How many employees does Google have? Alphabet headcount by year

This page is for sellers, analysts and anyone who needs a Google headcount they can cite: the latest number, what it counts and how it has moved. Google LLC is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., and Alphabet reports one employee count for the group in its 10-K each year and in each quarterly earnings release, which it files with the SEC on Form 8-K. Every number here comes from those filings.

Google (Alphabet) employees by year

Alphabet reports its year-end headcount, as of December 31, in its 10-K.

Unlike most large employers, Alphabet reports an exact count rather than a rounded one. The changes are our arithmetic.

Google headcount by quarter

Each quarterly earnings release, filed as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K, shows the number of employees at the end of the quarter next to the same quarter a year earlier.

Headcount rose 13,937 (7.3%) in the first nine months of 2026, more than in any full year since 2022. The September 2026 count is 14,523 above the 2022 year-end peak.

What the number includes

• All of Alphabet. The 10-K says "As of December 31, 2025, Alphabet had 190,820 employees." That covers Google Services, Google Cloud and Other Bets (Waymo and Alphabet's other early-stage businesses). The filings don't split headcount by segment, so there is no published count for Google on its own.
• Employees only. Alphabet says it partners "with outside companies on a contractual basis to provide a specialized service or to temporarily cover a short-term need." The staff of those suppliers and staffing partners, and "independent contractors who are self-employed, make up our extended workforce." They are not in the employee count, and the filings don't say how many there are.
• A change of wording in 2020. The 10-Ks up to 2019 gave a count of "full-time employees"; from the 2020 report on, the figure is described simply as employees.
• One worldwide total. There is no US or country split in the filings. The 10-K notes only that Alphabet has "work councils and statutory employee representation obligations in certain countries".
• A point-in-time count on the last day of the period, not an average. Alphabet's own expense discussion uses average headcount, which is why its percentages differ from changes in this table.

What changed and why

2018 to 2022: four years of hiring

Headcount nearly doubled in four years. In July 2022 Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet and Google, told staff (in a message Alphabet filed on Form 8-K) that "In Q2 alone, we added approximately 10,000 Googlers" and that Google would be "slowing the pace of hiring for the rest of the year." The 2022 10-K ties expense growth to rises in average headcount of 21% in research and development and 19% in sales and marketing.

2023: the first fall

On January 20, 2023, Alphabet filed Pichai's message that "We've decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles." The 2022 10-K expected "employee severance and related charges of $1.9 billion to $2.3 billion." The 2023 10-K recorded severance and related charges of $2.1 billion for the year and $1.8 billion of exit charges as it moved to "optimize our global office space." Headcount ended 2023 down 7,732, fewer than the 12,000 roles announced. The 10-K doesn't reconcile the two: a net change also reflects everyone hired, and everyone who left for other reasons, during the year.

2024 to 2026: back to growth

Headcount was flat in 2024 (+821), grew 7,497 in 2025 and has grown faster in 2026. The 2025 10-K says competition "for qualified employees, particularly AI talent, is intense," and attributes most of the rise in research and development expense to employee compensation.

Revenue per employee

Alphabet's 2025 revenues were $402,836 million. Divided by the year-end headcount, that's $402,836 million ÷ 190,820 = about $2.11 million per employee (our calculation).

By segment, Google Services brought in $342,721 million in 2025 (85% of revenues), Google Cloud $58,705 million (15%) and Other Bets $1,537 million. Because headcount isn't reported by segment, a per-segment ratio can't be worked out from the filings. By geography, the 10-K puts 48% of 2025 revenues in the United States, 29% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 17% in Asia-Pacific and 6% in other Americas. The ratio uses a year-end count and leaves out the extended workforce; for companies measured the same way, see the highest revenue per employee list.

Selling to a company this size

General guidance on how organizations of 200,000 people buy, not a description of Alphabet's internal processes.

• Pick the business first. Google Services, Google Cloud and each Other Bet run their own budgets and priorities. A tool that helps an ads team says nothing to a self-driving car company in the same group.
• Expect a supplier process. A company that uses an extended workforce of vendors and staffing partners has a mature supplier program, with codes of conduct, security reviews and onboarding steps. Plan the time for it.
• Land with one team. Win where the problem is sharpest and use that result to reach the next team: the land and expand motion.
• Name the people. Work out who signs, who uses and who can block. Our guide to enterprise account research shows how to map a large account.

At this scale, finding the team that owns your problem is most of the work. Bebop researches each account and suggests who to talk to and the angle to open with; check what it finds against the company's filings.

How to check Google's headcount yourself

1. Search SEC EDGAR for Alphabet Inc. (CIK 1652044) and open the latest 10-K, filed each year in late January or early February.
2. Search the document for "employees". The count and date are in a one-line sentence ("As of December 31, 2025, Alphabet had 190,820 employees").
3. For a newer figure, open the latest 8-K that lists Item 2.02, then Exhibit 99.1, and find "Number of employees" in the table of revenues, traffic acquisition costs and employees.

Next step: see how Alphabet compares with other big US employers in the largest employers in the US.