Duolingo is dropping Max. Its growth bet moves to Super.

Duolingo is giving up its highest subscription tier as more people use its learning app each day. Starting this month, it will stop selling new Duolingo Max subscriptions and move existing individual Max subscribers to a Super family plan at the same price.

The change puts its speaking-practice feature, Video Call, at the center of a broader subscription business. New Super subscribers have already been getting unlimited access. Duolingo expects to extend that access to all Super subscribers by year-end.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Luis von Ahn says falling costs for the feature are helping make that expansion possible. The company expects little effect on bookings from ending new Max sales, and says that effect is included in its fourth-quarter forecast.

More learners, a smaller step up in the forecast

Daily active users averaged 64.9 million in Q3, up 29% from a year earlier. That growth accelerated from 23% in Q2. Paying subscriber accounts rose 14% to 13.1 million at September 30.

Bookings, which count purchases before subscription revenue is spread across the subscription term, reached $316.1 million. That beat the $307 million forecast issued in August. Revenue of $309 million also exceeded the earlier $302 million expectation.

Duolingo raised its annual bookings forecast by $11 million, to $1.296 billion. Research by Ticker Byline shows that about $9.1 million of that increase, or roughly 83%, was already earned by beating the Q3 forecast. On the company's rounded figures, the increase left for Q4 is about $1.9 million, with the two forecasts using different exchange-rate assumptions.

The new Q4 bookings forecast is $382 million, up 13% from a year earlier. Duolingo expects daily-user growth similar to Q3 as it gradually puts more emphasis on turning engagement into purchases.

The growth is costing more

Higher sales have not yet brought higher quarterly operating profit. Revenue grew 14%, but GAAP operating income fell 31% to $24.2 million as operating expenses rose faster than revenue.

Those expenses included an $11.4 million accrual for a company-wide bonus tied to achieving at least 25% daily-user growth in Q4. That bonus was absent from the earlier outlook. Spending on development and marketing also increased.

Adjusted EBITDA, a profit measure that removes taxes, interest income, stock compensation and selected other costs, slipped to $78.7 million from $80 million. It still exceeded the $76 million Duolingo had forecast in August.

The annual adjusted EBITDA forecast rises to $323 million from $320 million. For Q4, Duolingo expects a lower gross margin as it extends access to its conversation features.

Super now has more to prove

The subscription change gives existing individual Max subscribers family-sharing benefits without changing their price. Duolingo has yet to decide how to handle legacy Max family plans and plans to address them in 2027.

Quarterly free cash flow fell slightly to $75.3 million, even as operating cash flow increased, because spending on software, intangible assets and equipment rose. Cash and short-term investments totaled about $1.37 billion at quarter-end.

That leaves room to pursue the broader subscription strategy. The next test is whether faster user growth and wider Video Call access produce enough additional purchases to lift profit as well as sales.

The Duolingo company profile tracks its user metrics, subscription changes, financial results and forecasts.