Amazon Q3 2026 earnings: date, guidance and what to watch

Why people are searching today

Amazon reports its third-quarter 2026 results on Thursday, October 29, and it will host a conference call at 2:00 p.m. PT, which is 5:00 p.m. ET [1]. Two numbers draw most of the attention: the growth rate of Amazon Web Services and the amount Amazon plans to spend on infrastructure.

What Amazon guided for the quarter

Amazon guided third-quarter net sales to between $197.0 billion and $202.0 billion, growth of 9% to 12% on a year earlier [2]. The company expects a currency headwind of about 80 basis points on that figure [3]. Operating income is guided to between $22.5 billion and $26.5 billion [2]. Consensus sits at about $1.96 in earnings per share, on revenue near $202 billion [3].

The net sales range runs $5.0 billion from bottom to top, and the operating income range runs $4.0 billion. Both ranges are set by Amazon's own guidance, so the reported figures will be measured against them.

The second quarter as the baseline

In the second quarter, Amazon reported net sales of $200.6 billion, up 20% from a year earlier, and operating income of $27.5 billion, up 43% [2]. That operating income figure was already above the top of the third-quarter guidance range of $26.5 billion [2].

AWS sales reached $42.2 billion in the second quarter, up 37% [2]. AWS segment operating income reached $16.6 billion in the same quarter, compared with $10.2 billion a year earlier [2]. Analysts expect AWS to grow around 35% in the third quarter, a step down from that 37% pace [3].

Capital spending

Amazon's net capital expenditure in the second quarter was $53.1 billion [3]. The company's 2026 plan is about $220 billion, up from $200 billion [3]. That plan implies average spending of about $61.8 billion a quarter in the second half of the year [3]. Second-half capital spending is therefore set to run well above the second-quarter level of $53.1 billion [3].

What the options market expects

Options markets imply a move of about 7.4% in either direction around the results [3]. That is the size of reaction the market is pricing in before the call, and it gives a benchmark for how the stock moves once the numbers are out.

What to watch next

Three things matter most. The first is whether AWS growth holds near 35% or slows further. The second is whether operating income lands inside the $22.5 billion to $26.5 billion range. The third is whether Amazon keeps the 2026 capital spending plan near $220 billion or raises it again.

After the call, the fourth-quarter outlook will be the next figure to check against the numbers in this report.