By Aijaz Alam
How much do companies spend on SaaS per employee?
Median SaaS spend was $9,455 per employee in 2025, according to Zylo's 2026 SaaS Management Index, built from its customers' data (40 million licenses, $75 billion in spend). That is a median; Zylo's previous index gave an average of $4,830 for 2024, a different measure. On average, 36% of licenses went unused.
- $9,455Median SaaS spend per employeeZylo 2026 index, 2025 customer data (vendor)
- 36%Of SaaS licenses go unused on averageZylo, against recommended use levels
- 81%Of SaaS spend is controlled by business units; IT manages 15%Zylo 2026 index
- 108%Rise in spend on AI-native apps in a year393% in organizations with 10,000+ employees
- 78%Of IT leaders were hit by unexpected AI or usage-based chargesZylo survey of 218 IT leaders
The numbers
The full breakdown
Zylo SaaS Management Index 2026: key figures (2025 data)
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Median SaaS spend per employee | $9,455 |
| SaaS licenses left unused, on average | 36% |
| Share of SaaS spend controlled by business units | 81% |
| Share of SaaS spend managed directly by IT | 15% |
| Growth in spend on AI-native apps, all organizations | 108% |
| Growth in spend on AI-native apps, organizations with 10,000+ employees | 393% |
| Growth in expense-based SaaS spend (ChatGPT the most expensed app) | 267% |
| Apps added per month in large enterprises, on average | 21 |
Zylo customer data: more than 40 million SaaS licenses and $75 billion in spend under management. Unused licenses are measured against industry-recommended use levels. Vendor data, not a random sample of companies.
IT leaders and SaaS costs, last 12 months
| IT leaders who | Share |
|---|---|
| Faced unexpected charges from consumption-based or AI pricing | 78% |
| Had to cut projects because of unplanned SaaS cost increases | 61% |
Zylo survey of 218 IT leaders, published with the 2026 index (29 Jan 2026).
Zylo's last three SaaS Management Index releases
| Measure | 2024 index (Feb 2024) | 2025 index (Jan 2025) | 2026 index (Jan 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS spend under Zylo's management | $34 billion | $40 billion | $75 billion |
| SaaS licenses in the data | 30 million+ | 40 million+ | 40 million+ |
| Unused licenses | $18 million a year wasted on average; 49% of licenses used | $21 million a year wasted on unused licenses, on average | 36% of licenses unused, on average |
| Who controls SaaS spend | Not stated | Lines of business 70%, IT 26.1% | Business units 81%, IT 15% |
| Growth in AI-native app spend | Not stated | 75.2% | 108% |
Each release covers the previous year's customer data. The customer base and the measures change between releases (average in 2025, median in 2026; wasted dollars vs share of licenses unused), so read across a row with care: it is not a trend.
Average SaaS spend and apps per company, by size (2024 data)
| Company size | Average SaaS spend a year | Average number of apps |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest band (Zylo: "1-500") | $11.5 million | 152 |
| 10,000+ employees | $284 million | 660 |
Zylo SaaS Management Index 2025 (16 Jan 2025). Averages for Zylo's own customer base, not for all companies of that size.
Developers building software to replace paid vendors
| Measure | Respondents | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Built in-house software in the past year, or plan to, to replace paid vendors | 2,482 | 18.6% |
Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, question BuildTool, n = 13,338; self-selected online survey, fielded June to August 2026. Over half of these developers use AI to build the replacement.
Why sources differ
Same question, different answers
| Number | When | Who measured | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| $9,455 | 2025 data, published Jan 2026 | Zylo SaaS Management Index 2026 | Median; $75B spend under management. |
| $4,830 | 2024 data, published Jan 2025 | Zylo SaaS Management Index 2025 | Average; $40B spend under management. Different measure and base. |
| 36% of licenses unused | 2025 data | Zylo SaaS Management Index 2026 | Share of licenses, measured against recommended use levels, not a share of dollars. |
| 29% of cloud spend wasted | Winter 2025 | Flexera State of the Cloud | Respondents' own estimate of cloud waste, including infrastructure, not only SaaS. |
The two per-employee figures you will see, $4,830 and $9,455, both come from Zylo, a company that sells SaaS management software, and they are not a trend. The 2025 index gave an average for 2024 across $40 billion of customer spend; the 2026 index gives a median for 2025 across $75 billion. A median is the middle company, so a few huge spenders cannot pull it up, while an average can be dragged either way. The customer base also changed: Zylo nearly doubled the spend it manages between the two releases. Both figures describe companies that pay for a SaaS management tool, which may not look like a typical small business. Waste figures differ for similar reasons. Zylo's 36% is a share of licenses left unused against recommended use levels, its 2025 index gave $21 million a year in dollars, and Flexera's 29% is cloud buyers' own estimate of wasted cloud spend, mostly infrastructure rather than SaaS. No government statistic measures SaaS spend per employee.
What it means
How to use these numbers
For companies large enough to use a SaaS management tool, software subscriptions now cost several thousand dollars per employee a year, and the middle company in Zylo's data spends $9,455 per employee. A small business will usually spend far less, but the same leaks apply at any size.
The biggest leak is unused seats. On average 36% of licenses go unused, so a yearly check of who still logs in to each tool is the cheapest saving available. The second is spend outside IT: business units control 81% of SaaS spend, and expensed SaaS rose 267% in a year, led by ChatGPT. If staff buy tools on a company card, nobody may see the total.
AI is changing the bill. Spend on AI-native apps rose 108% in a year, and 78% of IT leaders were surprised by charges from usage-based or AI pricing. Before signing a usage-priced plan, ask the vendor for a cap or an alert.
For journalists: quote $9,455 as a median from vendor data, and do not compare it with the earlier $4,830 average as if spend had doubled.
Method and sources
How it was measured
Method
- Publisher
- Zylo, SaaS Management Index 2026 (news release, 29 January 2026)
- Sample
- Zylo customer data: more than 40 million SaaS licenses and $75 billion in SaaS spend under management; survey of 218 IT leaders for the cost questions
- Definition
- Median SaaS spend per employee across Zylo's customer organizations in 2025. Unused licenses are measured against industry-recommended use levels
- Limits
- Vendor data from companies that buy SaaS management software, not a random sample; the measure changed from an average (2025 index) to a median (2026 index)
- Checked at source
- 23 October 2026 for the 2026 figures; 31 October 2026 for the 2024 and 2025 releases and the added 2026 figures, on zylo.com
- Next release
- Zylo publishes the index each January; the 2027 index is expected around January 2027
- Last changed
- 30 Oct 2026
- Data files
- CSV · JSON (stable links)
Sources
- SaaS Management Index, Zylo Vendor data
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Stack Overflow Survey
- State of the Cloud Report, Flexera Vendor data
Cite this page
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FAQ
More questions people ask
Did SaaS spend per employee double from $4,830 to $9,455?
No. $4,830 was an average for 2024 and $9,455 a median for 2025, from different releases of Zylo's index with a much larger customer base in 2026. The two numbers measure different things.
How many SaaS apps does a company use?
In Zylo's 2025 index, its smallest customers (the band Zylo labels 1-500) used 152 apps on average and spent $11.5 million a year on SaaS; those with more than 10,000 employees used 660 apps and spent $284 million.
How much SaaS spend is wasted?
Zylo's customers left 36% of their licenses unused on average in 2025. Its previous index put the waste at $21 million a year per organization on average, up 14.2% from the year before.
Are companies replacing SaaS with their own tools?
Some are. 18.6% of developers in Stack Overflow's 2026 survey said they had built in-house software in the past year, or planned to, to replace paid vendors, and over half of them use AI to do it.
Every number on this page was checked at its original source (Zylo, Stack Overflow, Flexera). Free to cite with a link to this page.