Tesla’s first quarter 2026 earnings may have delivered a strong financial beat, but one of the more telling developments came from a less traditional metric — a record surge in Full Self-Driving (FSD) subscriptions.
Included within the company’s shareholder update was a notable milestone: FSD subscriptions climbing 51% quarter-over-quarter to 1.28 million in Q1. This was an increase of 180,000 new subscribers compared to Q4 2025. The sharp increase came as Tesla shifted to a subscription only model for FSD, eliminating outright purchases in mid-February.
“We began moving FSD (Supervised) to subscription-only. Adoption (attachment to new purchases) and penetration (total users among the eligible fleet) both continued to grow, with record net new subscriptions in Q1,” the company wrote.
Based on Tesla’s reported 1.28 million FSD subscribers in Q1, the software is quickly becoming a meaningful revenue contributor. At US$99 per month, that equates to roughly US$127 million in monthly revenue, or about $380 million over the quarter.
While still a relatively small portion of Tesla’s overall $22.4 billion in quarterly revenue, the high-margin, recurring nature of FSD subscriptions makes it far more impactful on profitability and highlights the growing importance of software as Tesla continues to expand adoption.
Also within the update Tesla noted their continued efforts to increase awareness of the safety and convenience
of using FSD (Supervised), which the company said showed “promising early signs.”
One way Tesla is attempting to increase the visibility of FSD is linking its use to insurance premiums. The newly updated Safety Score v3.0 assigns a score of 100 to all distance driven with FSD (Supervised) engaged, which can lead to lower insurance premiums for drivers enrolled in Tesla Insurance, creating a financial incentive for owners to both subscribe to and actively use FSD.
The subscription growth also coincides with Tesla expanding FSD into new markets. In April, the company received approval to deploy FSD (Supervised) in the Netherlands, a significant step toward broader European rollout. Tesla is also continuing to work toward regulatory approval in China, the company noted in its report.
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