The Duolingo Rally Is Finally Starting

It's been tough for long-term investors to hold Duolingo (NASDAQ: DUOL). The stock is down more than 70% over the past year, and while it was overvalued at over $400 per share, the current price is at bargain-basement levels, and some investors are finally noticing.

The stock has rallied more than 20% over the past month, and there are several reasons for Duolingo investors to feel optimistic that this is just the beginning.

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Duolingo isn't just for learning new languages

Duolingo's original specialty was gamifying the language-learning experience. However, it is expanding into teaching other subjects, including chess, its fastest-growing subject.

Chess is a notable addition since it expands Duolingo's offerings beyond academic areas. The edtech company introduced math and music a few years ago and continues to expand its inventory. Duolingo is turning into an app that helps people master high-demand skills, not just new languages.

Its recent artificial intelligence (AI) investments also play a role here. Duolingo told investors in its Q1 shareholder letter that AI has "fundamentally changed how quickly we can create content." The company was able to publish 20,500 course units in Q1, compared to an average of 7,100 per quarter in 2025 and 1,800 per quarter in 2024.

Duolingo explained that this dramatic scaling helped it improve its popular Chinese, Japanese, and Korean courses. However, this same increase in content production makes it substantially easier for Duolingo to create new courses on high-demand skills that attract more users.

Net income is still growing

Almost tripling quarterly course unit production in a single year gives customers more options. That helps with revenue, but surprisingly, Duolingo's net income has marched higher as well. It truly demonstrates that Duolingo's AI efforts are cost-efficient, which makes the growth sustainable.

For instance, Duolingo delivered 24% year-over-year net income growth in Q1. Revenue was up by 27%, so there was a slight contraction in the net profit margin. Duolingo still walked away from the quarter with a double-digit profit margin, which has become the norm.

All of this financial growth is fueled by steady user acquisition. Duolingo's daily active users and paid subscribers were both up by 21% year over year. With 56.5 million and 12.5 million people, respectively, in those segments, Duolingo can still gain more market share. A side focus on hot, broader subjects like chess can expand Duolingo's footprint and keep users more engaged.

Intentional revenue slowdown is for long-term gains

Although Duolingo's numbers were good, they were a downgrade from what investors have come to expect. Last year, Duolingo was exceeding 40% year-over-year revenue growth. A drop to 27% would explain the decline if Duolingo traded at over $400 per share then. However, Duolingo released Q1 results in early May, when almost all of the damage was already done.

Duolingo is aiming to become a company that will be around for 100 years and change how the world learns everything. This long-term vision comes with a medium-term goal of reaching 100 million daily active users in 2028.

The company could make more revenue by pushing its subscriptions or establishing a hard paywall, but Duolingo said its scale wouldn't be possible with a paywall model. Getting to 100 million daily active users with a freemium model will give Duolingo more options and financial growth in the future when it maximizes its average revenue per user.

In the meantime, Duolingo continues to improve its subscriptions so more people feel inclined to become paying customers. The company cited its subscription-only Video Call feature, which has more than doubled the average number of words spoken per user who takes advantage of it.

Duolingo anticipates 17.1% year-over-year revenue growth in Q2 and 16.1% in full-year 2026. The guidance figures imply deceleration and aren't glamorous for a growth stock, but Duolingo's correction is long overdue. Its efforts to attract 100 million daily active users in 2028 should pay off tremendously and give the company more opportunities to reignite revenue growth when the time calls for it.

Marc Guberti has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Duolingo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.