# Cost of revenue

> The direct costs of producing the goods and services a company sold in a period.

Updated Oct 17, 2026.

Cost of revenue is what it cost a company to produce the goods and services it sold in a period: materials, factory labour, freight, the servers that run a software service, and similar direct costs. Filings also call it cost of sales or cost of goods sold.

## How Listed shows it

As reported, from the income statement in the 10-Q or 10-K. The usual XBRL concepts are `CostOfRevenue` and `CostOfGoodsAndServicesSold`, and `CostOfSales` for IFRS filers. Q4 is derived as the fiscal year less the first three quarters.

## What to check

What goes into cost of revenue is the company's choice, within the accounting rules. Some companies include depreciation and the amortization of acquired intangibles; others report them on separate lines and say so ("exclusive of depreciation"). Two companies in the same industry can have different costs of revenue for the same economics. Read the line's description on the face of the income statement.

## When it says "not reported"

- The company does not present cost of revenue. Banks, insurers and many service companies do not.
- The company presents its expenses by their nature (staff costs, materials, depreciation) rather than by function, which some IFRS filers do.
- The company tags it with a concept of its own.

## Related terms

- [Revenue](/glossary/revenue.md)
- [Gross profit](/glossary/gross-profit.md)
- [Gross margin](/glossary/gross-margin.md)
- [Operating income](/glossary/operating-income.md)

All terms: [/glossary.md](/glossary.md)