- General Motors announced $5.4 billion in revenue from OnStar and Super Cruise in 2025.
- The Detroit automaker ended 2025 with more than 620,000 Super Cruise subscribers, an 80% increase from 2024.
- At the same time, Super Cruise only drove about $234 million in revenue by the end of 2025.
General Motors' headline to investors today is that it weathered uneven electric-vehicle demand, regulatory whiplash, and a challenging tariff environment better than most automakers did in 2025. But one of its bigger wins from last year didn't come from selling cars.
Ahead of its fourth-quarter and 2025 annual earnings call today, GM announced that its software and subscription business is quickly gaining steam. The automaker said that last year, it recorded $5.4 billion in deferred revenue (meaning unearned revenue over time, through a recurring service) from its various OnStar-related connected services. These include various safety systems, in-car WiFi, access to audio streaming apps and more. GM is projecting deferred revenue from software to rise to $7.5 billion in 2026.
The bigger news, however, may be the user growth of Super Cruise, GM's hands-free highway automated driving assistance system (ADAS). GM says it ended 2025 with more than 620,000 Super Cruise subscribers, up 80% from the previous year. Super Cruise allows a driver to take their hands off the wheel while they monitor the road on more than 750,000 miles of mapped roads in the U.S. and Canada. By 2028, GM aims to take the technology "eyes-off" as well, starting with the lidar-equipped Cadillac Escalade IQ.
"When we sell a vehicle with Super Cruise, we include three years of prepaid services on that, so that balances over a three-year period," GM CFO Paul Jacobson said on today's earnings call. "So what you're seeing is growth in those initial rates as we ramp up production and sales of vehicles equipped with Super Cruise."
But Jacobson added that subscription renewals are on the rise as well. After three years, the "low 40% range" of customers opts to keep paying for it, he said.
On today's investor call, GM CEO Mary Barra declined to elaborate on what features might be added to Super Cruise over time as the company works toward eyes-off ADAS. "We have a roadmap that we're working through, where we continue to expand and add more features that we haven't announced yet," Barra said. "Stay tuned on that."
GM also said that it's driving revenue through Super Cruise in used vehicle purchases, an area where automakers typically don't make money, aside from parts for repairs.
At the same time, Super Cruise generated $234 million in revenue in 2025. While GM said that number is expected to rise to "almost $400 million" in 2026, it's a long way to go to recoup the presumably copious investments in autonomous technology, including its now-scrapped Cruise robotaxi service.
But for GM’s balance sheet, the subscription and Super Cruise revenue growth shows progress toward what nearly every automaker now wants: making money beyond just selling cars one at a time. The global auto industry is chasing tech company-like valuations and seeking recurring revenue through subscriptions and software.
With this level of connectivity, GM hopes to add more digital features and upgrades to cars over time. "OnStar is really laying the foundation for ... software-defined vehicles down the road," Jacobson said.
That will no doubt be on the minds of many investors and auto industry observers this year, including at Tesla's earnings call on Wednesday. The electric automaker, which just lost its EV sales crown to BYD amid a pivot away from new models toward autonomous driving, recently ended its Autopilot features in an apparent push toward subscription Full Self-Driving (Supervised). FSD costs $99 per month to use, but CEO Elon Musk has said that price will rise as "capabilities improve."
Many automakers are building similar playbooks around subscription features. Hands-free highway driving is among the top-requested features for car owners. On a compatible GM vehicle, Super Cruise costs about $40 per month, but it can also be bundled as a free trial.
In many instances, however, customers have balked at paying subscription fees for features that were once included upfront with their car purchase. BMW drew considerable ire from its drivers several years ago after charging a subscription fee for heated seats in some markets, leading it to quickly backtrack.
GM's decision not to use Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in its EVs—and over time, in its gas-powered cars too—has proven extremely controversial. In place of the popular smartphone mirroring systems, GM's EV proprieatry software uses various third-party apps like Spotify and Apple Music, but various features still require a paid subscription.
Meanwhile, GM reported adjusted earnings of $12.7 billion in 2025, a 15% decline compared to 2024. GM also incurred $3.1 billion in losses over new tariffs implemented by the Trump administration.
Still, it finished the year on the higher end of its guidance, even as it recorded a $6 billion loss to dial back EV production with demand expected to slow without the $7,500 tax credit.
"We continue to believe in EVs, and our portfolio brought almost 100,000 new customers to GM in 2025," Barra said in a letter to shareholders. "We know these drivers do not often go back to gas, so we will continue executing our plan to reduce EV-related costs, and we remain confident in our path to EV profitability."
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
