Bandwidth posts record quarter, raises outlook as AI demand grows

Bandwidth is trying to prove that artificial intelligence is not just a new label for old cloud-communications demand. The company said first-quarter revenue reached a record $209 million, up 20% from a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA rose 17% to $26 million, both above the top end of its guidance. It also lifted its full-year 2026 outlook, signaling that the momentum carried beyond one strong quarter.

The clearest support for that argument came from enterprise use cases that put Bandwidth deeper into customer workflows. Chief Executive David Morken said the company sees its platform as the mission-critical foundation for the AI-driven enterprise, pointing to customers deploying voice AI in production on Bandwidth’s network. Bandwidth also said Salesforce chose it as a critical infrastructure partner for Agentforce Contact Center, where Bandwidth will provide voice and messaging infrastructure for CRM-native, AI-driven customer engagement. That deal matters because it ties Bandwidth to contact-center automation, one of the most commercially relevant applications for enterprise AI.

The company said the growth is not limited to one marquee customer. It reported continued momentum in financial services, including million-dollar-plus wins, and said higher-volume messaging usage kept growing. That is the kind of traffic that can support a more durable business if the workloads stay embedded in customer service, authentication, and sales operations rather than spiking briefly during an implementation cycle. Bandwidth’s network footprint, spanning more than 65 countries and reaching more than 90% of global GDP, remains a core selling point for latency, reliability, and trust in those traffic-heavy use cases.

The financial results showed the operating leverage Bandwidth has been chasing. Net income was $4 million, compared with a $4 million loss a year earlier. Non-GAAP gross margin was 59%, operating cash flow was $9 million, and free cash flow improved to negative $1 million from negative $13 million. Adjusted EBITDA reached a record first-quarter level of $26 million, while non-GAAP net income was $13 million.

Bandwidth entered 2026 after reporting full-year 2025 revenue of $754 million, adjusted EBITDA of $93 million and free cash flow of $57 million. In February, the board authorized an $80 million share repurchase program, and management had originally projected about 16% revenue growth and 29% adjusted EBITDA growth for 2026. On April 21, IDC MarketScape named Bandwidth a Leader in communications engagement platforms, reinforcing the company’s effort to position itself as infrastructure for AI-era customer experience rather than a legacy telecom-adjacent vendor. The next test is whether the demand behind this quarter keeps compounding as more enterprises move voice AI and large-scale messaging from pilot projects into everyday operations.