SaaS Statistics 2026
By Axis Intelligence Research
Co-author: Elena Rodriguez, SaaS and Business Software | Last updated: October 1, 2026 | License: CC BY 4.0
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the four-vendor Axis Public SaaS Panel (Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, HubSpot) booked $18,062.0 million of subscription revenue in its latest 2026 quarters, up 14.9% year over year. Gartner expects worldwide software spending to grow 15.5% in 2026. The largest SaaS vendors are growing roughly in line with the market.
Quick Answer: How Big Is SaaS in 2026 and How Fast Is It Growing?
Gartner forecasts worldwide software spending of $1,468 billion in 2026, up 15.5%. Its latest public worldwide SaaS-segment figure is $299.1 billion for 2025, up 19.2%. According to Axis Intelligence Research, the largest public SaaS vendors grew subscription revenue 14.9% in their latest quarters, and they already hold a median 85.1% of next year’s subscription run-rate under contract.
Key Findings
- According to Axis Intelligence Research, combined subscription revenue at Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and HubSpot reached $18,062.0 million in their latest 2026 quarters, up 14.9% year over year.
- Axis Intelligence Research finds the median SaaS Revenue Visibility Ratio (SRVR) is 85.1%: large SaaS vendors have about 85.1 cents of each dollar of next-year subscription run-rate already contracted.
- Gartner forecasts 2026 worldwide software spending of $1,468 billion, up 15.5%, after 13.9% growth in 2025.
- Gartner’s latest public worldwide SaaS forecast puts 2025 end-user SaaS spending at $299.1 billion, up 19.2% from $250.8 billion.
- Axis Intelligence Research estimates Salesforce’s Agentforce and Data 360 ARR of nearly $3.9 billion equals about 8.6% of its annualized revenue run-rate.
How Big Is the SaaS Market in 2026?
Two Gartner numbers frame the market, and they measure different things, so we keep them apart.
The broad number is software. Gartner’s July 27, 2026 IT spending forecast puts worldwide software spending at $1,468 billion in 2026, up 15.5%, from $1,271 billion in 2025, when it grew 13.9%. Total IT spending reaches $6.37 trillion, up 14.2%. That software line includes SaaS, on-premise licenses, infrastructure software and AI model spending.
The narrow number is SaaS itself. Gartner’s most recent public worldwide segment table, in its November 2024 public cloud forecast, puts end-user spending on cloud application services (SaaS) at $299.1 billion in 2025, up 19.2% from $250.8 billion in 2024. Total public cloud spending was forecast at $723.4 billion, up 21.5% from $595.7 billion. This is older data: Gartner has not published a newer worldwide SaaS-segment figure in a public release, and we would rather show a dated primary figure than a fresh-looking estimate from a market-sizing vendor.
SaaS and Software Spending Forecasts (Gartner)
| Measure | Year | Value | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide IT spending | 2026 | $6.37T | 14.2% | Gartner, Jul 2026 |
| Worldwide software spending | 2026 | $1,468B | 15.5% | Gartner, Jul 2026 |
| Worldwide software spending | 2025 | $1,271B | 13.9% | Gartner, Jul 2026 |
| Worldwide public cloud spending | 2025 | $723.4B | 21.5% | Gartner, Nov 2024 [older data] |
| Worldwide SaaS spending | 2025 | $299.1B | 19.2% | Gartner, Nov 2024 [older data] |
| Worldwide SaaS spending | 2024 | $250.8B | n/a | Gartner, Nov 2024 [older data] |
Elena Rodriguez: Most “SaaS market size” figures online disagree with each other because they define SaaS differently and rarely show their work. We anchor on Gartner because its methodology is published and consistent year to year. If you need one number for a board deck, use the $1,468 billion software figure for the market and treat SaaS as the largest delivery model inside it, not a separate universe.
SaaS Spending by Country: Where Is Growth Slowing?
Gartner’s 2026 country forecasts show SaaS growing more slowly than cloud infrastructure everywhere it publishes a breakdown. In India, Gartner’s June 2026 forecast puts SaaS spending at $4,637 million, up 18.9%, while IaaS grows 40.0% and total public cloud reaches $17.5 billion.
Australia shows the maturity curve. Gartner’s May 2026 Australian forecast puts SaaS at A$16,377 million, still the largest cloud category, but growth slows to 13.8% from 15.0% in 2025. Gartner attributes the slowdown to license optimization, slower seat growth and tighter application portfolio scrutiny. IaaS grows 24.1% and total public cloud 17.9%.
| Country | SaaS spending 2026 | SaaS growth 2026 | IaaS growth 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | $4,637M | 18.9% | 40.0% | Gartner, Jun 2026 |
| Australia | A$16,377M | 13.8% | 24.1% | Gartner, May 2026 |
According to Axis Intelligence Research, Australian SaaS growth decelerates by 1.2 points in 2026. The reason Gartner gives, slower seat growth, is the same pressure visible in vendor filings below.
The SaaS Revenue Visibility Ratio (SRVR): How Much Future SaaS Revenue Is Already Contracted?
The SaaS Revenue Visibility Ratio (SRVR) is an original Axis Intelligence Research metric. It answers the question every SaaS investor and CFO asks about a vendor: how much of next year’s subscription revenue is already signed?
Formula: SRVR = current remaining performance obligations (cRPO, contracted revenue to be recognized in the next 12 months) divided by the latest quarterly subscription revenue multiplied by four.
How to read it: An SRVR of 100% would mean the next 12 months of subscription revenue, at today’s run-rate, is fully under contract. Lower readings mean more of next year depends on new sales and on renewals not yet signed. Higher readings mean longer, more committed contracts.
SRVR by Vendor (Latest 2026 Quarter)
| Company | Quarter end | cRPO | Quarterly subscription revenue | SRVR | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workday | 2026-07-31 | $9.034B (12-month backlog) | $2,471M | 91.4% | Workday Q2 FY27 release |
| ServiceNow | 2026-06-30 | $13.20B | $3,877M | 85.1% | ServiceNow Q2 2026 8-K |
| Salesforce | 2026-07-31 | $33.5B | $10,820M | 77.4% | Salesforce Q2 FY27 release |
| Median | 85.1% | Axis Intelligence Research |
According to Axis Intelligence Research, Workday’s 91.4% reflects multi-year HR and finance contracts that rarely churn, and the company states gross revenue retention of 97% on its Q2 FY27 earnings call. Salesforce’s 77.4% is lower because more of its business renews annually and its consumption products bill as used. Adobe and Atlassian disclose cRPO growth but not a cRPO dollar balance in the documents we used, and HubSpot does not disclose cRPO, so all three appear in the dataset as retracted rows rather than estimates.
Elena Rodriguez: SRVR is the number I would want before signing off on any SaaS forecast. At Salesforce, $33.5 billion against a $43.28 billion run-rate means about $9.78 billion of next year still has to be sold or renewed. That gap, not the headline growth rate, is where an AI-driven seat cut would bite first. For the quarter-by-quarter version of that question, our SaaSpocalypse statistics track whether backlog is growing faster or slower than revenue.
Largest Public SaaS Companies by Revenue and Growth (2026)
| Company | Latest quarter | Revenue measure | Value | YoY growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | Q2 FY27 (Jul 31, 2026) | Total revenue | $11,345M | 11% | Salesforce release |
| Adobe | Q3 FY26 (Aug 28, 2026) | Total revenue | $6.76B | 13% | Adobe earnings call |
| ServiceNow | Q2 2026 (Jun 30, 2026) | Subscription revenue | $3,877M | 24.5% | ServiceNow 8-K |
| Workday | Q2 FY27 (Jul 31, 2026) | Total revenue | $2,649M | 12.8% | Workday release |
| Atlassian | Q4 FY26 (Jun 30, 2026) | Total revenue | $1,766M | 28% | Atlassian 8-K |
| HubSpot | Q2 2026 (Jun 30, 2026) | Subscription revenue | $894.0M | 20% | HubSpot 8-K |
Salesforce’s Q2 FY27 earnings release includes a $456 million Informatica contribution, so organic growth is below the 11% headline. ServiceNow’s growth includes the Armis acquisition, which closed early in Q1 2026, per its Q2 2026 Form 8-K. Atlassian’s 28% is lifted by Data Center term-license timing; its Q4 FY26 release shows cloud revenue of $1,213 million, up 31%, and Subscription ARR of $6,606 million, up 23%, which the company calls the cleaner measure.
What Is the Average SaaS Growth Rate in 2026?
According to Axis Intelligence Research, the revenue-weighted subscription growth of the Axis Public SaaS Panel is 14.9%: $18,062.0 million in the latest quarters against $15,716.5 million a year earlier. The panel sums subscription revenue at Salesforce ($10,820 million), ServiceNow ($3,877 million), Workday ($2,471 million) and HubSpot ($894.025 million), the four vendors that report subscription revenue for both periods in their filings.
Set beside Gartner’s 15.5% software growth, the panel runs 0.6 points behind. That compares reported revenue with a spending forecast, two different instruments, so we show them side by side rather than blending them. The direction matters more than the gap: the largest SaaS vendors are holding pace with the market, not losing it.
Forward Guidance (Fiscal 2027)
| Company | Guided metric | Guidance | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce | FY27 revenue | $46.1B to $46.4B | Salesforce Q2 FY27 release |
| Workday | FY27 subscription growth | 13% | Workday Q2 FY27 release |
| Atlassian | FY27 total revenue growth | 13.0% | Atlassian Q4 FY26 letter |
| Atlassian | FY27 Data Center revenue | -17.0% | Atlassian Q4 FY26 letter |
SaaS Retention and Expansion: What Do Vendors Disclose?
Private-company NRR surveys are the most quoted SaaS benchmarks online and the least verifiable. Filed and company-reported figures are fewer, but they are real.
Workday reported gross revenue retention of 97% on its Q2 FY27 earnings call, with expansion from existing customers contributing about 60% of subscription growth. HubSpot’s Q2 2026 release shows 306,446 customers, up 14% from 267,982, a gain of 38,464, while average subscription revenue per customer rose 4% to $11,800 from $11,310. ServiceNow ended Q2 2026 with 658 customers above $5 million in annual contract value, up about 23%. Atlassian ended Q4 FY26 with 57,334 customers above $10,000 in cloud ARR.
| Vendor | Retention or expansion metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workday | Gross revenue retention | 97% | 2026-07-31 | Workday earnings call |
| Workday | Share of subscription growth from existing customers | 60% | 2026-07-31 | Workday earnings call |
| HubSpot | Customer growth | 14% | 2026-06-30 | HubSpot 8-K |
| HubSpot | Average subscription revenue per customer | $11,800 (+4%) | 2026-06-30 | HubSpot 8-K |
| ServiceNow | Customers above $5M ACV | 658 (+23%) | 2026-06-30 | ServiceNow 8-K |
| Atlassian | Customers above $10K cloud ARR | 57,334 | 2026-06-30 | Atlassian Q4 FY26 letter |
Elena Rodriguez: HubSpot is the clearest read on small-business SaaS. Fourteen percent more customers, four percent more revenue per customer: it is winning logos and struggling to expand them. Enterprise vendors show the reverse, fewer new logos, bigger wallets. Pick your benchmark by which of those two businesses you are actually running.
How Is SaaS Pricing Changing in 2026?
The shift from seats to consumption is now visible in revenue disclosures, not just pricing pages. Salesforce reorganized its reporting in Q1 FY27: its seat-heavy Agentforce Apps grew 8% in constant currency in Q2 FY27, while Data 360, Headless Platform and Other, which includes flex-credit consumption, grew 20%. Atlassian sells AI through Rovo credits bundled in its Teamwork Collection.
According to Axis Intelligence Research, that is a 12-point growth gap between seat and consumption revenue inside the largest SaaS vendor. The effect on margins, and the per-company gross margin data behind it, is covered in our SaaSpocalypse statistics.
How Much Revenue Is SaaS Making From AI?
Salesforce reports Agentforce and Data 360 ARR of nearly $3.9 billion, up more than 210%, with Agentforce ARR above $1.5 billion, up more than 240%. Axis Intelligence Research estimates the $3.9 billion equals about 8.6% of Salesforce’s annualized revenue run-rate, an order-of-magnitude comparison between ARR and recognized revenue. Adobe reports total ARR of $27.5 billion, up 11.2%. The agent market behind those numbers is tracked in our AI agents statistics.
| Metric | Value | Growth | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Salesforce Agentforce + Data 360 ARR | ~$3.9B | >210% | 2026-07-31 | Salesforce release |
| Salesforce Agentforce ARR | >$1.5B | >240% | 2026-07-31 | Salesforce release |
| Adobe total ARR | $27.5B | 11.2% | 2026-08-28 | Adobe earnings call |
| Atlassian Subscription ARR | $6,606M | 23% | 2026-06-30 | Atlassian 8-K |
How Many People Work in Software Publishing?
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Industries at a Glance table for publishing industries, the NAICS group that contains software publishers, shows seasonally adjusted employment of 898.1 thousand in May 2026 and a preliminary 883.2 thousand in August 2026. According to Axis Intelligence Research, that is a decline of 14.9 thousand jobs, or 1.66%, in three months within one table vintage. The group also includes newspaper and book publishers, so read it as a sector direction, not a software-only headcount.
Methodology
Sources. Market figures come from Gartner press releases. Vendor figures come from each company’s earnings release, Form 8-K, Form 10-Q or shareholder letter. Adobe and Workday retention figures come from the companies’ own statements on earnings calls and are flagged non-primary. Employment comes from the BLS. No market-sizing aggregators, SaaS management vendors or competitor statistics sites are used.
Axis Public SaaS Panel. Sum of latest-quarter subscription revenue for Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and HubSpot versus the same quarter a year earlier. Fiscal quarters end between June 30 and July 31, 2026. Growth includes acquisitions as reported (Informatica at Salesforce, Armis at ServiceNow).
SRVR. cRPO divided by four times latest-quarter subscription revenue. Workday’s 12-month subscription revenue backlog is treated as cRPO. Vendors without a disclosed cRPO dollar balance receive no reading.
Scope. The panel covers large public vendors; it does not represent private or early-stage SaaS companies. Gartner’s worldwide SaaS-segment figure is a November 2024 forecast and is labeled older data.
Verification. Every number on this page maps to a CSV row. All calculations were re-run in Python. Restated figures owned by our SaaSpocalypse page (AI ARR share, seat-vs-platform gap) match that page exactly.
About This Dataset
The SaaS Statistics 2026 dataset has 143 rows covering Gartner market forecasts, vendor revenue, backlog, retention, customer and AI ARR data, BLS employment and every Axis Intelligence Research calculation, with the formula in the method_note column. Each row carries source organization, document, URL, retrieval date, primary-source flag and axis_calculated flag.
License: CC BY 4.0, with attribution to Axis Intelligence Research.
Updates: Refreshed when a panel vendor reports a quarter, when Gartner publishes a new software or cloud forecast, or when BLS revises the employment series. Next review: after Salesforce’s Q3 FY27 report.
How to Cite This Page
APA: Axis Intelligence Research, & Rodriguez, E. (2026). SaaS statistics 2026: Market size, vendor growth, retention and AI revenue. Axis Intelligence. https://axis-intelligence.com/saas-statistics/
MLA: Axis Intelligence Research, and Elena Rodriguez. “SaaS Statistics 2026: Market Size, Vendor Growth, Retention and AI Revenue.” Axis Intelligence, 1 Oct. 2026, axis-intelligence.com/saas-statistics/.
Chicago: Axis Intelligence Research, and Elena Rodriguez. “SaaS Statistics 2026: Market Size, Vendor Growth, Retention and AI Revenue.” Axis Intelligence, October 1, 2026. https://axis-intelligence.com/saas-statistics/.
Related Axis Intelligence Research
Whether AI is eroding SaaS demand is measured in our SaaSpocalypse statistics. The infrastructure layer underneath SaaS is covered in our cloud computing statistics, cloud cost control in our FinOps statistics, and Oracle’s SaaS and infrastructure split in our Oracle statistics.
FAQ: SaaS Market, Growth and Pricing in 2026
How much will the world spend on software in 2026?
Gartner forecasts worldwide software spending of $1,468 billion in 2026, up 15.5% from $1,271 billion in 2025. Its latest public worldwide SaaS-segment forecast puts 2025 SaaS spending at $299.1 billion.
How fast are the largest SaaS companies growing?
According to Axis Intelligence Research, combined subscription revenue at Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and HubSpot grew 14.9% year over year in their latest 2026 quarters, close to Gartner’s 15.5% software market growth.
What is cRPO in SaaS?
Current remaining performance obligations (cRPO) are contracted revenue a SaaS company expects to recognize over the next 12 months, including billed and unbilled amounts. Salesforce reported cRPO of $33.5 billion, up 14%, as of July 31, 2026.
What is the SaaS Revenue Visibility Ratio (SRVR)?
The SRVR is an Axis Intelligence Research metric that divides cRPO by annualized quarterly subscription revenue. The 2026 median across Workday, ServiceNow and Salesforce is 85.1%, meaning about 85% of next-year run-rate is already contracted.
What is a good gross revenue retention rate for enterprise SaaS?
Workday, one of the most retentive enterprise vendors, reported 97% gross revenue retention in its quarter ended July 31, 2026. Enterprise HR, finance and IT platforms typically sit near that level because switching costs are high.
Is SaaS growth slowing because of AI?
Growth is shifting rather than collapsing. Salesforce’s seat-based apps grew 8% in constant currency against 20% for consumption and data products, and Gartner says Australian SaaS growth slows to 13.8% in 2026 on slower seat growth.
How much do SaaS companies earn from AI?
Salesforce reported Agentforce and Data 360 ARR of nearly $3.9 billion in July 2026, up more than 210%. Axis Intelligence Research estimates that is about 8.6% of its annualized revenue run-rate.
Which country’s SaaS market is growing fastest?
Among Gartner’s 2026 country forecasts, India’s SaaS spending grows 18.9% to $4,637 million, faster than Australia’s 13.8%. In both countries, cloud infrastructure (IaaS) grows faster than SaaS.