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Pinterest’s stock crashed 20% after an earnings miss, despite the CEO claiming the site is bigger than ChatGPT for search.

Pinterest reported weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter results, even as its user base continued to grow.

The company posted $1.32 billion in revenue for Q4 and earnings of $0.67 per share narrowly below analyst forecasts of $1.33 billion and $0.69 per share. 

It also projected first-quarter 2026 sales of $951 million to $971 million, shy of the $980 million Wall Street expected.

Chief executive Bill Ready said the platform remains a powerful search destination and pointed to third-party data showing roughly 80 billion searches on the site each month and 1.7 billion monthly clicks. 

He contrasted that with about 75 billion monthly searches on ChatGPT and argued a larger share of Pinterest searches are commercially oriented.

Company leaders blamed the shortfall to pullback by major advertisers particularly in Europe and disruption in the home category after a furniture tariff introduced in October. They warned those pressures may continue into the first quarter.

Despite the miss, monthly active users rose 12% year-on-year to about 619 million, topping the roughly 613 million user estimate on Wall Street. That faster user growth did not translate into commensurate ad revenue.

Shares reacted sharply, falling about 20% in after-hours trading as investors re-priced the outlook.

Pinterest has long faced a gap between platform engagement and ad monetization. Users come to pin, plan and discover activities that don’t always convert immediately into purchases and that gap could widen as advertisers evaluate AI-driven channels with clearer buying intent.

Asked how Pinterest would respond to AI shifts in shopping behaviour, Ready highlighted the company’s visual search, discovery tools and personalized recommendations. 

He said these features are designed to surface relevant products the moment users open the app, reducing friction without requiring typed prompts.

Ready also noted an easier checkout path through a partnership with Amazon, and said most users are not yet comfortable letting an AI make purchases on their behalf. 

He added that when that moment arrives, handling the transaction will be “one of the easiest parts of the commercial journey to solve.”