2026 Annual Benchmark

2026 IT Budget Benchmarks

Global IT spending in 2026 is projected at $6.31 trillion, up 13.5 percent year-on-year per Gartner's April 2026 forecast revision. This is well above historical baseline growth, driven by AI infrastructure ($788.0B data centre systems, +55.8 percent), GenAI software, and IT services including IaaS.

Global IT Spending 2026 (Gartner Forecast)

$6.31T

Up 13.5 percent year-on-year. Source: Gartner April 2026 forecast.

Five-Segment 2026 Forecast

The 13.5 percent global growth is unevenly distributed across segments. Data centre systems is growing far faster than everything else because of the AI infrastructure buildout, while device growth is being held back by memory-driven price rises. Communications services is the segment nearest baseline. The detailed forecast below, from Gartner's April 2026 release.

Segment	2026 Spend	Growth vs 2025	Key Driver
Data centre systems	$788.0B	+55.8%	AI infrastructure: hyperscaler server and data centre buildout, high-performance compute demand.
Devices	$856.2B	+8.2%	Growth moderated by record high-bandwidth-memory price rises lifting average selling prices.
Software	$1.44T	+15.1%	GenAI model development spend more than doubling; AI-embedded SaaS. Microsoft Copilot, Salesforce Einstein.
IT services	$1.87T	+9.0%	Largest segment. Application and infrastructure implementation, managed services, IaaS.
Communications services	$1.36T	+4.8%	Stable recurring revenue, moderate growth. Mature segment.

Top CIO Priorities for 2026

Per Gartner's 2026 CIO Agenda survey, five priorities dominate executive technology agendas. AI scaling leads, but cybersecurity, FinOps, technical debt and AI talent are all top concerns and all carry budget implications.

AI scaling

76% of CIOs

Expect to deploy agentic AI in production by end of 2026. Agentic AI is the shift from AI pilots to production AI systems that automate workflows and augment decisions at scale.

Cybersecurity expansion

43% increasing above inflation

Security budget increases outpacing general IT budget growth. Drivers include sophisticated threat landscape, DORA / NIS2 compliance, and cyber insurance premium pressure.

FinOps and cost optimisation

Board-level priority

As AI infrastructure costs scale, finance teams demand visibility and accountability. FinOps moved from engineering discipline to CFO concern.

Technical debt remediation

34% cite as top barrier

Legacy systems prevent AI adoption. AI tools cannot deploy on 20-year-old data infrastructure. Tech debt remediation now a prerequisite for AI strategy.

AI talent acquisition

20-40% premium on AI skills

Demand for engineers with AI, ML, and data skills exceeds supply. Companies unable to pay market rates losing talent to AI-native firms.

What This Means for 2026 IT Budget Planning

Five Practical Implications

!Add a named AI line item if you have not already. AI pilots are becoming production systems with real infrastructure and software costs (Copilot, Salesforce Einstein, custom LLM ops).
!Security budgets should track above general IT growth. 43 percent of CIOs are increasing security above inflation in 2026. If yours is flat, you are likely under-investing relative to peers.
!Cloud cost management has become non-negotiable. FinOps practices are not optional at any company spending more than $100K per year on cloud. AI workload growth makes this acute.
!34 percent of CIOs expect large 2026 budget increases; boards are more conservative. Come with benchmark data (industry, size, regional) to justify the ask. The calculator on this site exists for exactly this conversation.
!Build versus buy is shifting. More capabilities are available as AI-embedded features in existing SaaS. Custom build costs less than they did 12 months ago because of AI coding assistants.

Regional 2026 IT Spending Growth

Region	2026 Growth	Notes
North America	+11-13%	Largest absolute market. AI infrastructure concentrated here.
Asia-Pacific	+12-15%	Fastest growth region. China cloud and AI infrastructure investment.
Western Europe	+8-10%	Slightly below global average. DORA / NIS2 / AI Act compliance offsetting cost discipline.
Latin America	+10-12%	Cloud adoption catching up. Brazil, Mexico leading.
Middle East / Africa	+10-14%	UAE, Saudi Arabia investing heavily. South Africa stable.

Regional growth ranges from the Gartner February 2026 IT spending forecast and IDC Worldwide Black Book Q1 2026 release. Gartner's April 2026 revision lifted global growth to 13.5 percent, with the upgrade concentrated in data centre systems; region-level revisions had not been published at our last review, so treat these ranges as indicative.

IT Budget 2025 (historical)

What 2025 IT spending looked like, lessons learned.

Spending Forecast Hub

Multi-year forecast view and segment trends.

All Benchmarks

Industry x company size matrix.

Cybersecurity Budget

Why 43 percent of CIOs are increasing security spend.

Cloud Spending

FinOps and the AI compute cost wave.

US IT Budget 2026

North America regional anchor.

Build your 2026 IT budget

The calculator factors industry, size, region and AI maturity into a tailored 2026 budget with category breakdown.

Use the IT Budget Calculator

Frequently Asked Questions

How big is global IT spending in 2026?

Global IT spending in 2026 is projected at $6.31 trillion per Gartner's April 2026 forecast revision, up 13.5 percent year-on-year. This is well above the historical 4-6 percent baseline annual growth and is driven primarily by AI infrastructure investment ($788.0B in data centre systems, +55.8 percent), GenAI-driven software ($1.44T total software spend, +15.1 percent), and IT services including IaaS ($1.87T, the largest segment).

What is the average IT budget as percentage of revenue in 2026?

The global cross-industry average is 5.7 percent of revenue in 2026, with industry ranges from 2 percent (manufacturing, non-profit) to 15 percent (pure-play e-commerce, SaaS). Per-employee spend across all industries averages $11,500, with a typical range of $9,000 to $14,000. These figures have crept up slightly in 2025-2026 from historical norms because of AI tooling, security expansion, and SaaS price inflation.

What is driving the 13.5 percent growth in 2026?

Five forces. First, AI infrastructure: hyperscaler buildout for AI compute is the single largest contributor, growing data centre systems at 55.8 percent. Second, AI-embedded software: Microsoft Copilot, Salesforce Einstein, GitHub Copilot, Adobe Firefly are all adding $20-$60 per user per month at full deployment, and Gartner reports GenAI model development spend growth more than doubling year-on-year. Third, cybersecurity: 43 percent of CIOs are increasing security spend above inflation per Gartner's 2026 CIO survey. Fourth, cloud growth: still expanding faster than baseline IT spend. Fifth, IT services at +9.0 percent as implementation and managed services absorb the AI and cloud project pipeline. Devices, by contrast, are growing only 8.2 percent because record high-bandwidth-memory price rises are lifting device prices and stretching replacement cycles.

What are the top CIO priorities in 2026?

Per Gartner's 2026 CIO Agenda survey, the top CIO priorities are: (1) AI scaling, with 76 percent of CIOs expecting agentic AI in production by year-end, (2) cybersecurity, with 43 percent increasing security spend above inflation, (3) FinOps and cost optimisation as cloud and AI spend grow, (4) technical debt remediation as legacy systems block AI adoption (cited by 34 percent of CIOs as top barrier), (5) AI talent, with skill premiums of 20-40 percent on AI-skilled engineers.

Where is IT growing fastest in 2026?

By segment, per Gartner's April 2026 forecast: data centre systems +55.8 percent (AI infrastructure), software +15.1 percent (GenAI and AI-embedded SaaS), IT services +9.0 percent (implementation and managed services), devices +8.2 percent (growth moderated by memory-driven price rises), communications services +4.8 percent (the segment nearest baseline). By region: Asia-Pacific is growing fastest, North America largest in absolute size, Europe slightly slower because of cost-discipline culture and regulatory overhead.

Should we increase our 2026 IT budget by 13.5 percent?

Not automatically. The 13.5 percent figure is a global growth rate; it includes hyperscaler AI buildout that does not apply to most enterprises. A more useful rule of thumb for typical mid-market enterprise is 6-9 percent year-over-year IT budget growth in 2026, with the increase concentrated in security (above general IT growth), AI tooling (new line items), and cloud (consumption growth). If your security spend is flat and you have not added AI line items, you are likely under-investing relative to peers.