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For the first time, we have hard numbers on Starlink's paid subscriber base: 10.3 million in Q1, though that number doesn’t directly translate to individual customers.
The figure is mentioned in SpaceX's S-1 filing, which is required for the company's upcoming IPO. The 10.3 million figure is a 105% increase, double the 5 million Starlink had a year ago.
Still, the number is surprising, given that SpaceX said in February that Starlink had crossed 10 million "active customers." However, it never defined exactly what it meant by "active customer" when a household could be sharing a single subscription.
The SEC filing gets more specific, indicating the 10.3 million is for the number of paid Starlink subscriptions the company has across its Residential, Roam and business plans, rather than unique individual customers.
The filing defines a Starlink subscriber as a “unique Service Line that is directly assigned to a Starlink.com account registered to a person or entity that does not have a direct, negotiated agreement with the Starlink sales team." Meanwhile, a Service Line "refers to an individual instance of Starlink broadband internet service provisioned under a subscription plan, generally associated with a specific Starlink User Terminal or group of terminals."
“Starlink Subscribers includes both Personal (e.g., Residential and Roam) and Business (e.g., Local Priority and Global Priority) subscription plans, but does not include managed enterprise and government customers with contracts in domains including aviation, maritime, land mobility, fixed sites and government entities,” the company adds.
SpaceX also points out: "An individual, household, or business may share a single Service Line among multiple end-users. Likewise, an individual, household, or business may maintain multiple service lines." Hence, a user paying for a Residential plan and a Roam plan would count as two Starlink subscribers, the filing states.
(Credit: SpaceX)The filing includes a map showing the usage locations. But even though SpaceX doubled its paying subscriptions, the average revenue per user fell to $66 per month in Q1, down year over year from $86, as the company expanded internationally and offered lower-priced plans.
(SpaceX)
(Credit: SpaceX)The filing also covers SpaceX’s "Connectivity" business, which is “primarily driven by Starlink.” It generated $11.3 billion in revenue last year, up about 50% year over year. Only $4.4 billion is income from operations, up 120% from the previous year. In Q1, the connectivity business generated $1.19 billion in income, up year over year from $1.03 billion.
The connectivity business also made 60% of SpaceX's total $18.7 billion revenue in 2025. But the Elon Musk company isn't profitable. The filing shows that overall SpaceX posted a net income loss of almost $4.3 billion in Q1 alone. For the full year of 2025, the company also recorded a net income loss at $4.9 billion.
On trimming down its costs, the company notes: “As of March 31, 2026, we have reduced the cost of Starlink terminals—achieving an approximately 59% reduction in the average manufacturing cost of a Starlink Kit since 2022.” It says Starlink is also providing median download speeds of 225Mbps during peak hours to residential users, although this likely covers users globally. Ookla finds median download speeds in the US are around 129Mbps.
(Credit: SpaceX)SpaceX’s filing also notes that its satellite-to-phone service, Starlink Mobile, is currently powering “7.4 million monthly unique devices across approximately 30 countries” through partner carriers such as T-Mobile. In addition, Starlink Mobile appeared to rake in $632 million last year under the company's "mobile connectivity business," as spotted by satellite industry analyst Tim Farrar.
Another interesting tidbit is how SpaceX reports holding nearly $12.9 billion in satellite assets while noting the current Starlink constellation reaches about 9,600 sats in size.
The Elon Musk-led company projects that Starlink is facing a total addressable market valued at $870 billion. But SpaceX sees a far larger, $26 trillion market in developing AI, especially for enterprise applications. The company’s next major project is to launch a constellation of orbiting data centers to feed the ongoing AI compute demand.
(Credit: SpaceX)Editor's note: This article has been updated to elaborate on SpaceX's Starlink subscriber definition.