Unused SaaS applications

What percentage of SaaS tools are unused or underutilized?

As of Q3 2026, 62% of all SaaS licenses are either entirely unused or underutilized, up from 61% at the end of Q2. Underutilization is still the bigger problem, but this quarter’s increase came from a different source: tools being abandoned altogether.

• Shelfware is creeping back up: Fully unused licenses rose from 15% in June to 16% by August 2026, reversing the modest improvement seen over the previous year. This may reflect tools bought or renewed earlier in the year being dropped by users before they’re cut from the budget.
• Underutilization remains the biggest problem: “Underutilized” here means less than 50% of purchased licenses are actually being used. For every underutilized tool, more than half the seats a company is paying for sit idle. This category held steady at 46% over the quarter. It still accounts for nearly half of all licenses tracked, roughly three times the volume of outright shelfware.
• The real number is likely higher: The 50% threshold only counts tools where the majority of licenses go unused. It doesn’t include tools sitting just above that line, so the true scale of underused software is likely far higher.
• Waste peaked in July: Combined waste hit 64% in July 2026, then eased to 62% in August as both categories edged down month-on-month. Even with that dip, waste remains above where it stood at the end of Q2.

Spotting waste now means watching for two things at once: tools that have been abandoned entirely, and tools whose capacity is only partly used. Nearly half of all licenses fall into the underutilized category, so right-sizing those tools remains one of the largest savings opportunities available without cutting a single tool entirely, often alongside securing discounts on the list price. Rising shelfware is a reminder that the easiest savings, cancelling tools nobody uses, still get missed.

The best SaaS spend management software platforms provide usage analytics that flag underutilization and waste, helping teams right-size tools before a renewal locks in the same overprovisioned contract for another term.

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