Figma Beats Estimates but Shares Fall 7% on AI Growth Strategy

Figma shares fell 7% in extended trading on Wednesday after the design software company reported third-quarter results that beat Wall Street expectations and raised its full-year forecast.

The decline followed a quarter in which nearly every headline number improved. Here is how Figma performed relative to LSEG consensus:

• Earnings per share: 10 cents adjusted, versus 5 cents expected
• Revenue: $391.4 million, versus $375.8 million expected
• Adjusted operating margin: 12%, versus the 6.1% consensus among analysts polled by StreetAccount

Revenue grew about 43% year over year, the company said in a statement. Net loss narrowed sharply, to $81.3 million, or 15 cents per share, from a loss of $1.10 billion, or $2.72 per share, a year earlier.

Why did the stock fall despite a beat?

The answer lies in what Figma is deliberately giving up. During the quarter, the company began giving more AI credits to clients while holding prices steady. That decision trades present-day revenue for future usage, and investors marked the stock down on the logic.

Figma's finance chief, Praveer Melwani, framed the move as a long-term investment. "What that means is you're potentially trading off near-term revenue, investing in your customers, and then allowing yourself to then grow durably over the long term," Melwani told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday.

The company is not retreating from growth targets. Executives lifted the full-year forecast on Wednesday. Figma now anticipates an 11% operating margin, up from the 9% projection issued as of August, and revenue of $1.497 billion to $1.499 billion. The prior range was $1.463 billion to $1.467 billion. Analysts surveyed by LSEG had been looking for $1.471 billion in full-year revenue.

For the fourth quarter, Figma sees revenue growth slowing to about 33%. That still exceeds the 28% growth analysts polled by LSEG had predicted.

How fast is AI use expanding inside Figma?

The AI credits are being consumed. The number of weekly users at organizations spending more than $10,000 on Figma who used AI credits increased by almost 50% during the quarter, the company said in its statement.

Two internal metrics moved in Figma's favor. The share of work performed by the company's own AI model doubled during the quarter. Separately, the rate of people undoing AI-generated work has fallen, an indication that output quality is improving as users work with the tools.

Figma built its own model rather than relying solely on external providers, and Melwani left the door open on both paths. "If there's certain actions that we can power for our customers at lower latency, lower cost, or similar quality to third party, we're open to that as well," he said.

The company's position reflects a broader calculation across the software industry. Figma wants to benefit from the rising adoption of AI to build websites and apps rather than watch AI-native tools capture that demand.

What is the broader market context?

Figma's report arrived one day after Canva, the highly valued design software startup, said it would cut 22% of its employees. The two companies compete directly in design tooling, and the back-to-back news puts the sector's economics under scrutiny.

Figma's stock has had a difficult run. Shares have fallen about 41% so far in 2026, while the S&P 500 index has gained 12% over the same period. That underperformance traces back to earlier in the year, when investors grew concerned that artificial intelligence models could pose a competitive risk to Figma's core design business.

That fear has faded across much of the software sector. According to the source reporting, AI panic has largely subsided as incumbents have posted persistent growth, and Figma's 43% revenue expansion supports that pattern. The question for investors now is not whether AI destroys Figma's business but whether the company spends enough on AI capacity today to hold its position tomorrow.

What did the CEO say about security?

Figma is also increasing its focus on cybersecurity, co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said. The concern is concrete: in recent months, AI agents have infiltrated systems at Hugging Face and other companies.

Field drew a line between defending Figma and selling security. Clients are not asking Figma to become a security vendor, he said. But the company must scrutinize "the security of all of our vendors right now," Field said, signaling a review of the supply chain that supports Figma's platform as AI agents grow more capable of probing it.

What comes next?

Figma enters the fourth quarter with raised guidance, accelerating AI usage among its highest-value customers, and a cost structure it has chosen to load with AI credits. The 7% after-hours drop shows the market's skepticism about the trade. The 50% increase in AI-credit users among organizations spending more than $10,000, and the doubling of work handled by Figma's own model, show the bet is being taken up. The fourth quarter, with growth guided to slow to about 33%, will indicate whether durable long-term growth arrives fast enough to satisfy shareholders who have already absorbed a 41% decline this year.