Quarter on quarter (QoQ) is the comparison of a figure for one quarter with the figure for the quarter immediately before it, so it measures the sequential change over three months.
The sequential change is the fastest signal in a quarterly series: it shows a turn one quarter after it happens, where a year-on-year comparison needs the whole year to roll through. That speed is also its weakness. A marketplace has a seasonal rhythm, so part of every quarter-on-quarter move is the calendar rather than the business, and a figure that falls every first quarter and rises every fourth is not telling you anything new. Analysts therefore read the sequential change alongside the same quarter's change a year earlier, and companies usually lead with the year-on-year figure in the earnings release and leave the sequential one to the tables.
Two cautions. A sequential percentage compounds: four quarters of 2% growth are not 8% for the year but a little more, and a fall followed by a rise of the same percentage does not get back to where it started. And a one-off item in a single quarter, such as a change in how the take rate is earned, shows up twice, once as a jump and once as a fall the quarter after.
How Upwork Insights uses it
The Pulse page charts every quarter Upwork Inc. has reported since its listing, from the 10-Q and 10-K tables, so the sequential move is visible on the chart; the changes it prints, such as GSV down 10.1% in Q3 2026, are year on year, because the season would otherwise dominate the number. Method in methodology, section 4.