DoorDash reports more orders than expected in third quarter, but warns of higher expenses ahead

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DoorDash reported higher-than-expected orders and revenue in the third quarter but warned investors that it will be spending significantly more on product development next year.

The San Francisco delivery company's shares fell by double-digits on that news in after-hours trading.

DoorDash said Wednesday its total orders rose 21% to 776 million in the July-September period. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of 770 million, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

DoorDash's revenue jumped 27% to $3.45 billion. That also beat analysts’ forecasts of $3.35 billion. The company cited strong growth in monthly active users and DashPass members as well as growing delivery demand in surprising categories like home improvement and beauty.

But growth is coming with higher expenses. DoorDash said Wednesday it has more product development underway than at any point in its history. In the third quarter alone, research and development costs grew 23% to $355 million.

In late September, DoorDash announced it was adding restaurant reservations to its app. It also introduced an autonomous robot, Dot, which will soon be providing deliveries in the greater Phoenix area. The company is adding tools to improve service and logistics, including a new mapping platform and a smart scale which will help retailers know if an order is missing something before a DoorDash driver picks it up.

All that is taking a bite out of profits. DoorDash’s net income rose 51% to $244 million, or 55 cents per share. That was lower than the 68-cent profit Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

DoorDash said those investments will be accelerating in 2026, and it expects to spend several hundred million dollars more on new initiatives and product development than it did in 2025.

“We wish there was a way to grow a baby into an adult without investment, or to see the baby grow into an adult overnight, but we do not believe this is how life or business works,” DoorDash said in a statement.

In a conference call with investors Wednesday, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu said the investments will pay off down the road. For example, he said, DoorDash needs to build a single global tech platform so it can roll out features and improvements to its newer delivery businesses — Wolt, which it acquired in 2022, and Deliveroo, which it acquired this year — at the same time it rolls them out to DoorDash.

“I do actually think that at the tail end of this work ... we’ll actually be more efficient and we’ll have freed up engineering capacity to do a lot more work,” Xu said. “That will allow us to not only have a better cost structure, but really, just be able to do a better job in solving the next problem for customers.”