GoPro Cuts 23 Percent of Workforce in Push to Restore Profitability

GoPro announced it would cut 145 jobs, roughly 23 percent of its 631-person global workforce, as the action-camera pioneer struggles to hold ground against rivals that have systematically dismantled its once-dominant position in a market it essentially invented.

The layoffs account for 23 percent of GoPro's global headcount as of the end of the first quarter, and are expected to be completed by the end of 2026. The restructuring carries a total projected charge ranging from $11.5 million to $15 million, covering one-time termination benefits including severance packages and healthcare support. Planned cash expenditures break down as approximately $1.5 million in the second quarter, $5.5 million to $8 million in the third, and $4.5 million to $5.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The cuts arrive after a bruising 2025. GoPro sold roughly 2 million cameras for the full year, down from 2.5 million the prior year, a trend that underscores the competitive pressure the company faces from DJI and Insta360, both of which aggressively expanded their product lines while GoPro was stuck on its aging GP2 processor platform. Full-year 2025 revenue came in at $652 million, down 19 percent year-over-year, as sell-through fell about 20 percent.

The market-share collapse tells the starkest part of the story. GoPro's domination of the action camera market peaked at 75.5 percent in May 2023, and the company still held the largest share at 39.6 percent at the start of 2025. But by November 2025, GoPro's share had plummeted to just 9.6 percent, while DJI held 45.2 percent of the market and Insta360 trailed slightly at 43.3 percent. That reversal did not happen in a collapsing market: action cameras now account for nearly half of all video camera sales, up from around 24 percent in November 2022. GoPro ceded a growing category to better-capitalized Chinese competitors.

This latest round of cuts marks at least the third major workforce reduction in under two years. In 2024, the company first trimmed 4 percent of staff in March, then announced a 15-percent reduction in August before expanding that plan to 26 percent by October. Despite slashing operating expenses by $93 million, a 26 percent reduction from 2024, and improving cash flow from operations by $104 million year-over-year, GoPro still posted a full-year net loss of $93.48 million in 2025.

For customers, the restructuring raises immediate questions about product support and development pace, but the company is simultaneously making a high-stakes product bet. Founder and CEO Nicholas Woodman described 2026 as "the year of GP3," the long-awaited successor to GoPro's GP2 chip from 2021, with the first GP3-powered cameras expected to launch in the second quarter. The brand plans to introduce several new models across distinct categories, from next-gen flagships to 360 and lifestyle cameras, with launches spread steadily throughout the year rather than clustered around the holiday season. GoPro is projecting $750 million to $800 million in 2026 revenue, fueled by the GP3-powered camera lineup and an AI content platform.

Whether the GP3 bet pays off matters beyond GoPro's balance sheet. The company's trajectory is a direct case study in the consumer-hardware squeeze facing American gadget brands: smartphone cameras continue to absorb casual users, drone-mounted cameras attract adventure and professional segments, and vertically integrated Chinese manufacturers can out-engineer and out-price on the remaining core. GoPro shares edged up 1 percent in after-hours trading on the layoff announcement, a signal that investors are reading the restructuring as necessary surgery rather than terminal decline. Whether GoPro can execute a hardware comeback while running on a 487-person workforce is the defining question for the company's next chapter.