Summary
GitLab posted total revenue of $264.2 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, up 23% from $214.5 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Gross profit rose 20% to $226.7 million, but gross margin slipped to 85.8% from 88.3%. Management credited the top line to ongoing demand for the platform, new customer additions, expansion within existing paid customers, and growth in the number of large accounts. Cost of revenue grew faster than revenue, driven by third-party hosting costs for SaaS and cloud usage, higher personnel-related expenses, and more stock-based compensation. The company said it has released platform enhancements every month for the last 175 months as of April 30, 2026.
The operating loss narrowed to $15.7 million from $34.6 million, and operating margin improved to -6.0% from -16.1%. Net loss attributable to GitLab narrowed to $5.0 million from $35.9 million. Diluted loss per share narrowed to $0.03 from $0.22. Operating expenses climbed across all three categories. Sales and marketing, the largest line, absorbed more hosting and company event spending. Research and development grew on higher hosting costs and headcount. General and administrative costs edged up on personnel, partly offset by lower charitable donations of common stock. Total stock-based compensation declined, with the biggest drop in sales and marketing.
Cash generation was the strongest part of the quarter. Operating cash flow reached $149.2 million, up 40% from $106.3 million. Capital expenditures were $2.4 million, up from $0.9 million. Adjusted free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was $146.7 million against $104.1 million a year earlier. Cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $1,357.5 million as of April 30, 2026, compared with $1,259.9 million as of January 31, 2026. The company repurchased 2,378,892 Class A shares for $50.0 million under its 2026 Repurchase Program, leaving $350.0 million of the $400.0 million authorization available. GitLab said collections after high fourth quarter billings drove a sharp reduction in accounts receivable.
Customer metrics were mixed. Base customers with more than $5,000 of annual recurring revenue rose 7% to 10,831 from 10,104. Customers with at least $100,000 of ARR rose 18% to 1,519 from 1,288. Dollar-based net retention rate was 117%, down from 122%. Deferred revenue, current portion, was $533.0 million, up 18.3%. Remaining performance obligations were $1.10 billion, up 15.2%. GitLab said it has more than 50 million registered users, and roughly 50% of the Fortune 100 are customers. Typical subscription contracts run one to three years. The platform runs on an open-core model, and in calendar year 2025 users contributed more than 6,500 merge requests.
Management flagged several pressures. As SaaS and the Duo Agent Platform take a larger share of revenue, cloud hosting and management costs may weigh on gross margins. Research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses are all expected to rise in absolute dollars, which could hurt near-term profitability. Competition, pricing, and changes in customer spending levels shape the company's ability to sell more to existing accounts. GitLab said its existing cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments should support working capital and capital expenditure needs for at least the next 12 months, while noting it may need to raise equity or debt if operations cannot fund expansion.
Forecast
No forward guidance in this quarter's filings.
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q1 FY2027 | Q4 FY2026 | QoQ | Q1 FY2026 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $264.2M | $260.4M | +1.4% | $214.5M | +23.1% |
| Gross profit | $226.7M | $225.4M | +0.6% | $189.5M | +19.6% |
| Gross margin | 85.8% | 86.6% | -0.8 pp | 88.3% | -2.5 pp |
| Research & development | $71.5M | $69.0M | +3.7% | $65.4M | +9.3% |
| Sales & marketing | $119.4M | $112.6M | +6.0% | $107.6M | +10.9% |
| General & administrative | $51.6M | $49.0M | +5.2% | $51.1M | +1.0% |
| Total operating expenses | $242.4M | $230.6M | +5.1% | $224.1M | +8.2% |
| Operating income (loss) | -$15.7M | -$5.2M | -205.0% | -$34.6M | +54.5% |
| Operating margin | -6.0% | -2.0% | -4.0 pp | -16.1% | +10.2 pp |
| Net income (loss) | -$5.6M | -$3.5M | -58.8% | -$36.3M | +84.6% |
| Net margin | -2.1% | -1.4% | -0.8 pp | -16.9% | +14.8 pp |
| Diluted EPS | -$0.03 | -$0.02 | -$0.01 | -$0.22 | +$0.19 |
| Customers | 1,519 | — | — | 129 | +1077.5% |
| Net retention rate | 117.0% | 118.0% | -1.0 pp | 122.0% | -5.0 pp |
Risks
GitLab faces intensifying competition from well-established providers such as Microsoft and Atlassian and from AI-native coding tools, and the filing warns that competition may intensify further as advances in AI enable rapid, low-cost development of software applications. The MD&A also notes that fragmented toolchains and tool-specific AI agents create bottlenecks that could slow adoption of the platform.
Gross margin decreased to 86% for the three months ended April 30, 2026 from 88% for the three months ended April 30, 2025, and cost of revenue rose 50% driven by a $7.5 million increase in third-party hosting costs for SaaS and cloud usage. The filing states that as SaaS and the Duo Agent Platform make up an increasing percentage of total revenue, increased cloud-related costs may adversely impact gross margins.
Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate declined to 117% as of April 30, 2026 from 122% as of April 30, 2025, which the MD&A highlights alongside customer expansion as a driver of revenue growth. A continued decline could pressure future revenue growth.
The filing materially expands security risk disclosure around AI, noting that AI has shifted previously defined security boundaries and introduced novel language-based attack vectors, AI-enabled social engineering, automated vulnerability exploitation, and AI supply-chain attacks. It also states that because code is executed on GitLab infrastructure on behalf of customers, the company faces heightened security risks beyond those of standard SaaS providers.
GitLab has implemented AI capabilities including the GitLab Duo suite, and the filing warns that many states, regions, and supranational bodies have proposed or enacted AI regulations imposing prescriptive obligations, increasing regulatory enforcement and litigation risk. It also notes unresolved intellectual property issues in AI-generated content and exposure to copyright infringement claims, plus GDPR and CCPA obligations for personal data processed by AI features.
GitLab relies on third-party vendors for the AI models powering many of its AI features, and the filing states that service disruption, adverse changes to vendor terms, regulatory or national security actions, or loss of access could adversely affect its ability to provide AI-powered features. It also notes that AI tooling costs are subject to third-party pricing increases, usage-based variability, and contractual minimums.
The filing repeatedly flags the company's usage (or consumption) billing model as a source of uncertainty, stating it makes it increasingly difficult to predict revenue and timing of collections and could contribute to a revenue decline or slower growth. The MD&A also notes that the mix of annual, multi-year, and other transactions changes as a result of expansion into cloud-based offerings.
The filing cites global business and macroeconomic conditions including inflation, tariffs, volatile interest rates, uncertainty with respect to the federal budget, debt ceiling and potential government shutdowns, and volatility of the global debt and equity markets as factors that could reduce customer spending, lengthen sales cycles, and make forecasting difficult.
The filing highlights the One Big Beautiful Bill Act enacted in July 2025, which increased the tax rate associated with international operations and reduced certain foreign-derived deduction benefits, and the OECD Pillar 2 global minimum tax of 15% adopted by certain countries where GitLab operates. It states these changes could increase the worldwide effective tax rate and harm financial position, results of operations, and cash flows.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Dollar-Based Net Retention Rate
Registered Users
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from Gitlab Inc.'s SEC filings for Q1 FY2027 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 1, 2026.