Tesla's Full Self-Driving Subscription Metric Hits 1.74 Million
The automaker's reported figure for active Full Self-Driving subscriptions has risen 67% year over year, but the calculation includes both one-time purchases and recurring payments.
By Lauren Collins ·
Tesla has reported that it now has 1.74 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, a 67% increase from a year prior. According to a footnote in the company's third-quarter 2026 shareholder letter, this number is calculated in accordance with the 2025 CEO Performance Award and includes both upfront payments and monthly subscriptions.
This accounting method means customers who purchased the Full Self-Driving software outright in the past, when prices reached $15,000, are included in the total. Tesla discontinued the one-time purchase option on February 14, 2026, and now sells Full Self-Driving only as a subscription for $99 per month in the U.S. The company has previously reported 1.28 million under this definition, and it has not disclosed how many of the current 1.74 million are active, paying subscribers. The figure excludes free trials.
The metric is significant because reaching 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions is a required milestone for Elon Musk's 2025 pay package. The same method is used for Tesla's cumulative vehicle delivery figure, which is now 10.2 million and includes any unsupervised Robotaxis placed into commercial operation. This aligns with another pay package milestone, which requires 20 million vehicles delivered.
Tesla also reported that over 75% of new vehicle deliveries in North America during the third quarter included a Full Self-Driving subscription, describing this as a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase. The company stated its belief that Full Self-Driving is driving demand in markets where it is available. However, the shareholder letter does not define how this attach rate is calculated or provide information on subscriber retention.
The company added 260,000 net Full Self-Driving subscriptions in the third quarter, marking its strongest quarter for additions. At that rate, reaching the 10 million milestone would take approximately eight years. Based on the 700,000 subscriptions added over the last 12 months, the process would take closer to 12 years, with the performance award running until 2035.
As of June 30, Tesla considered only one of the operational milestones for the pay package to be probable: reaching 20 million vehicles delivered. The operational list for the award also includes targets for Optimus robots, commercial robotaxis, and adjusted EBITDA.
The company has not commented on requests for the number of subscribers who pay the monthly fee. The definition of an active subscription was written for the pay package, and the company has not clarified whether the 75% attach rate includes subscriptions started with an introductory offer or how many of those buyers remain after several months.
Source: Electrek
