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    You're viewing the current Q4 2026 edition. It updates during the quarter. See the current index →

    The SaaS Spend Index (Q4 2026)

    UK · GBP · Sep 2026

    £73k

    Median annual software spend per company

    The middle half of companies in the Cledara-observed UK buyer sample paid between £29k and £157k for software subscriptions over the observed trailing 12 months, with a median of £73k. New buyers may have less than a full year of observed payments.

    Median paid tools per company
    33
    Year-on-year change in monthly median spend
    up 21%
    Currency basis
    GBP · no FX conversion

    The SaaS Spend Index tracks what companies actually pay for software, measured from real, anonymized company payments on Cledara — not list prices or surveys. The observed trailing-year median is 33 paid tools per company. Reported separately for UK (GBP), EEA (EUR) and US (USD) buyers, with no currency conversion. Observations through Sep 2026. Publication updated . The Cledara-observed buyer population can change between periods; these are not national-market estimates or a fixed panel of the same companies.

    The SaaS Spend Index — UK

    In Sep 2026, median monthly software subscription spend in the Cledara-observed UK buyer sample is up 21% versus the same month a year earlier. The buyers observed in each month can differ.

    Jul 2020Aug 2021Sep 2022Oct 2023Nov 2024Dec 2025045090013501800

    Median per-company software spend, indexed to 100 at Jul 2020. Headline line is a trailing 3-month rolling median; the faint line shows raw monthly values. Months with incomplete data coverage are excluded and shown as gaps.

    View the index as a table
    MonthSpend index (100 = baseline)Raw monthly index
    Jul 2020100100
    Aug 2020109117
    Sep 2020117144
    Oct 2020144199
    Nov 2020180180
    Dec 2020195195
    Jan 2021195276
    Feb 2021276277
    Mar 2021277311
    Apr 2021277259
    May 2021259257
    Jun 2021259334
    Jul 2021334434
    Aug 2021434437
    Sep 2021434279
    Oct 2021407407
    Nov 2021407474
    Dec 2021474621
    Jan 2022——
    Feb 2022——
    Mar 2022——
    Apr 2022——
    May 2022——
    Jun 2022——
    Jul 2022——
    Aug 2022——
    Sep 2022——
    Oct 2022——
    Nov 2022——
    Dec 2022——
    Jan 202312301230
    Feb 202312121194
    Mar 202312001200
    Apr 202311941078
    May 202312001218
    Jun 202312181224
    Jul 202312241341
    Aug 202313101310
    Sep 202313101293
    Oct 202313101372
    Nov 202313721381
    Dec 202313721352
    Jan 202413811527
    Feb 202415221522
    Mar 202415221507
    Apr 202415071404
    May 202415021502
    Jun 202415021582
    Jul 202415231523
    Aug 202415371537
    Sep 202415231400
    Oct 202414411441
    Nov 202414061406
    Dec 202414411444
    Jan 202514441478
    Feb 202514441398
    Mar 202513981387
    Apr 202513871336
    May 202513451345
    Jun 202513451362
    Jul 202513451333
    Aug 202513621445
    Sep 202514451464
    Oct 202514641480
    Nov 202514641413
    Dec 202514801510
    Jan 202615101601
    Feb 202616011602
    Mar 202616021615
    Apr 202616151677
    May 202616151587
    Jun 202616411641
    Jul 202616411704
    Aug 202616411543
    Sep 202617041769

    How much companies spend on software

    The middle half of companies in the Cledara-observed UK buyer sample paid between £29k and £157k for software subscriptions over the observed trailing 12 months, with a median of £73k. New buyers may have less than a full year of observed payments.

    P25
    £29k
    per year
    Median
    £73k
    per year
    P75
    £157k
    per year
    Annual spend source table
    Annual software spend per company (UK, GBP)
    P25MedianP75
    £29k£73k£157k

    Companies in the Cledara-observed UK buyer sample paid for a median of 33 tools over the trailing 12 months (17–46 for the middle half). Payments do not establish active product usage.

    Categories with the fastest-rising spend

    Estimated annualized category spend: the latest complete month's per-company spend distribution multiplied by 12. This is not a measured trailing-year total. Year-on-year change compares monthly medians.

    CategoryP25 /yearMedian /yearP75 /yearYoYTrend
    AI Platforms & Model Ops£4k£13k£40kup 488%
    Operations & Supply Chain£1k£3k£9kup 66%
    Marketing & Growth£3k£11k£31kup 28%
    Engineering & DevOps£2k£8k£22kup 7%
    Sales & Revenue£1k£3k£9kup 6%
    Finance & Accounting£2k£4k£8kup 5%
    Legal, Risk & Compliance£0k£1k£4kup 4%
    IT & Security£1k£3k£9kflat
    Data & Analytics£1k£4k£13kdown 3%
    Collaboration & Productivity£10k£21k£50kdown 3%
    Customer Success & Support£1k£4k£12kdown 11%
    People Ops & Talent£2k£5k£12kdown 14%

    Inferred usage-based billing

    In 2026-09, 27% of clean positive software-subscription payment days meet the published payment-cadence rule. This is a conservative inference, not confirmed vendor billing terms; retries, top-ups and prorated charges can produce similar patterns.

    Conservative payment-cadence proxy, not confirmed usage billing. Positive software-subscription payment days are grouped by subscription, buyer, vendor, currency geography and declared periodicity. Same-day charges collapse; repeated equal amounts within three days are treated as possible retries. Credits reset the evidence window. At least three clean payment days and two unusually short gaps are required, with short gaps a strict majority of the latest six gaps. A gap must be at least two days and shorter than the calendar interval by more than the greater of two days or 20%. Each observation uses only payments recorded on or before that day. Proration, timing changes and unidentified retries can still affect the inference.

    Sep 2024Feb 2025Jul 2025Dec 2025May 20260%7%14%21%28%
    View the inferred billing data
    Inferred cadence share of clean positive software-subscription payment days
    MonthShare (%)
    Sep 202419%
    Oct 202420%
    Nov 202420%
    Dec 202419%
    Jan 202520%
    Feb 202520%
    Mar 202521%
    Apr 202522%
    May 202522%
    Jun 202522%
    Jul 202522%
    Aug 202522%
    Sep 202523%
    Oct 202523%
    Nov 202523%
    Dec 202523%
    Jan 202623%
    Feb 202624%
    Mar 202625%
    Apr 202625%
    May 202626%
    Jun 202627%
    Jul 202627%
    Aug 202626%
    Sep 202627%

    Benchmarks in other currencies

    Each geography uses its native currency. These are separate populations; their amounts are never added together or converted.

    EEA benchmarks · EUR

    EEA median annual software spend per company: €60k.

    Trailing-year software spend per company (EUR)
    P25MedianP75
    €15k€60k€161k

    Median paid tools per company: 28 (12–44 for the middle half).

    Spend index baseline: 100 at Jul 2021. Missing observations appear as gaps.

    Published monthly software spend index (EUR)
    MonthHeadline indexRaw index
    Jul 2021100100
    Aug 2021127154
    Sep 2021116116
    Oct 2021154160
    Nov 2021148148
    Dec 2021157157
    Jan 2022——
    Feb 2022——
    Mar 2022——
    Apr 2022——
    May 2022——
    Jun 2022——
    Jul 2022——
    Aug 2022——
    Sep 2022——
    Oct 2022——
    Nov 2022——
    Dec 2022——
    Jan 2023277277
    Feb 2023270263
    Mar 2023268268
    Apr 2023268282
    May 2023282304
    Jun 2023——
    Jul 2023——
    Aug 2023——
    Sep 2023158158
    Oct 2023204250
    Nov 2023250269
    Dec 2023269285
    Jan 2024285349
    Feb 2024349374
    Mar 2024374395
    Apr 2024375375
    May 2024375369
    Jun 2024375402
    Jul 2024369360
    Aug 2024360333
    Sep 2024358358
    Oct 2024336336
    Nov 2024336332
    Dec 2024336344
    Jan 2025344387
    Feb 2025366366
    Mar 2025387404
    Apr 2025366342
    May 2025342323
    Jun 2025327327
    Jul 2025323317
    Aug 2025327333
    Sep 2025330330
    Oct 2025333333
    Nov 2025333357
    Dec 2025357397
    Jan 2026396396
    Feb 2026396350
    Mar 2026396405
    Apr 2026400400
    May 2026400356
    Jun 2026400442
    Jul 2026413413
    Aug 2026426426
    Sep 2026426462

    Category figures are annualized monthly distributions ×12, rather than trailing-year totals.

    Estimated annualized category spend (EUR)
    CategoryP25MedianP75Monthly median YoY
    AI Platforms & Model Ops€7k€21k€59kup 625%
    Engineering & DevOps€4k€11k€32kup 30%
    Sales & Revenue€2k€4k€10kup 19%
    IT & Security€1k€4k€9kup 16%
    Data & Analytics€1k€5k€17kup 14%
    Marketing & Growth€3k€10k€26kup 11%
    Collaboration & Productivity€6k€16k€43kdown 2%
    Finance & Accounting€2k€3k€6kdown 4%
    Operations & Supply Chain€1k€3k€6kdown 6%
    Customer Success & Support€2k€5k€11kdown 7%
    People Ops & Talent€1k€4k€12kdown 12%
    Legal, Risk & Compliance€0k€1k€2kdown 24%
    US benchmarks · USD

    US median annual software spend per company: $145k.

    Trailing-year software spend per company (USD)
    P25MedianP75
    $61k$145k$351k

    Median paid tools per company: 34 (21–52 for the middle half).

    Spend index baseline: 100 at Jan 2023. Missing observations appear as gaps.

    Published monthly software spend index (USD)
    MonthHeadline indexRaw index
    Jan 2023100100
    Feb 2023122144
    Mar 2023128128
    Apr 2023139139
    May 2023139148
    Jun 2023148149
    Jul 2023149149
    Aug 2023149169
    Sep 2023161161
    Oct 2023169180
    Nov 2023178178
    Dec 2023178171
    Jan 2024178186
    Feb 2024186192
    Mar 2024186185
    Apr 2024185173
    May 2024185199
    Jun 2024188188
    Jul 2024199204
    Aug 2024204204
    Sep 2024204218
    Oct 2024204202
    Nov 2024202185
    Dec 2024196196
    Jan 2025196235
    Feb 2025220220
    Mar 2025220214
    Apr 2025214207
    May 2025214242
    Jun 2025207203
    Jul 2025227227
    Aug 2025227230
    Sep 2025230249
    Oct 2025230227
    Nov 2025239239
    Dec 2025227220
    Jan 2026239251
    Feb 2026251261
    Mar 2026251246
    Apr 2026261274
    May 2026246245
    Jun 2026245239
    Jul 2026245281
    Aug 2026281302
    Sep 2026281237

    Category figures are annualized monthly distributions ×12, rather than trailing-year totals.

    Estimated annualized category spend (USD)
    CategoryP25MedianP75Monthly median YoY
    AI Platforms & Model Ops$9k$36k$113kup 383%
    Sales & Revenue$4k$13k$20kup 117%
    Data & Analytics$4k$11k$28kup 58%
    Operations & Supply Chain$1k$2k$6kup 34%
    IT & Security$1k$5k$15kup 21%
    Customer Success & Support$1k$6k$17kup 17%
    Engineering & DevOps$7k$21k$59kup 7%
    Marketing & Growth$7k$19k$54kup 1%
    Collaboration & Productivity$12k$34k$91kdown 6%
    People Ops & Talent$3k$10k$18kdown 9%
    Finance & Accounting$3k$6k$12kdown 16%
    Legal, Risk & Compliance$0k$1k$3kdown 45%

    Methodology

    Source: anonymized software subscription payments managed through Cledara. Observed trailing-year totals are distinct from category estimates, which annualize the latest monthly distribution. Population and payment coverage can change; these are not representative national-market estimates.

    Currencies are never converted or blended. UK buyers are reported in GBP, EEA buyers in EUR and US buyers in USD, so each figure is a true single-currency measurement rather than an FX-blended estimate.

    Every figure aggregates at least 20 companies, and we publish only the 25th percentile, the median and the 75th percentile — never averages, extreme percentiles, or any individual company's data.

    Coverage gate: a month enters the index only when its transaction data covers at least 90% of calendar days, including observations near the start and end of the month. Months with incomplete coverage are excluded entirely and appear as gaps in the chart — the line is never interpolated across missing months.

    Smoothing: the headline index line is a trailing 3-month rolling median of the monthly figures, which damps single-month noise. The raw monthly values are shown as a faint underlay so nothing is hidden.

    We do not claim to measure vendor list prices, and no individual company is ever identifiable in any figure on this page.

    How does your company compare?

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    Frequently asked questions

    How much do companies spend on software in 2026?

    The Cledara-observed UK buyer sample has median trailing-year software subscription payments of £73k and a median of 33 paid tools (GBP) through Sep 2026. New buyers may have less than a full year of recorded payments. Publication updated 25 October 2026, 12:33 UTC; currencies are separate with no FX conversion.

    Is software spend going up or down?

    In Sep 2026, median monthly software subscription spend in the Cledara-observed UK buyer sample (GBP) is up 21% versus the same month a year earlier. The observed buyers can differ between periods. The highest published category change is AI Platforms & Model Ops at up 488% YoY in Sep 2026.

    Where does this spend data come from?

    From anonymized software subscription payments managed through Cledara. Annual benchmarks sum the observed trailing year; category estimates annualize the observed month. Population and coverage can change, and payment activity does not establish usage or a representative national market. Individual companies are never identified.

    Why are UK, EEA and US spend shown separately?

    Because they are paid in GBP, EUR and USD. We never convert between currencies, so each figure is a true single-currency measurement rather than an FX-blended estimate.

    Related data

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