Duolingo's user growth has accelerated even though the stock is still down, which leaves the setup not too bad. x.comÂ
Philip
Founder & CEO of Intrinsiqq, Value & Growth Investor
Duolingo could be a good buying opportunity because the main bear case, that active users were decelerating or declining, did not show up last quarter. Both of those user metrics grew in the most recent quarter. x.com x.comÂ
Duolingo's growth story is back. Daily active users rose 23% year over year, monthly active users 10% and revenue 18%. Margins are down, but the company is still free cash flow positive. x.comÂ
Duolingo's pivot is hard to believe because user acquisition stalled quarter over quarter even though management made it the focus of its A/B tests, ahead of monetization. Data in a post the author replies to show DAUs up 21.2% year over year but decelerating, MAUs up just 5.8%, and gross margin expected to slip from 73% to 69% by Q4. The hope remains that the turnaround succeeds. x.com x.comÂ
Duolingo's current user retention is at an all-time high and its social media growth is reaccelerating, with Instagram growth re-accelerating massively. That is a movie seen before. x.comÂ
Duolingo is hard not to buy once people feel comfortable dunking on it after a 77% drop in a year. @Spybef0rey0ubuy notes the chart may be curling into a bottom but is still avoiding it, warning that stocks often look cheap right before another leg down. x.comÂ
Duolingo's foundation is in question because gamified education is as ripe for AI disruption as any software niche. The stock is down 83% from its June 2025 peak, with P/E cut from triple digits to about 10x and P/S from 30x to 4x, despite explosive revenue and consistent cash flow. Investors are pricing decelerating guidance and the AI threat, and management's claims to lead in AI are unconvincing. The last major chart support sits near $67, about 25% lower. x.comÂ
Duolingo is evolving from a playful language app into an always-available personal AI tutor with 100 million daily users, backed by a fast-growing, increasingly engaged user base and dramatically falling AI costs. That case was visible four months ago when sentiment was poor and the stock was at $100; it has since risen 50%. x.comÂ
Duolingo's bull case gains support from Evercore ISI's upgrade to Outperform, with its target doubled from $105 to $210. Evercore models about 99 million daily users by 2028, near management's 100 million goal and well above Wall Street's 85 million, and 2028 EPS of $5.10, about 24% above consensus. It compares Duolingo to Netflix in 2022: a growth wall, a strategy change, then re-acceleration. Management is trading near-term monetization for users and engagement; execution must follow. x.comÂ
Duolingo's product is a strict subset of what ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini already do better and cheaper, so its addressable market is structurally shrinking. Those models tutor any language with live conversation and accent correction for $20 a month, versus Duolingo's $7-13. That explains its 80% drawdown despite a clean quarter with revenue up 27%. Habit and gamification are the bull case, but habits break fast when the alternative is better, as Grammarly and Chegg showed. x.comÂ
Duolingo deserves premium multiples for its gamified-learning moat, diversifying monetization and elite cash generation, yet its P/E is well below its historical median. Streaks and Duolingo Max AI companions build engagement that is hard to replicate, and the Duolingo English Test is a growing second curve in study-abroad and visa markets. It runs 70%+ gross margins with steady free cash flow. The stock has built support around $140 since earnings, and selling pressure looks exhausted. x.comÂ