Zscaler closed fiscal 2026 with revenue of $3,352.5m, up 25%, and total annual recurring revenue of $3,771m, also up 25%, in results published on 3 September. The company positions itself as the cybersecurity platform for the AI era. Its own release contains the adjustment that reframes the headline.
The organic number is disclosed, not inferred
The ARR line states it directly: excluding the Red Canary acquisition, ARR was $3,630m and grew 20%. Coverage crediting AI demand for 25% ARR growth is crediting an acquisition for five of those points. Fourth-quarter net new ARR was $246m, up 24%, with the SEC-filed exhibit putting that at 17% excluding the acquisition — worth noting that the newswire copy renders the 24% as the organic figure and the two versions disagree; the filed exhibit is the one to trust.
Next year decelerates
Guidance for fiscal 2027 is revenue of $3.908bn to $3.938bn, growth of 16.6% to 17.5%, and ARR of $4.396bn to $4.426bn, growth of 16.6% to 17.4%. Non-GAAP income from operations is guided to $924m–$932m and free cash flow margin to about 23.0–23.5%. A company repositioning around securing AI agents is guiding growth down by roughly three points against its organic rate.
The profitability line
Non-GAAP operating margin reached a record 24% in the fourth quarter and 23% for the year. On a GAAP basis the same periods are negative 2% and negative 4%, with a fourth-quarter net loss of $3.4m and a fiscal-2026 net loss of $63.2m.
What the received framing gets wrong
Beyond the acquisition arithmetic, one widely quoted figure is not in the release at all. The line about AI-related ARR growing more than 100% comes from the call and shareholder letter, not the results document, and carries no dollar base — a percentage on an undisclosed denominator, unfalsifiable from outside. No dollar figure for AI or agent-related ARR appears anywhere in the release, and no customer counts are given.