What was the total revenue for VMware in Q3 2021 
 to deliver a single platform to automate and orchestrate all workloads running on its core networks across Europe, starting with 5G stand-alone. This recent work builds on Vodafone's previous selection of VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure as its network functions virtualization platform.
In the third quarter, VMware received additional recognition from leading industry analyst firms, once again being named as a leader in the August 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management Tools. Additionally, VMware was once again named a leader in the September 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure. Our innovation engine is thriving as we bought many of these new offerings, features, beta programs and partnerships to the forefront during VMworld 2021, which attracted approximately 116,000 registrants. We look forward to hosting VMworld China and VMworld Japan in the coming weeks.
Our environmental, social and governance agenda continues to be very important to us and core to our culture. VMware received recognition for our ESG leadership by being included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, one of the world's leading ESG benchmarks for the second consecutive year.
In summary, we strive to serve our customers in three unique ways: by being the trusted foundation for their most critical business operations; by offering a best-of-breed, innovative portfolio of best-in-class solutions to fulfill their multi-cloud vision; and by having a broad set of strategic partnerships required to unlock the full potential of multi-cloud.
I'll now turn it over to Zane for more detail on our business performance, as well as our forecast.
Zane Rowe -- Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
Thank you, Raghu. We are pleased with our Q3 financial performance, which exceeded our initial expectations and is a continuation of the good performance we've seen all year. We saw solid demand in the quarter and continued to execute on our multi-cloud strategy.
Total revenue for Q3 was $3.2 billion. Combined subscription and SaaS and license revenue grew 16% year-over-year totaling $1.5 billion, ahead of our guidance. Subscription and SaaS revenue of $820 million was up 21% year-over-year, in line with our expectations, representing 26% of total revenue for the quarter. Subscription and SaaS ARR was $3.3 billion, up 25% year-over-year in Q3. Our largest contributors to subscription and SaaS were VCPP, Tanzu, EUC, Carbon Black and VMware Cloud on AWS, which saw strong double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue and ARR. License revenue in Q3 grew 11% year-over-year to $710 million. The strength we saw was due to good execution in the quarter and our broad installed base of customers that see us as the trusted ally for their mission-critical workloads. Our strategy is resonating with our customers who are confident that their investments can be leveraged over the longer-term in multi-cloud environments.
Our non-GAAP operating income for the quarter of $935 million was driven by our revenue performance and lower-than-expected growth in expenses. Non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 29.3% with non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.72 on a share count of 422 million diluted shares.
We ended the quarter with $10.2 billion in unearned revenue and $12.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, which includes proceeds from our $6 billion bond issuance. The bond issuance proceeds together with $4 billion of additional borrowings from term loan commitments, as well as other available cash on hand was used to fund a special dividend of $11.5 billion. The special dividend was paid on November 1 to all stockholders of record on October 29 in conjunction with our spin-off from Dell Technologies.
Q3 cash flow from operations was $1,090 million and free cash flow was $984 million. RPO was $11.1 billion, up 9% year-over-year, and current RPO was $6.2 billion, up 11% year-over-year. Total backlog was $124 million, substantially all of which consisted of orders received on the last three days of the quart
 to deliver a single platform to automate and orchestrate all workloads running on its core networks across Europe, starting with 5G stand-alone. This recent work builds on Vodafone's previous selection of VMware Telco Cloud Infrastructure as its network functions virtualization platform.
In the third quarter, VMware received additional recognition from leading industry analyst firms, once again being named as a leader in the August 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Endpoint Management Tools. Additionally, VMware was once again named a leader in the September 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Edge Infrastructure. Our innovation engine is thriving as we bought many of these new offerings, features, beta programs and partnerships to the forefront during VMworld 2021, which attracted approximately 116,000 registrants. We look forward to hosting VMworld China and VMworld Japan in the coming weeks.
Our environmental, social and governance agenda continues to be very important to us and core to our culture. VMware received recognition for our ESG leadership by being included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, one of the world's leading ESG benchmarks for the second consecutive year.
In summary, we strive to serve our customers in three unique ways: by being the trusted foundation for their most critical business operations; by offering a best-of-breed, innovative portfolio of best-in-class solutions to fulfill their multi-cloud vision; and by having a broad set of strategic partnerships required to unlock the full potential of multi-cloud.
I'll now turn it over to Zane for more detail on our business performance, as well as our forecast.
Zane Rowe -- Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President
Thank you, Raghu. We are pleased with our Q3 financial performance, which exceeded our initial expectations and is a continuation of the good performance we've seen all year. We saw solid demand in the quarter and continued to execute on our multi-cloud strategy.
 Total revenue for Q3 was $3.2 billion. Combined subscription and SaaS and license revenue grew 16% year-over-year totaling $1.5 billion, ahead of our guidance. Subscription and SaaS revenue of $820 million was up 21% year-over-year, in line with our expectations, representing 26% of total revenue for the quarter. Subscription and SaaS ARR was $3.3 billion, up 25% year-over-year in Q3. Our largest contributors to subscription and SaaS were VCPP, Tanzu, EUC, Carbon Black and VMware Cloud on AWS, which saw strong double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue and ARR. License revenue in Q3 grew 11% year-over-year to $710 million. The strength we saw was due to good execution in the quarter and our broad installed base of customers that see us as the trusted ally for their mission-critical workloads. Our strategy is resonating with our customers who are confident that their investments can be leveraged over the longer-term in multi-cloud environments.
Our non-GAAP operating income for the quarter of $935 million was driven by our revenue performance and lower-than-expected growth in expenses. Non-GAAP operating margin for the quarter was 29.3% with non-GAAP earnings per share of $1.72 on a share count of 422 million diluted shares.
We ended the quarter with $10.2 billion in unearned revenue and $12.5 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments, which includes proceeds from our $6 billion bond issuance. The bond issuance proceeds together with $4 billion of additional borrowings from term loan commitments, as well as other available cash on hand was used to fund a special dividend of $11.5 billion. The special dividend was paid on November 1 to all stockholders of record on October 29 in conjunction with our spin-off from Dell Technologies.
Q3 cash flow from operations was $1,090 million and free cash flow was $984 million. RPO was $11.1 billion, up 9% year-over-year, and current RPO was $6.2 billion, up 11% year-over-year. Total backlog was $124 million, substantially all of which consisted of orders received on the last three days of the quart