Clear Secure Growth Accelerates Past 26%, Margins Top 35% Target
Clear Secure (YOU) posted 26.6% revenue growth in the second quarter of 2026, its fastest pace in more than a year, while adjusted EBITDA margin crossed the company's long-term 35% target for the first time.
Clear Secure (YOU) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $277.8 million, up 26.6% from a year earlier, breaking a multi-quarter deceleration that had dragged growth from 24.6% in the third quarter of 2024 down to 15.5% by the third quarter of 2025. The identity-verification company, which operates the CLEAR+ airport security line and biometric enrollment kiosks, had spent the prior year explaining why growth kept slowing. The second quarter marked the clearest sign yet that the slide had reversed.
Total Bookings, the company's forward-looking sales metric, rose 32.8% to $295.9 million, up sharply from 25.4% growth in the fourth quarter of 2025 and 14.3% in the third quarter, though the pace eased slightly from the 40.8% bookings growth reported in the first quarter of 2026. The acceleration in both revenue and bookings coincided with a burst of infrastructure spending: the company brought its eGates count to 50 airports, up from just 10 a year earlier, and added Northwest Arkansas and Indianapolis to its CLEAR+ network, lifting total airport footprint to 62.
Profitability improved alongside the top line. Adjusted EBITDA margin reached 36.4% in the quarter, a 900-basis-point expansion from a year earlier and the fifth straight quarter of year-over-year margin gains. Operating income margin climbed to 29.9% from 19.4% a year earlier, and net income margin rose to 26.0% from 17.3%. Cash generation followed the same trajectory: operating cash flow hit $201.2 million and free cash flow $189.0 million, extending a rebound from the third quarter of 2025, when an annual roughly $229 million payment to CLEAR's credit card partner pushed both figures sharply negative.
Member growth told a more mixed story. Active CLEAR+ Members rose 15.2% to 8.33 million, an uptick from 13.0% growth in the first quarter but still part of a longer deceleration in the company's core paid membership base. Total CLEAR Members, a broader measure introduced when the company overhauled its disclosure set at the end of 2025, grew 30.0% to 43.5 million, roughly matching the prior quarter's pace. That disclosure change also dropped Total Cumulative Platform Uses, an engagement metric the company had reported for years, and recast prior Active CLEAR+ Member counts downward to strip out lapsed accounts identified through a 2025 billing-system overhaul, which had no effect on its consolidated financials.
CLEAR Concierge, the company's premium airport service, expanded to 39 airports from 23 a year earlier, while the TSA PreCheck enrollment retail footprint moved in the opposite direction, falling to 280 locations from 340 at the end of 2025.
The company raised its full-year 2026 free cash flow guidance to at least $480 million, implying growth of at least 39.9%, up from the $465 million floor set after the first quarter and the $440 million floor issued at year-end 2025. For the third quarter, Clear Secure guided to revenue of $284 million to $287 million, implying 24.6% growth at the midpoint, and Total Bookings of $311 million to $316 million, implying 20.5% growth — both representing a step down from the pace just reported.
Capital returns pulled back in the quarter. Clear Secure paid $22.2 million to shareholders, down from $56.4 million in the first quarter, after dropping the $0.20-a-share special dividend that had accompanied its regular payout in the prior two quarters while maintaining the $0.15-a-share regular dividend set at the end of 2025. Share buybacks also stayed muted, with the company highlighting no repurchase figure in the second quarter after spending just $1.2 million in the first, despite a $125.0 million increase to its repurchase authorization approved at year-end 2025 that left roughly $250.3 million available.