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 Alphabet (GOOGL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Alphabet generated $175B of operating cash flow and $42.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 24.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Alphabet (GOOGL) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Alphabet's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Alphabet (GOOGL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$175B

Capex

-$132B

Free Cash Flow

$42.4B

FCF Margin

+24.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Alphabet (GOOGL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $42.4B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Alphabet (GOOGL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$175B	$175B
Capital Expenditure	-$132B	$42.4B
Free Cash Flow	$42.4B	$42.4B
Acquisitions	-$34.9B	$7.43B
Other Investing	-$58B	-$50.6B
Share Buybacks	-$17B	-$67.6B
Dividends Paid	-$10.3B	-$77.9B
Net Debt Change	$70.1B	-$7.78B
Other Financing & FX	$62.3B	$54.5B
Net Cash Increase	$54.5B	$54.5B

Operating Cash Flow$175B
Capital Expenditure-$132B
Free Cash Flow$42.4B
Acquisitions-$34.9B
Other Investing-$58B
Share Buybacks-$17B
Dividends Paid-$10.3B
Net Debt Change$70.1B
Other Financing & FX$62.3B
Net Cash Increase$54.5B

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

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