Power users seem more than willing to pay for AI-powered effects.
More than 30 million power users are paying for one of Snap’s subscription plans, including Snapchat+ and its ad-free “platinum” tier. The company announced the milestone as part of its third-quarter earnings, saying that its non-advertising “other” revenue grew 84 percent compared with last year.
Snap introduced Snapchat+, which offers users bonus features like the ability to see which friends re-watched your Story, in 2022. Since then, the company has added Lens+, a subscription for AI-powered AR effects; Platinum, which eliminates advertising; and paid storage for the app’s Memory feature.
The company didn’t share a breakdown of subscribers across all the plans, but noted that Lens+ “has grown nearly 600% since January 2026.” That growth suggests at least some of Snapchat’s users are particularly enthusiastic about the app’s AI-powered features, like its AI photo editing feature called AI Photoshoot. “AI-powered features have helped Lens+ exceed our expectations, demonstrating how new creative experiences can drive demand for our paid products,” CEO Evan Spiegel said during the company’s earnings call.
While Snap isn’t as associated with AI as some of its social media peers, it’s notable that AI has helped it drive paid subscribers. X revealed earlier this year that it had about 6.3 million paid subscribers across X Premium and Grok.
Subscriptions were a bright spot for Snap. Spiegel said that advertising revenue was growing “below our ambitions” and the company only added 2 million new daily users since last quarter. Snap said that it would focus on reporting monthly active users rather than daily users, beginning in 2027. Snapchat currently has 977 million monthly users.
The company also warned that its legal challenges and “increased regulatory scrutiny on youth-related issues” could affect its prospects. The company is dealing with numerous lawsuits over alleged safety issues and state attorneys general have pushed for Snap to adopt additional safety features following Meta’s high-profile settlement.