Gartner just released its third 2026 IT spending forecast in six months. And buried in the “AI infrastructure is exploding” headlines is the number every B2B SaaS founder needs to pay attention to:
Software spend is now projected to grow 15.1% in 2026 to $1.44 trillion.
That’s revised up from the 14.7% Gartner forecast in February.
Remember what happened in February? Gartner trimmed software growth from the October forecast of 15.2% down to 14.7%. We wrote at the time that this likely reflected a more sustainable trajectory, not a softening market. Turns out the truth was even better than that. The trim was wrong. Software didn’t slow down. It just kept running.
Let me put the three software forecasts side by side:
- October 2025: 15.2% growth
- February 2026: 14.7% growth (revised down)
- April 2026: 15.1% growth (revised back up)
The “deceleration” we were told to expect never showed up. Software spending in 2026 is now projected to be almost exactly where the October forecast had it. $1.44 trillion. Growing 15.1%. Still the second-fastest growing category in all of IT.
What 15.1% Actually Means For Your Company
$1.44 trillion growing 15.1% means roughly $190 billion in net new software spend in 2026 alone.
$190B. In a single year. Just in software.
For context, that’s nearly the entire size of the global SaaS market from about a decade ago, showing up as incremental new dollars this year. This is the single largest one-year expansion of software spend in history. And it’s happening right now.
And if your B2B company is growing slower than 15.1% in 2026, you are losing share by definition. The market itself is expanding at 15.1%. Anything below that is someone else’s lunch.
The Bigger Picture: IT Spend Revised Up Again
Total worldwide IT spending is now projected to hit $6.31 trillion in 2026, up 13.5% year-over-year.
Here’s how that’s moved across three forecasts:
- October 2025: $6.08T, +9.8%
- February 2026: $6.15T, +10.8%
- April 2026: $6.31T, +13.5%
Forecasts are supposed to drift down as the year gets closer and reality gets harder. Gartner’s forecast is doing the opposite. It’s accelerating. Three upward revisions in six months is almost unheard of.
What’s pulling the whole thing up? Data center spend (now projected at +55.8% to $788B) is the single biggest driver. That’s the AI infrastructure buildout, and it’s still accelerating. But software is the bigger story for most of us, because software is the category where most B2B founders actually compete.
What Changed Since Our February Post
Here’s the three-forecast comparison for the SaaStr AI community:
Two things to call out for B2B SaaS founders:
First, the software forecast round-tripped. 15.2% → 14.7% → 15.1%. That’s not a story about deceleration. That’s a story about a forecast that couldn’t quite keep up with reality. Enterprises aren’t pulling back on software. They’re spending harder than the models expect.
Second, GenAI model spend is now more than doubling year-over-year. In February it was pegged at +80.8%. In April it’s “more than double” — meaning >100%. On top of an already huge base. This is the line that tells you the enterprise AI deployment wave is real. They’re not kicking tires anymore. They’re writing checks.
The “Price Increase Tax” Is Still Real
In our February post we flagged that roughly 9% of every IT budget is being consumed by price increases on existing software. That hasn’t gone away.
So even with software growing 15.1% on the headline, the real net-new discretionary spend is closer to 6%. And almost all of that 6% is flowing to AI features and AI-native products.
Which means the competitive dynamic stays brutal. Either you’re the software getting funded, or you’re the software getting cut. There isn’t a middle lane anymore.
If you raised prices strategically in late 2025 behind real AI features, you’re in the fast lane. If you raised prices without adding AI value, you’re already in the “low ROI” bucket getting scrutinized this renewal cycle.
What Founders Should Do Right Now
1. Stop worrying about whether the budget is there. It is. You just aren’t grabbing it.
This isn’t 2023. Budgets are expanding, not contracting. $190B of net new software spend in 2026. You don’t have a demand problem. You have a positioning problem or a product problem.
2. Benchmark yourself against 15.1% or higher growth, period, not your own forecast.
If your internal 2026 plan has you growing 12%, you are planning to lose share. Re-check that plan. 15.1% is the floor for holding your position in the market.
3. Ship AI features that change pricing and can truly be monetized
GenAI model spend more than doubling is not a side story. It’s the story. Every renewal conversation in 2026 is going to turn on “what AI value did you add.” If you don’t have a clear answer, you’re getting cut or renegotiated. If you do, you’re getting an expansion.
4. Watch for more upward revisions.
Gartner has now revised up three times in six months. The pattern is clear: they’re behind the actual demand curve, not ahead of it. The October 2026 forecast will very likely revise these numbers up yet again. Plan accordingly.
Growth in Software Spending is Just Accelerating. That Means Yours Should Be, Too.
The February forecast told us software might be slowing down. The April forecast just told us that story was wrong.
$1.44 trillion in software spend. Growing 15.1%. Revised back up after being trimmed. GenAI model spend more than doubling. $190B of net new software dollars in a single year.
These are the biggest numbers we’ve ever seen in enterprise software. And the fact that Gartner keeps revising them up instead of down tells you exactly where we are in the cycle.
The tailwinds are still getting stronger, not weaker.
The only question is whether your product, your pricing, and your GTM are positioned to grab any of it.
