What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Airbnb (ABNB) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Airbnb generated $4.57B of operating cash flow and $4.55B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Airbnb (ABNB) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Airbnb's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Airbnb (ABNB) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.57B

Capex

-$16M

Free Cash Flow

$4.55B

FCF Margin

+99.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Airbnb (ABNB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.55B

Cash flow breakdown for Airbnb (ABNB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.57B	$4.57B
Capital Expenditure	-$16M	$4.55B
Free Cash Flow	$4.55B	$4.55B
Other Investing	-$1.04B	$3.51B
Share Buybacks	-$4.21B	-$699M
Net Debt Change	$483M	-$216M
Other Financing	$721M	$505M
Forex Effect	-$1.58B	-$1.07B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.07B	-$1.07B

Operating Cash Flow$4.57B
Capital Expenditure-$16M
Free Cash Flow$4.55B
Other Investing-$1.04B
Share Buybacks-$4.21B
Net Debt Change$483M
Other Financing$721M
Forex Effect-$1.58B
Net Cash Decrease-$1.07B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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Buybacks5.57% TTM

How this company returns cash to shareholders — buybacks, dividends, and stock splits.

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