Global B2B SaaS Market Size and Spending Statistics for 2026

What Gartner’s 2026 IT Spending Forecast Puts on the Table

Gartner forecasts worldwide IT spending will total $6.31 trillion in 2026, up 13.5% from 2025, according to its April 2026 forecast as reported by Campus Technology.

That total spans categories beyond software. Communications services are forecast at $1.36 trillion, devices at $856 billion, up 8.2%, and data center systems as the fastest-growing category tracked, at 55.8% growth for the year.

Software Spending Specifically: $1.44 Trillion, Not a SaaS-Only Number

Within that $6.31 trillion total, Gartner’s software spending forecast for 2026 sits at $1.44 trillion, a 15.1% year-over-year increase, translating to roughly $190 billion in net new software spend for the year, per SaaStr’s reporting on the same Gartner forecast.

The software category is not a SaaS-specific line item. Gartner’s public forecast tables group SaaS spending together with on-premise deployments and perpetual-license software under one software heading, so $1.44 trillion describes a broader category than global SaaS spending alone.

A Forecast That Keeps Moving: Three Revisions in Seven Months

The 15.1% software-spending growth figure is itself the product of a moving forecast. Gartner’s own number started at 15.2% in an October 2025 release, was trimmed to 14.7% in February 2026, then revised back up to 15.1% by April 2026, the figure this page cites.

Three quarterly revisions inside seven months is a normal cadence for a forecast this size, and it is a reason to treat any single cited figure, including the one on this page, as a dated snapshot rather than a fixed number.

Other 2026 IT Categories Gartner Is Tracking

Devices are forecast at $856 billion for 2026, up 8.2% year over year, and communications services at $1.36 trillion, according to the same Campus Technology reporting on Gartner’s forecast.

Data center systems stand out as the fastest-growing category in the forecast, at 55.8% growth, a pace well ahead of every other category Gartner tracks in the same release, a signal of where infrastructure investment is concentrating this year.

Why the Software Figure Should Not Be Read as a SaaS Figure

A reader looking for a single dollar figure for global SaaS spending will not find one in either number on this page. The $6.31 trillion IT total and the $1.44 trillion software total both bundle in categories, on-premise licenses, perpetual software, IT services adjacent to software, that a SaaS-specific figure would exclude.

Gartner has not published a standalone global SaaS spending line item in the forecasts reviewed for this page. Until it does, the software category total remains the closest available proxy, with that caveat stated plainly rather than implied.

What a $190 Billion Net New Software Budget Means for a SaaS Seller

Roughly $190 billion in net new software spend landing across 2026 is real budget a SaaS company can compete for, spread across a category far larger than SaaS alone, on-premise renewals, perpetual licenses, and infrastructure software are all drawing from the same pool. Winning a share of that budget takes reaching the right buyer early, not waiting for a slower inbound process to surface the opportunity.

Human + AI SDRs run that outreach directly, texting a qualified prospect while a budget decision is still being made rather than after a competitor has already claimed the conversation.

The Numbers

Sources

The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• Campus Technology, Gartner Estimates Worldwide IT Spending at $6.31T for 2026
• SaaStr, Gartner: Software Spend Now $1.44 Trillion in 2026, Revised Back Up to 15.1%

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