Amazon Q3 2026 Earnings: Date, Time, What to Expect and What to Watch

Update (20 Oct): Morgan Stanley names Amazon a Top Pick

On Monday, 19 October, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak named Amazon a "Top Pick". He kept his Overweight rating and raised his price target to $350 from $335, according to Investing.com and investingLive. He named five catalysts:

1. Faster AWS growth. He now forecasts 47% in 2027 and 42% in 2028, up from 41% and 37%. Part of that rests on Nvidia's disclosure that AWS expects to deploy about 2 million of its GPUs.
2. AWS operating margins. He expects 42% in 2027 and 44% in 2028.
3. Bedrock. Better visibility into Bedrock could lift the stock's valuation.
4. AI shopping agents. The holiday season is the first real test.
5. Robotics. Fulfilment savings of $2–4 billion a year for every 10% of global units handled by robotics-enabled centres.

The main risk the note flags is spending. Morgan Stanley raised its capex estimates to about $355 billion for 2027 and $365 billion for 2028. Amazon shares rose about 5% on the day, to roughly $262, per Yahoo Finance and 24/7 Wall St.. Amazon reports Q3 results on 29 October.

This is news coverage, not investment advice.

When is Amazon's Q3 2026 earnings date and call time?

A small tip if you're outside the US: the US clocks don't change until 1 November in 2026, while Europe changes on 25 October. That's why the gap to London is seven hours that week, not the usual eight.

What did Amazon guide for Q3 2026?

Amazon gives a range every quarter, and it's the most useful benchmark you have. Here's what it said with its Q2 results:

One wrinkle that matters: Prime Day 2026 ran 23–26 June, inside Q2. In 2025 it fell in July, inside Q3. Amazon said that, excluding Prime Day in both years, Q3 growth would be "nearly 400 basis points higher". In plain English: the headline growth number for Q3 will look softer than the underlying business, because a big shopping event moved out of the quarter. Expect a lot of headlines that skip this point.

What are analysts expecting from Amazon Q3 earnings?

We've only used consensus numbers we could attribute to a named source:

• Revenue: S&P Global Market Intelligence (citing Visible Alpha) said pre-guidance consensus was about $203.9B, and that it slipped to roughly $202B after Amazon's guidance. That's the top of Amazon's own range.
• Operating income: the same S&P note put the pre-guidance consensus at about $25.4B, inside Amazon's $22.5B–$26.5B range.
• Capex: consensus before Q2 had 2026 capital spending at about $206.1B. Amazon then raised its own plan to about $220B.
• AWS growth: we couldn't find a reputable, published Q3 2026 AWS consensus. Treat any single "AWS will grow X%" number you see on social media with caution until a named outlet publishes it.

Consensus moves in the days before results, so check again on the morning of 29 October.

How fast is AWS growing, and why does it matter so much?

AWS is Amazon's cloud business: it rents computing power, storage and AI tools to other companies. If you need a refresher, read our plain-English guide to what AWS is.

In Q2 2026, AWS revenue was $42.2B, up 37% year on year. Andy Jassy called it the fastest growth in 18 quarters. AWS also made $16.6B in operating income, which is more than half of Amazon's total $27.5B for the quarter.

That's why the AWS line moves the share price more than anything else. A shopping business that grows 15% is nice. A cloud business growing in the high 30s, with fat margins, is the profit engine.

The question for Q3 is simple: does AWS hold that pace, speed up, or cool off? Much of the growth is AI demand, which leans on services like Amazon Bedrock and the Nova models.

Editor's take (Lov Singh): I'll be listening for whether Jassy says AWS is still capacity-constrained, meaning demand is bigger than the data centres and chips Amazon can switch on. If it is, growth is a supply problem, not a demand problem. That's a very different story.

What about Amazon ads and capex?

Advertising grew 26% in Q2 2026. Amazon's ads business (sponsored products in search results, Prime Video ads and more) is now one of the highest-margin parts of the company. Watch whether Prime Video ad sales keep pulling the growth rate up.

Capex (capital expenditure: buildings, chips, servers) is the line that worries some investors. Amazon raised its 2026 plan by $20B to about $220B, mostly for AI. Its own release showed trailing-twelve-month free cash flow had turned into an outflow of $7.6B, compared with an inflow of $18.2B a year earlier.

That's the trade-off in one sentence: Amazon is spending today's cash on tomorrow's AI capacity. The market wants to see AWS revenue that justifies it.

Will Amazon's Q3 results mention layoffs or AI job cuts?

Probably, at least in the Q&A. Amazon cut fewer than 1,000 corporate roles in early October, on top of roughly 30,000 since late 2025. We cover every round, with sources, in our Amazon layoffs October 2026 timeline. Analysts sometimes ask how headcount and AI tools affect operating costs, so listen for that.

What to watch on 29 October: our checklist

1. Revenue vs. the $197B–$202B range. Remember the Prime Day timing shift.
2. AWS growth rate. Above or below Q2's 37%?
3. AWS operating margin. Q2 was roughly 39% ($16.6B on $42.2B).
4. Advertising growth. Can it stay in the mid-20s?
5. Capex. Does Amazon raise the $220B 2026 plan again, and what does it say about 2027?
6. Q4 guidance. The holiday-quarter range usually moves the stock after hours.
7. Free cash flow. Does the outflow widen or narrow?
8. Anthropic. Q2 net income included $53.4B of non-operating gains, mainly from Amazon's Anthropic investments. Expect investors to separate that from operating performance.

Results scorecard (updated on Oct 29)

We'll fill this in on results night. Bookmark this page.

What are people asking about Amazon earnings?

We looked for genuine community discussion of Q3 2026 expectations on r/stocks and r/AmazonEmployees and didn't find threads substantial enough to quote yet. That usually changes in the final week. These are the questions readers keep asking us:

• Is the Prime Day timing going to make Q3 look like a "miss" when it isn't?
• Can AWS keep growing above 30% while Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud chase the same AI demand?
• How long can Amazon spend roughly $220B a year before free cash flow recovers?
• Do employee RSUs vest around earnings, and does the stock price matter for them? If you're thinking about joining, our AWS hiring and interview loop guide explains how compensation works.

FAQ

What is Amazon's earnings date for Q3 2026?

Thursday, 29 October 2026, after the US stock market closes.

What time is the Amazon earnings call?

2:00 p.m. Pacific / 5:00 p.m. Eastern. That's 21:00 in London and 02:30 on 30 October in India.

Where can I listen to the Amazon earnings call?

On Amazon's investor relations site, amazon.com/ir. It's a free live webcast, and the replay and slides stay up for at least three months.

What revenue did Amazon guide for Q3 2026?

Between $197.0B and $202.0B, which is 9% to 12% growth over Q3 2025.

Why is Amazon's Q3 growth guide lower than Q2's 20%?

Mainly because Prime Day 2026 happened in June (Q2), while Prime Day 2025 was in July (Q3). Amazon says growth would be nearly four percentage points higher without that shift.

How much did AWS grow last quarter?

37% in Q2 2026, to $42.2B. Amazon called it the fastest AWS growth in 18 quarters.

How much is Amazon spending on AI in 2026?

Amazon's latest plan is about $220B of capital spending in 2026, mostly AI infrastructure such as data centres and chips.

Is this investment advice?

No. We explain what's being reported. Speak to a licensed adviser before making investment decisions.

Sources

• Amazon: Amazon will share its Q3 2026 earnings on October 29
• Amazon: Q2 2026 earnings report
• Amazon: Q3 2025 earnings report
• S&P Global Market Intelligence: Amazon post-Q: AWS reaccelerates as AI investment pushes capex higher
• PPC Land (summarising MediaPost, Business Insider): Amazon cuts fewer than 1,000 roles

Featured image: The Amazon Spheres, Seattle. Andy Li / Wikimedia Commons (CC0). Source