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 Duolingo (DUOL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Duolingo generated $433M of operating cash flow and $416M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Duolingo (DUOL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Duolingo (DUOL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$433M

Capex

-$16.9M

Free Cash Flow

$416M

FCF Margin

+96.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Duolingo (DUOL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $416M

Cash flow breakdown for Duolingo (DUOL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$433M	$433M
Capital Expenditure	-$16.9M	$416M
Free Cash Flow	$416M	$416M
Acquisitions	-$33.1M	$383M
Other Investing	-$63.9M	$319M
Share Buybacks	-$24.3M	$295M
Other Financing & FX	-$40.2M	$255M
Net Cash Increase	$255M	$255M

Operating Cash Flow$433M
Capital Expenditure-$16.9M
Free Cash Flow$416M
Acquisitions-$33.1M
Other Investing-$63.9M
Share Buybacks-$24.3M
Other Financing & FX-$40.2M
Net Cash Increase$255M

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

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Buybacks0.53% TTM

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