.

"This progress reflects our commitment to building a more financially efficient and profitable business while continuing to invest in the future of augmented reality and the consumer launch of Specs."

Snap also announced that its board has authorised a stock repurchase programme of up to US$500m of its Class A common stock, funded from existing cash and cash equivalents.

The youth social media debate

In an interview with CNBC at the start of February, Evan addressed discussion around potential social media bans for under 16s.

He said one of the challenges is "really helping people understand how different Snapchat is", noting that research often groups it with other platforms. 

"The studies that look at Snapchat specifically show that Snapchat actually has a positive impact on people's well-being because it connects them with their friends and family," he said.

Evan added that a blanket ban "could actually be quite harmful to young people who are at a formative stage of their life and really need to be able to connect and build relationships with their friends when they're not physically together in person".

With Creator Subscriptions launching in alpha on 23 February and full-year revenue reaching US$5.93bn, Snap enters 2026 with expanded creator monetisation tools and improved profitability metrics.