Tesla Reports 1.74 Million FSD Users to Support CEO Pay Metrics

Tesla Inc. disclosed that it now supports 1.74 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, a figure that represents a 67 percent increase over the previous year. The company provided this update in its third quarter 2026 shareholder letter, which included specific footnotes detailing the methodology behind the statistic. This count is significant because it aligns directly with the operational criteria established in the 2025 CEO Performance Award. Under these rules, the metric encompasses both customers who pay monthly and those who purchased the software with an upfront lump sum.

The inclusion of upfront buyers in the subscription total is a key component of how Tesla measures success. Owners who paid for the technology outright, some of whom did so years ago, are currently being tallied as active subscribers. This accounting method is critical for the company’s leadership. Reaching 10 million active FSD subscriptions is one of the primary milestones Elon Musk must achieve to unlock his compensation package. Additionally, the count includes hundreds of thousands of customers who were sold the promise of unsupervised self-driving, a feature Tesla has not yet fully delivered to the market.

Tesla ceased selling Full Self-Driving as a one-time purchase on February 14, 2026. Since that date, new customers in the United States have only been able to access the feature through a subscription model at a rate of $99 per month. However, every customer who paid upfront prior to that deadline remains in the active count as long as their vehicle is in operation. The prices for these upfront purchases have reached as high as $15,000. The only individuals excluded from this 1.74 million figure are those on free trials. Despite reporting 1.28 million users in April, Tesla has yet to specify how many of the current total are paying the monthly fee.

The company applies a similar counting logic to its vehicle delivery metrics. The cumulative delivery figure now stands at 10.2 million units. This number also includes any unsupervised robotaxis placed into commercial operation. This approach matches the 20 million vehicle milestone required for the executive pay package. In the same letter, Tesla noted that more than 75 percent of new deliveries in North America included FSD subscriptions during the third quarter. The company described this as a nearly twenty percentage point sequential increase and stated that it believes the software is driving demand in available markets.

The definition of this 75 percent attach rate remains unclear. The shareholder letter does not specify whether it includes subscriptions started at delivery with introductory offers. It also does not clarify how many of those buyers continue to pay after several months. While the active subscription metric explicitly excludes free trials, Tesla did not apply the same exclusion criteria to the attach rate. This lack of transparency leaves investors without a clear picture of long-term retention for the software product.

Musk’s 2025 award is structured in 12 tranches, each requiring both a market cap milestone and an operational achievement. The operational targets include 20 million vehicles delivered, 10 million active FSD subscriptions, 1 million Optimus robots, and 1 million robotaxis in commercial operation. As of June 30, Tesla considered only the 20 million delivery target to be probable. The company added 260,000 net FSD subscriptions in the third quarter, marking its best performance to date.

If Tesla maintains the pace of the most recent quarter, it would take approximately eight years to reach the 10 million subscription goal. At the average pace of the last 12 months, which is roughly 700,000 per year, the timeline extends to about 12 years. The compensation award remains active until 2035. The board’s definition of these metrics is central to the company’s current financial narrative, yet the firm has not disclosed the number of customers currently paying the monthly fee.