Average SaaS contract length

How long are companies committing to their software contracts in 2026?

Companies continue to lock in their SaaS stacks for longer durations. Q2 2026 data shows this trend holding steady across most categories, with ERP overtaking CRM as the second-longest average commitment category, while Development remains the longest despite a slight pullback.

• ERP sees the sharpest increase: ERP contract length rose by two months on average, the largest movement of any category this quarter, as organizations continue to deepen commitments to core enterprise systems.
• Marketing has shifted broadly: Marketing's average contract length rose 1.3 months, and its median rose from 15 to 18 months – a sign this shift is spread across most Marketing contracts rather than driven by a handful of long outliers.
• Development stays longest, AI stays shortest: Development remains the longest average commitment at 29.9 months despite a 1.3-month pullback this quarter, while Artificial Intelligence remains the shortest at 15.4 months, continuing to reflect the sector's fast pace of change and departments' preference for shorter cycles as better technology emerges.

Tracking how these numbers shift helps you see whether your own contract lengths are in line with what similar companies are agreeing to, or whether you're locking in for longer (or shorter) than you need to.

As average commitments lengthen across most categories, it becomes more important to negotiate favorable terms upfront – particularly price uplift caps that limit how much a vendor can raise costs at renewal, protection against feature or usage reductions at the same price tier, and clear exit or renegotiation rights if the vendor's service or pricing no longer meets expectations partway through a longer term.

These are the kinds of terms that are easy to miss without the vendor knowledge and negotiating experience a platform offering outsourced negotiation, like Vertice, brings to every deal.

Data source: These insights are derived from over $75bn of global processed spend managed by Vertice in 2026.