Is Instacart a good company to work for in 2026? A verified read

In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, Instacart's revenue rose 14% to $1,043 million (Q2 2026 results) and its GAAP net income was $111 million (10-Q). Its public job board listed 119 open postings at 14:48 UTC on October 12, 2026 (Instacart job board), and its careers site says it has no return-to-office date (Instacart). Its 2025 annual report and Q1 and Q2 2026 quarterly reports describe no workforce restructuring after it cut about 250 jobs in February 2024 (SEC EDGAR; annual report). The FTC announced a $60 million settlement with Instacart in December 2025 (FTC) over allegations Instacart denied (CBS News), and Seattle's labor office announced a pay-law settlement with it in September 2026 (Seattle Office of Labor Standards).

Yes, on a GAAP basis. Instacart reported net income of $447 million for 2025 and $457 million for 2024, after a $1,622 million loss in 2023 that included $2.6 billion of stock-based compensation tied to its IPO (annual report). In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, GAAP net income was $111 million, down 4% from a year earlier (10-Q).

Chris Rogers has been Instacart's chief executive officer and president since August 15, 2025, when he succeeded Fidji Simo (SEC EDGAR), and has chaired its board since November 24, 2025 (SEC EDGAR). The 2026 proxy named three executive officers as of April 1, 2026: Rogers, Emily Reuter (chief financial officer) and Morgan Fong (chief legal and global affairs officer) (proxy statement).

On December 18, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission announced that Instacart would pay $60 million in consumer refunds to settle allegations of false advertising, failure to provide refunds and unlawful subscription enrollment (FTC); Instacart denied the allegations in a statement (CBS News). The consent order became final on January 13, 2026, with no admission of liability, and Instacart paid the $60 million that January (10-Q).

In February 2024, Instacart began a restructuring that cut about 250 employees, roughly 7% of its workforce (annual report), and filed a California notice for 105 layoffs in San Francisco (California EDD). In January 2021, it planned to lay off more than 1,800 in-store shoppers it employed (CBS News), and Reuters reported in September 2022, citing The Information and people familiar with the matter, that Instacart had been letting go staff and slowing hiring ahead of a public listing (Reuters). Its 2025 annual report and Q1 and Q2 2026 quarterly reports describe no workforce restructuring after the February 2024 plan (SEC EDGAR), and California's reports show no Instacart notice received from July 2024 through October 7, 2026 (California EDD); those reports cover only California.

Instacart's Flex First page says it has no "return to office" date: "Where you choose to work and live is up to you" (Instacart). The same page says some roles, such as Workplace Managers, IT and Regional Ops, are required in the office on certain days or tied to a location or time zone (Instacart). At 14:48 UTC on October 12, 2026, its job board listed 119 postings (Instacart job board); 66 were listed as United States remote, 48 as Canada remote, 3 as hybrid in Israel with three office days a week required, and one each in Boston and Chicago (Instacart job board).

Yes. Instacart, whose legal name is Maplebear Inc., went public on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in September 2023 at $30 a share (prospectus), and its shares trade under the ticker CART (SEC EDGAR). Instacart said it repurchased $325 million of its shares in the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (Q2 2026 results).

On December 2, 2025, Instacart, as Maplebear Inc., sued New York City in federal court in Manhattan, challenging city laws on minimum pay for grocery delivery workers and a tipping prompt (court docket). The court denied its motion for a preliminary injunction on January 22, 2026, and later stayed the case pending Instacart's appeal (court docket). In late January 2026, the week the city's grocery delivery laws took effect, Instacart began charging a $5.99 regulatory response fee on New York City orders (New York Post) and said the fee was a direct response to the city's minimum pay regulations (Gothamist). In a post updated July 1, 2026, Instacart told shoppers the law left it "no viable choice but to make a number of structural changes" in the city, including constraints on when shoppers can go online, and that those constraints would become stricter (Instacart).

Yes. As of October 12, 2026, Costco's U.S. same-day delivery site describes itself as "Costco Same-Day Powered by Instacart" (Costco), and Instacart said in January 2026 that it supports delivery from Costco locations across the U.S. and Canada (Instacart); Instacart says Costco first partnered with it for same-day delivery in 2017 (Instacart). In September 2026, Uber and Costco announced Costco delivery on Uber Eats in 47 states, and Costco and DoorDash announced Costco on the DoorDash Marketplace across the U.S. (Uber and Costco; DoorDash). Costco chief executive Ron Vachris said on Costco's September 24, 2026 earnings call that those partnerships "will complement the successful long-term partnership that we've had with Instacart in the U.S. and Canada" (transcript).

Instacart launched Clementine, an AI-powered grocery shopping assistant, for customers across the U.S. and Canada on September 9, 2026 (Instacart). It announced in July 2026 that it had acquired Arpalus, a computer vision company with shelf intelligence technology for grocery retail (Instacart), and in April 2026 that it had acquired Instaleap to expand its enterprise offerings globally (Instacart). In a January 2026 release, Instacart said Costco launched its first same-day delivery websites in France and Spain on Instacart's Storefront Pro platform (Instacart), and in its Q2 2026 results Instacart said more retailers were moving to no markups on its marketplace, including Grocery Outlet (Q2 2026 results).