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 Twilio (TWLO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Twilio generated $1B of operating cash flow and $987M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Twilio (TWLO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Twilio (TWLO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1B

Capex

-$14M

Free Cash Flow

$987M

FCF Margin

+98.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Twilio (TWLO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $987M

Cash flow breakdown for Twilio (TWLO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1B	$1B
Capital Expenditure	-$14M	$987M
Free Cash Flow	$987M	$987M
Acquisitions	-$62.2M	$925M
Other Investing	$135M	$1.06B
Share Buybacks	-$996M	$64.2M
Net Debt Change	-$38.7M	$25.5M
Other Financing & FX	$49.2M	$74.7M
Net Cash Increase	$74.7M	$74.7M

Operating Cash Flow$1B
Capital Expenditure-$14M
Free Cash Flow$987M
Acquisitions-$62.2M
Other Investing$135M
Share Buybacks-$996M
Net Debt Change-$38.7M
Other Financing & FX$49.2M
Net Cash Increase$74.7M

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

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Buybacks5.19% TTM

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