Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA) executives highlighted fourth quarter and full-year 2025 results that exceeded guidance, driven by continued scaling in advertising and expanding monetization of user intent. Management also introduced 2026 guidance and announced a new $300 million share repurchase authorization, which the company said would be executed in tandem with repurchases from its majority shareholder to keep the free float percentage unchanged.
Fourth quarter outperformance led by advertising and query revenue
CEO Song Lin said fourth quarter advertising revenue posted a sequential increase of $19 million versus the third quarter and grew 25% year-over-year, attributing the performance to continued scaling of “Emoas” and an increased number of advertiser partners running performance-based campaigns.
Overall, management said fourth quarter revenue increased 22% year-over-year, which was 8% above the midpoint of guidance. CFO Frode Jacobsen said revenue exceeded the high end of the guidance range by more than $12 million, while adjusted EBITDA was 7% above the midpoint of guidance.
Profitability, cash flow, and the impact of Opera Ads mix
Jacobsen reported fourth quarter revenue of $177 million and adjusted EBITDA of $42 million, representing a 23.6% adjusted EBITDA margin. He said costs were higher than implied at the midpoint of guidance—about $11 million—largely due to revenue-related cost scaling, about $1 million of additional cash compensation expense tied mainly to increased bonus provisions and a weaker U.S. dollar, and cost of revenue items that represented 37.4% of total revenue.
For the full year, Opera reported revenue of $615 million, up 28%, and adjusted EBITDA of $143 million, representing a 23.2% margin. Jacobsen said the company’s steady overperformance throughout 2025 added $52 million of revenue versus initial expectations, and he described 2025 as Opera’s fifth consecutive year as a “Rule of 40” company.
Management also discussed gross margin dynamics as Opera Ads grows. Jacobsen said Opera Ads carries a different gross margin profile than Opera’s owned-and-operated revenue streams, which increases the cost of revenue component. However, he said the platform has no marketing cost and limited operating expense, contributing to relatively stable EBITDA margins. He also noted Opera Ads’ gross margin expanded from 2024 to 2025 due to optimization algorithm enhancements.
Operating cash flow was $40 million in the quarter, or 96% of adjusted EBITDA, and $118 million for the year, or 83% of adjusted EBITDA. Free cash flow from operations was $35 million in the quarter and $98 million for the year.
Product and user highlights: Opera One, GX, Neon, and AI positioning
Lin emphasized Opera’s strategy of serving “demanding users” with feature-rich browsers and positioned Opera as an “orchestration layer” that can integrate and partner with emerging AI services rather than compete with them directly. He argued that users want to enhance existing browsing habits with AI-enabled capabilities, and he cautioned against building browsers that are “a little more than an AI terminal.”
Opera outlined several product developments during 2025, including the launches of Opera Air and subscription-based Opera Neon, which became widely available in early December. Lin described Neon as a product for “AI-demanding power users,” a potential subscription revenue stream, and a testing ground for AI features to be deployed across Opera’s broader browser portfolio.
Opera’s flagship browser, Opera One, entered 2025 in its second generation and was recently refreshed to “R3,” which Lin said added enhanced tab management, split-screen views, native email and calendar integration, and an updated integrated AI assistant, Opera AI. Lin said Opera AI includes a “20% faster agentic-based engine” and contextual responses that can consider a web page or groups of tabs.
On the user front, Opera ended the year with 284 million monthly active users (MAUs), including 60 million users in Western markets. Lin reported ARPU grew 26% to $2.49 in the fourth quarter. Opera GX, the company’s gaming browser, reached more than 34 million MAUs in the quarter, up 5% sequentially, and management said GX remained Opera’s highest-ARPU product. Lin said Opera saw its “best weekend of user activations” in GX history during the League of Legends World Championships, where Opera GX served as the official browser sponsor.
In the Q&A, Lin said Opera’s Western user gains reflect a shift away from feature phone users and toward growth “where it counts,” including smartphone and desktop users. He also pointed to improving dynamics for iOS browsers in Europe following the EU Digital Markets Act, saying interest in Opera for iOS has benefited from growing awareness that strong AI-powered browsing experiences are possible on iOS.
Advertising momentum and expanding “non-search” query revenue
Management emphasized deepening advertiser relationships. Lin said Opera worked with over 300 advertisers in 2025, including “4 of the 5 largest e-commerce platforms,” and noted that among the top 50 advertisers, average spend per advertiser grew 56% in 2025. Lin said Opera processes 12 million ad queries per second, more than double the year-ago period.
Executives repeatedly referenced e-commerce as a major driver. Lin called e-commerce Opera’s largest advertising category and said it is a “strong powerhouse” behind the company’s 28% annual growth. Jacobsen added that e-commerce continued to scale materially and said that because campaigns are performance-based, Opera’s ability to deliver results can earn it a larger share of advertisers’ budgets.
Jacobsen also explained the company’s fast-growing non-search query revenue, which exceeded $5 million in the quarter and rose from $3 million in the third quarter. He said this revenue includes monetizing user intent not only through sending search queries to search partners, but also through directing users to partners via the URL experience or within Opera AI chat, using partner promotions tailored to user needs.
MiniPay growth, guidance, and a new $300 million buyback
Opera highlighted MiniPay, its stablecoin wallet that began as a feature in a “mini browser” for emerging markets and is now available as a dedicated app. Lin said MiniPay surpassed 13 million activated wallets in the fourth quarter, up from 10 million in the third quarter, while accumulated transactions increased to 390 million from 290 million. He described MiniPay as the fastest-growing stablecoin wallet in Africa and said Opera expanded support for USDT and Tether Gold and is rolling out a MiniPay card intended to serve as an off-ramp with “best-in-class FX rates.”
In response to analyst questions on monetization, Jacobsen said MiniPay’s current priority is scale and accessibility, and that monetization today comes “broadly speaking, from the partner ecosystem,” by integrating partners into the product and promoting those offerings as MiniPay grows alongside partners. Lin said Opera’s 2026 focus will be to invest in making MiniPay a more global platform, and he referenced a cooperation with Tether announced earlier in the year with a broader geographic focus beyond Africa.
For guidance, Jacobsen said Opera expects first-quarter revenue of $169 million to $172 million, representing 18% to 21% year-over-year growth, with adjusted EBITDA of $38 million to $40 million. For full-year 2026, the company guided to revenue of $720 million to $735 million (17% to 20% growth) and adjusted EBITDA of $167 million to $172 million, with a slight increase in margin implied at the midpoint. Jacobsen said Opera expects cost of revenue items to represent about 38% of revenue for the year, describing a 2 percentage point gross margin headwind, while Opera Ads in isolation is expected to continue margin expansion.
Finally, Jacobsen announced a new $300 million share repurchase authorization, which he said exceeds all prior buybacks combined and represented over 25% of Opera’s market cap as of the morning of the call. He said the company will pace and structure the buyback based on market conditions and will also buy back shares from its majority shareholder at the same pace as public market repurchases.
About Opera (NASDAQ:OPRA)
Opera Limited (NASDAQ: OPRA) is a global software and internet services company best known for its cross-platform web browsers, including the flagship Opera Browser, Opera Mini for mobile devices and Opera GX designed for the gaming community. The company integrates features such as ad blocking, built-in VPN services and a cryptocurrency wallet into its desktop and mobile applications, aiming to deliver fast, secure and feature-rich browsing experiences to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.
Beyond its consumer-facing browsers, Opera operates Opera News, a personalized content and news aggregation platform with a strong presence in Africa and Asia, and Opera Ads, a digital advertising network that leverages user-behavior data to provide targeted ad placements across devices.
