As we’ve seen with incidents in Lewiston, Maine and Monterey Park, California, mass shooters may attempt to enter a facility with a gun brandished. Evolv Extend provides an opportunity to use video-based AI to identify this critical threat vector and create time to potentially prevent an incident. This innovation aims to provide crucial timely information to first reactors operating the Evolv Express system, enabling them to swiftly respond to visible guns. In a world where rapid response are vital in preventing gun violence, this technology becomes absolutely paramount. We partnered with Omnilert integrating their AI visual gun detection software, Omnilert Gun Detect, with Evolv Express. Using high resolution 4K cameras and AI, this system can identify brandished guns at distances up to 100 feet outside the building and can quickly transmit images and live video footage to security staff or first reactors for quick evaluation and yes, decision making.
This early warning system empowers security operators to initiate appropriate actions at the threatened entrance and implement emergency procedures promptly, which in turn provides enhanced safety and security. During the quarter, we also introduced Express 7.0, our latest version of our AI-based detection algorithm and updated tablet software. These upgrades, which are available to all of our customers, are available through our cloud-based SaaS model and continue to set Evolv apart from others in the marketplace. Key advancements with 7.0 include a new tablet interface, which offers a simplified home screen, a more efficient identification of alerting individuals, improved alert resolution workflow and a more visually appealing and intuitive user interface.
7.0 also offers an updated detection algorithm, which further enhances our ability to detect potential threats while simultaneously reducing the frequency of targeted nuisance alarms. The combination of our accelerating customer deployments and the overall growth in gun ownership are driving the collection of an unprecedented amount of visitor data across our customer base. With our advanced AI-based algorithms, we’re able to leverage this data and over time improve our detection accuracy, which we believe makes our customers’ venues safer. We are absolutely pleased to report that our customers used Evolv Express to tag nearly 300,000 guns and knives through the first nine months of 2023. Q3 was another strong quarter for the business like every key measure that we can look at.
We’re focused at delivering a solid finish here in Q4 and getting off to a strong start in 2024. We’re optimistic for our prospects moving forward and remain committed to our mission. The market for AI-based weapons detection is one of the largest and fastest growing markets across the technology space and we’re well-positioned as its leader with over 4,000 units deployed representing a penetration rate today of less than 1% and we’re just getting started. We’re focused on leveraging our first-mover advantage to capture the market and effectively scale the business. With that, let me turn things over to Mark, who will take you through our financial results and our outlook. Mark?
Mark Donohue: Thanks, Peter, and good afternoon, everyone. I’m going to review our third quarter results in more detail and then walk through our business outlook for 2023 and share some thoughts on how we’re thinking about 2024. As Peter mentioned, total revenue was $20.2 million, up 22% year-over-year. Our revenue growth was again fueled by strong new customer acquisition activity and the rapid growth of revenue generating subscriptions. Annual recurring revenue or ARR at September 30, 2023 was $65.8 million, reflecting growth of 129% year-over-year and 21% sequentially. Total recurring revenue during the third quarter of 2023 was $14.4 million, compared to $6.2 million in the third quarter of 2022 reflecting growth of 131% year-over-year.
Our total number of revenue generating subscriptions increased to 4,014 at the end of Q3 2023 compared to 1,692 at the end of Q3 2022. This was the primary driver of the strong growth in recurring revenues. Adjusted gross margin, which excludes stock-based compensation, was 57% in the third quarter of 2023, compared to 3% in the third quarter of last year and 38% in the second quarter of this year. Our improved gross profit and gross margin primarily reflects growing demand for our distributor model, which accounted for nearly 30% of all units booked in the third quarter. Adjusted operating expenses; which excludes stock-based compensation, loss on impairment of equipment and certain other onetime expenses; were $25.2 million, compared to $19.8 million in the third quarter of last year and $23.7 million in the second quarter of this year.
