Snap hits $1 billion ARR milestone with Snapchat+

On Wednesday, Snap announced that its direct revenue business has reached a $1 billion annualized revenue run rate (ARR)—a metric that projects current revenue over a full year. The social media company attributed this milestone to the growth of Snapchat+, its paid subscription service launched in 2022, which has now surpassed 25 million subscribers globally. According to Snap, the offering has transitioned from an experimental feature into a core financial driver. “What started as an early-access program for our most engaged Snapchatters has quickly scaled into a meaningful business—one that now represents a strong and growing revenue stream alongside our ads business,” the company wrote in a blog post.

To build on this momentum, Snap has diversified its subscription offerings over the past year by introducing multiple pricing tiers and features:

• Snapchat+: Priced at $3.99 per month, offering subscribers access to exclusive and pre-release features.
• Lens+: Launched last June for $8.99 per month, providing access to exclusive Lenses and augmented reality (AR) experiences, alongside standard Snapchat+ perks.
• Platinum: Introduced in early 2025 for $15.99 per month as an ad-free Snapchat+ subscription tier.
• Paid Storage: A plan starting at $1.99 per month, introduced alongside a controversial move in September to cap free storage for the platform’s Memories feature. Under these limits, Snapchat+ subscribers receive up to 250GB of storage, while Platinum subscribers receive 5TB.

Moving beyond Snapchat+, the company announced yesterday that it is launching creator subscriptions in alpha—an early stage of product testing—with select people in the U.S. Users will be able to purchase subscriptions to participating creators, including Jeremiah Brown, Harry Jowsey, and Skai Jackson. Under this program, creators can set their own monthly prices to unlock subscriber-only content, priority replies to a creator’s public Stories, and an ad-free experience for that creator’s Stories.

Snap’s success in proving there is a market for social media subscriptions has prompted competitors to react. Meta is testing new subscriptions to grant users access to exclusive features across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.

Why it matters

Snap has successfully diversified its revenue beyond advertising by proving that social media users are willing to pay for premium features, a strategy that competitors like Meta are now actively emulating.