Contract renewal statistics 2026: renewal rates and notice

Contract renewal numbers are easy to find and hard to trust. Most roundups quote each other, and the original filing, audit, or statute has usually disappeared by the third hop. This page collects verified statistics on how business contracts renew, what they cost when nobody manages them, and what the law requires, and links every figure to the organisation that produced it. Business evidence comes first. The consumer subscription material sits at the end, because it is where the regulators are, not because it is what most readers arrived for.

Key takeaways

• 89% of SaaS contracts contain an auto-renewal clause (Vertice¹ platform data, 2026).
• Contract extensions were 13% of UK central government contracts by number but 34% by value (UK National Audit Office², 2023).
• ServiceNow reported a 98% renewal rate on subscriptions that typically run three years (ServiceNow Form 10-K³, 2025).
• 60% of technology buyers involved in renewal or expansion decisions regret nearly every purchase they make (Gartner⁴ survey of 1,503 respondents, 2023).
• 40% of organisations still track renewals manually (BetterCloud⁵ survey of about 600 IT professionals, 2025).
• One US federal agency bought 4,949 software licences, used 18, renewed the same quantity, and spent $2,663,966 that could have been put to better use (National Archives Office of Inspector General⁶, 2023).
• 79% of IT leaders met a price increase at renewal in the past 12 months (Zylo⁷ survey of 218 IT leaders, 2026).
• New York makes an evergreen clause unenforceable unless the supplier warns the customer 15 to 30 days before the customer's own notice deadline (New York State Senate⁸, General Obligations Law 5-903).
• 26% of UK micro and small businesses were on a rolled-over energy contract (Ofgem⁹ survey of 1,254 businesses, 2017).
• Renewals rose to 42% of US office lease transactions, against 31% before the pandemic (CBRE Research¹⁰, 2024).
• More than 32% of all US office leases are set to expire between Q2 2026 and the end of 2028 (CompStak¹¹, 2026).
• The Eighth Circuit vacated the FTC click-to-cancel rule in July 2025, and the 1973 Negative Option Rule was restored in its place (US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit¹², 2025).

How do B2B contracts renew?

Most business software contracts renew by default, on terms written into the original agreement, with a notice window that closes well before anyone reviews the spend.

Vertice, which negotiates software contracts on behalf of its customers, reports that of the SaaS contracts in its dataset, "89% of which contain auto-renewal clauses", on its page on SaaS renewals¹. Vertice describes the dataset behind its benchmarks as "powered by data from over 250,000 human-negotiated contracts and 32,000+ global vendors", on its page on SaaS pricing benchmarks¹³. The drafting that produces that share is the renewal and notice period clause.

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Filed annual reports show how long those terms run, and the range is wide. HubSpot told the SEC that its customers have no obligation to renew after subscription periods "substantially all of which are one year or less", in its Form 10-K¹⁴ for 2025. Salesforce described a contractual subscription period that "is typically 12 to 36 months", in its Form 10-K¹⁵ for the year ended 31 January 2026. Samsara disclosed subscription contracts with "an initial term of three to five years", generally non-cancelable and non-refundable, in its Form 10-K¹⁶ for the same period.

The renewal mechanic itself is disclosed just as plainly. Domo stated that its "one-year and multi-year contracts generally automatically renew for additional one-year terms, with each party having the option to elect not to renew", in its Form 10-K¹⁷ for the year ended 31 January 2026.

Notice windows are where the money is decided. Klaviyo disclosed that customers "may elect not to renew by providing at least five days' advance notice for contracts on a monthly billing cycle and thirty days' advance notice for contracts with any other billing cycles", in its Form 10-K¹⁸ for 2025. Jack Henry disclosed that most of its support contracts "automatically renew unless the client or Jack Henry gives notice of termination at least 30 days prior to contract expiration", in its Form 10-K¹⁹ for the year ended 30 June 2026. Turning a five-day or thirty-day window into a dated deadline is what the contract notice period calculator does.

Those windows are shorter than the work they are supposed to trigger. Vertice reports that "the average negotiation takes 21 days", and "even as much as 37 days for more complex renewals", on the same SaaS renewals¹ page. A 30-day notice window and a 37-day negotiation do not fit inside each other.

Volume is the other half of the problem. Zylo reports an average of 211 yearly renewals per company in its software renewal guide²⁰, down from 247 on the same domain a year earlier. Two producers give different counts for the size of the estate those renewals sit in: Vertice puts "the average tech stack now consisting of 135 tools", while Zylo reports an average portfolio of 305 applications against a median of 240 in its SaaS Management Index²¹ for 2026. The gap is a sampling difference, not a contradiction, and the two should not be averaged together.

A reminder that fires on the renewal date is already too late for any of these windows. A contract reminder tool is useful only if it counts backwards from the notice deadline, which is what a contract expiration calculator or a contract end date calculator is for.

What renewal rates do businesses report?

Companies report renewal performance on at least five different denominators, so the headline percentages are not comparable and should never be listed as though they were. Each figure below names what it counts.

ServiceNow disclosed that "Subscription services arrangements typically have a three-year duration, and we have experienced a renewal rate of 98% for each of the years ended December 31, 2025, 2024 and 2023", in its Form 10-K³. The filing defines that rate on annual contract value retained rather than customers retained, which makes it the closest thing in the set to a true renewal rate.

Across the private market, the median is lower. Aleph and Benchmarkit found that "The median B2B SaaS company has a gross revenue retention (GRR) rate of 84%", with the top quartile at 91% and the bottom quartile at 76%, from full-year 2025 actuals for 342 B2B SaaS and AI-native software companies, in their gross revenue retention benchmarks²². The same study put median net revenue retention at 102%, with top-quartile companies reaching 110%, in its net revenue retention benchmarks²³. Comparing a portfolio against that median first requires counting its own renewals, which is a job for expiration reporting.

Individual issuers sit a long way either side of that median. Snowflake reported a net revenue retention rate of 125% as of 31 January 2026, in its Form 10-K²⁴. Asana reported a dollar-based net retention rate of 96% as of the same date, in its Form 10-K²⁵.

Outside software the numbers are built differently again. Travelers reported retention of 85% in its Business Insurance segment for the fourth quarter of 2025, defining retention as the premium available for renewal that was retained, excluding rate and exposure changes, in its fourth quarter and full year results²⁶. GATX reported a first-quarter 2026 railcar renewal success rate of 79.1%, against 91.4% in the prior quarter, defining it as the percentage of railcars on expiring leases renewed with the existing lessee, in its quarterly results exhibit²⁷. Costco reported that "Our member renewal rate was 92.3% in the U.S. and Canada and 89.8% worldwide at the end of 2025", in its Form 10-K²⁸, which is a consumer membership count rather than a contract measure.

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What does an unmanaged renewal cost?

The cost of an unmanaged renewal is rarely a penalty. It is a quantity nobody re-checked, a price nobody contested, and an extension nobody chose, and government auditors have put figures on all three.

The National Archives Office of Inspector General found that the agency bought 4,949 licences of one product in the base year of a contract "but only used 18 of the licenses", then for option year one "purchased the same quantity of Product C software licenses, 4,949, but only used 21 of the licenses". The auditor concluded the agency "spent $2,663,966 in funds that could have been put to better use over the first two years" of that contract, and traced the cause to failing to identify how many licences were needed at contract renewal, in its software asset management audit⁶ (2023). A quantity review only happens if someone is warned the renewal is coming, which is the job of an expiration reminder.

The pattern is not confined to one agency. The NASA Office of Inspector General found the agency spent "approximately $15 million over the past 5 years on unused licenses, an amount we found wasteful and are therefore questioning", in its IT asset management audit²⁹ (2023).

Nobody was checking. The US Government Accountability Office reported that "None of the nine agencies selected based on the size of their IT budgets fully determined that their five most widely used software licenses were over- or under-purchased", in its review of federal software licence management³⁰ (2024).

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Poor preparation turns into an extension by default. The UK National Audit Office found that "If authorities do not prepare properly there is a risk to service continuity or they may have no choice but to extend the contract", in its report on managing PFI assets and services as contracts end³¹ (2020), which surveyed 107 of the 571 English PFI contracts expiring over seven years and received 75 responses. The same body found that contract extensions accounted for 13% of central government contract awards by number but 34% by value, across 16,024 contracts worth £99.6 billion in 2021-22, in Lessons learned: competition in public procurement² (2023). Renewals are a small share of the paperwork and a third of the money.

The private-sector surveys point at the same gap in process. BetterCloud found that "A concerning 40% of organizations still track renewals manually, indicating a reliance on spreadsheets, calendars, and human memory", in its survey of about 600 IT professionals published as the 2025 State of SaaS trends⁵. Moving off spreadsheets is the practical starting point for contract management in IT procurement. Gartner found that "60% of technology buyers involved in decisions to renew or expand 'as-a-service' agreements regret nearly every purchase they make", from a survey of 1,503 respondents at organisations with annual revenue of at least $50 million, conducted February to March 2023 and published as a Gartner press release⁴.

The consequences land on budgets rather than on legal. Zylo found that 61% of IT leaders "were forced to cut projects due to unplanned SaaS cost increases", from its survey of 218 IT leaders in the 2026 SaaS Management Index³². Zylo also reports companies "wasting an average of $21M annually on unused SaaS licenses, a 14.2% increase year-over-year", in its 2025 SaaS Management Index³³. Flexera found that 48% of respondents were audited in the last year, from a survey of 512 technology professionals worldwide, in its 2026 State of ITAM announcement³⁴.

There is a structural reason these clauses go unread. The Contract Understanding Atticus Dataset, a corpus of more than 13,000 expert labels across 510 commercial contracts, found that "only about 0.25% each contract is highlighted for each label", and two of its 41 label categories are renewal term and notice to terminate renewal. The measurement is in the CUAD paper³⁵ (2021). The clause that commits the next term is a quarter of one percent of the document.

How do SaaS contracts reprice at renewal?

Renewal is where software prices move, and four independent producers put the increase well above general inflation.

Zylo found that "79% of IT leaders encountered price increases at renewal in the past 12 months", from its survey of 218 IT leaders, published in its SaaS pricing trends analysis⁷ (2026). Seeing an increase coming depends on knowing which subscriptions renew when, which is the point of SaaS contract management. The same survey found 78% reported unexpected charges tied to consumption-based or AI pricing models, in the 2026 SaaS Management Index³².

Tropic, which negotiates and administers software contracts for its customers, reported renewal uplifts of 20 to 37% on AI-related software against a typical 3 to 9% annual increase, drawn from "real-world renewal data across Tropic customers", in its 2025 Software Buying Trends report³⁶-compressed.pdf). The same vendor reported "$56 million in verified savings across $362 million in negotiated spend, a 15.5% average savings rate" for the first half of 2025, in its contract renewal process analysis³⁷, which is the counterfactual: the difference between a renewal that is worked and one that is waved through.

Vertice publishes a price index built from the software spend it manages. Its 2026 index reported average SaaS inflation of 13.2% and stated that "SaaS inflation is now nearly 5x higher than the standard market inflation rate of G7 countries", in the Vertice SaaS Inflation Index³⁸. Vertice also reports development software as the longest average commitment at 29.9 months, in its analysis of average contract length³⁹.

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Cledara brackets that figure from a different dataset. It found "SaaS vendors are raising prices 8-12% annually, with aggressive vendors hitting 15-25%", based on its analysis of renewal patterns from January 2024 through March 2026, in its SaaS renewal benchmarks⁴⁰. Two producers observing different customer bases landing on 8 to 12% and 13.2% is corroboration rather than conflict, and both sit above the general software market: Gartner forecasts worldwide software spending of $1,468 billion in 2026, growing 15.5%, in its IT spending forecast⁴¹.

Fewer than half of those increases are contested. Flexera found that "47% of respondents negotiate contract terms with software vendors to manage SaaS, a sharp increase from last year", from its survey of 512 IT asset management professionals in early 2026, in the 2026 State of ITAM Report⁴². On renewal pricing, the value of renewal tracking software lies less in the alert than in the lead time it creates for that negotiation.

Which auto-renewal rules apply to business contracts?

A few jurisdictions regulate auto-renewal between businesses, and most of the well-known automatic renewal statutes do not, because they are consumer laws.

New York is the main US example. General Obligations Law 5-903 makes an automatic renewal provision in a contract for service, maintenance or repair unenforceable against the customer unless the supplier gives written notice, personally or by certified mail, "at least fifteen days and not more than thirty days" before the customer's own notice deadline. The section defines "person" as "an individual, firm, company, partnership or corporation", which is what makes it a business rule rather than a consumer one. The text is at the New York State Senate page for General Obligations Law 5-903⁸. Subdivision 2 of the same section excludes any contract where "the automatic renewal period specified is one month or less".

New York applies the same structure to leased property. General Obligations Law 5-901 makes an evergreen clause in a lease of personal property, such as equipment, inoperative unless the lessor gives the same 15 to 30 day warning, at the New York State Senate page for General Obligations Law 5-901⁴³. General Obligations Law 5-905 applies the same rule to leases of real property, at the page for General Obligations Law 5-905⁴⁴.

There is no reliable count of how many US states regulate automatic renewal, for businesses or for consumers. The widely repeated figures trace back to law firm and vendor roundups rather than to any legislature or government body, so this page does not carry a number. State coverage is something to check per jurisdiction against the legislature's own text.

The same boundary applies in the UK. The subscription contracts regime in Part 4, Chapter 2 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 imposes pre-contract information duties under section 256(1), a "reminder notice" before each renewal payment under section 258(1), and cancellation rights under section 264(1), all of them owed to consumers rather than to business customers. The provisions are at legislation.gov.uk⁴⁵.

Where UK regulators have acted for businesses, they have done it sector by sector. Ofgem surveyed 1,254 micro and small businesses and found that "around one in four businesses (26%) reported that their current contract was a rollover contract", and that approximately half of businesses which had not switched supplier in the last 12 months said they could not switch because they were tied to their current contract, in its micro and small business engagement research⁹ (2017). The same research found 84% of businesses on an extended or rolled-over contract were aware of the rollover when it happened, which makes this a failure to act rather than a failure to know. Ofgem then required suppliers to "allow micro-business consumers to give notice to terminate a contract no more than 30 days before a contract ends" and to acknowledge a termination notice "within five working days of receipt", in its decision on automatic rollovers and contract renewals for micro-business consumers⁴⁶ (2014). Outside a regulated sector the rollover simply stands, which is set out in what happens if a cancellation deadline is missed.

Ofcom went further in telecoms and banned the practice for the smallest firms, prohibiting automatically renewable contracts "for residential customers and small businesses with no more than ten employees in the fixed voice and broadband sectors", in its statement on automatically renewable contracts⁴⁷ (2011).

The US government regulates its own renewals rather than the market's. Federal Acquisition Regulation 17.207 allows a contracting officer to exercise a contract option only after determining that funds are available, that the requirement "fulfills an existing Government need", and that exercising the option "is the most advantageous method of fulfilling the Government's need, price and other factors ... considered", at acquisition.gov⁴⁸. The standard option clause sets the default warning at 60 days, requiring the government to give "a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend at least [60 days unless a different number of days is inserted] before the contract expires", in FAR clause 52.217-9⁴⁹. A renewal, in the government's own rules, is a priced decision rather than a default.

How often do commercial leases renew?

Commercial tenants renew far more often than they move, and a large block of space reaches expiry within the next two years.

CBRE Research found that "Renewals accounted for 42% of office lease transactions vs. 31% pre-pandemic", measuring US office leases of 10,000 square feet and above in the first half of 2024, in its brief on office lease signings¹⁰. A renewal share that high is why lease dates dominate contract management for commercial real estate. The same brief found the average lease size fell 21% on renewals against 32% on new leases. CBRE also found that between 2021 and 2024 "the average prime lease term was 107 months vs. 86 months in non-prime buildings".

Renewal terms do not automatically run longer than new leases. CBRE found that in 2020 the average US office lease term fell 8.4% year on year to 4.3 years from 4.7, while "The average lease renewal term dropped by 10.1% year-over-year in 2020 to 3.6 years from 4.0", in its brief on lease term contraction⁵⁰.

JLL reported in its Q1 2025 US office market analysis that "First-generation new leasing has declined by more than 50% over the past six quarters while renewal volumes have grown almost 30%". The same report found tenants above 25,000 square feet reduced their footprint by 6.6% on average at expiry. Both figures are in the JLL US Office Market Dynamics Q1 2025⁵¹ report.

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The expiry wall is measurable. CompStak, which aggregates lease comparables contributed by brokers and appraisers, reported that "More than 32% of all office leases are set to expire between Q2 2026 and year-end 2028", using data as of Q4 2025, in its 2026 office market outlook¹¹. An earlier CompStak analysis found that "Nearly one-third of all office leases across gateway markets are set to expire through 2027", with another 27.6% expiring through the end of 2030, in its 2024 year-end office market report⁵². Finding the option and notice terms buried in each of those leases is what a commercial lease review tool is for.

Industrial space is on a similar clock with more upside at renewal. CompStak reported that "Roughly 31% of leased industrial SF across major markets is scheduled to expire between Q3 2026 and Q2 2028", and that on expiring New Jersey leases the market shows 35% rent upside for space below 200,000 square feet and 42% for larger space, in its 2026 industrial gateway market overview⁵³.

Lease renewal is where notice periods bite hardest, because a renewal option is usually exercisable only in a defined window and only in a defined way. A missed window on a lease is not a subscription that can be cancelled next month. It becomes a holdover clause, a market-rate reset, or a move. Teams tracking property portfolios typically run a dedicated lease renewal reminder tool alongside the rest of their contract reminder tools.

What are regulators doing about consumer auto-renewal?

Consumer enforcement has moved from warnings to nine-figure settlements, and complaint volume is the clearest signal of why.

The FTC received nearly 70 consumer complaints per day about negative-option practices in 2024, up from 42 per day in 2021, in its announcement of the final click-to-cancel rule⁵⁴ (2024).

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The FTC's September 2025 settlement with Amazon over Prime enrolment and cancellation included a $1 billion civil penalty. It also required $1.5 billion in refunds. The FTC put the number of affected consumers at an estimated 35 million. The terms are in the Amazon settlement announcement⁵⁵ (2025).

The Commission's June 2024 action against Adobe centred on an early termination fee equal to 50 percent of the remaining monthly payments on an annual plan paid monthly, in its release on the Adobe complaint⁵⁶ (2024).

State enforcement runs smaller. The New York Attorney General secured $375,000 from 1-800-Flowers over how it presented a subscription programme, in its 1-800-Flowers settlement⁵⁷ (2026). The same office secured $600,000 from Equinox in May 2025.

In a coordinated sweep, the European Commission found that 148 of 399 web shops screened used one of three categories of dark patterns, which is 37% of the sites checked, on its page on consumer protection sweeps⁵⁸.

The federal rule did not survive. On 8 July 2025 the Eighth Circuit vacated the FTC's 2024 click-to-cancel amendments in Custom Communications, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, No. 24-3137, concluding: "Accordingly, we grant the petitions for review and vacate the Rule." The opinion is on the Eighth Circuit's opinion server¹². The Commission restored the rule "in the form it existed before the 2024 Rule became effective", its 1973 prenotification form, in a final rule of February 2026⁵⁹. An advance notice of proposed rulemaking⁶⁰ opened on 13 March 2026, with no replacement finalised as of September 2026.

State and national statute kept moving where the federal rule receded. California requires a renewal notice "at least 15 days and not more than 45 days before the automatic renewal offer or continuous service offer renews" where the initial term is one year or longer, under Business and Professions Code section 17602⁶¹. New York requires notice "at least fifteen days before, but not more than forty-five days before, the cancellation deadline" on consumer offers with an initial paid term of one year or longer renewing for six months or longer, under General Business Law section 527-a⁶². The UK government expects its subscription measures to "save consumers around £400 million every year". The same announcement says they "are expected to come into force in spring 2027", on the government page on subscription traps⁶³.

How many consumer subscriptions renew without consent?

A small but measurable share of active consumer subscriptions are ones the customer did not want, and the national estimates put a price on it.

The UK Department for Business and Trade estimated that approximately 5.8% of active subscriptions are unwanted. That share is about 9.7 million contracts in the UK. The assessment put the annual consumer cost at around £1.6 billion. The figures are in its subscription traps impact assessment⁶⁴ (2023). The same arithmetic applies to a business subscription through the subscription contract calculator.

Citizens Advice found UK consumers spent £688 million on unused subscriptions in the previous year. It also found more than 13 million people, 26% of UK adults, accidentally took out a subscription in the last 12 months. Both figures are in its release on unused subscriptions⁶⁵ (2024).

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Where Contracko fits. Contracko is a contract repository that extracts key dates from uploaded contracts and sends reminders for renewals, expirations, and notice windows. Teams evaluating that category usually start with contract renewal reminder software. Portfolios with mixed deadline types rather than renewals alone are better served by contract deadline reminder software. The narrower tool for end dates is expiration reminder software, and the longer write-up of how that category works is the guide to expiration reminder software.

Methodology and last verified date

Last verified: September 2026. Refresh cadence: quarterly.

What counts as a source on this page. Every statistic links to the page or document published by the organisation that produced the number: a government department, a regulator, a court, an audit office, an SEC filing, an industry association, a peer-reviewed corpus, or a company reporting its own platform data. Press releases from wire services, news reports, other statistics roundups, and aggregators are not used, even when they carry the figure.

Three kinds of evidence appear here and they carry different weight. Filings are first-party issuer disclosure, made under securities law and usually accompanied by the issuer's own definition of the metric. Platform data is observed rather than surveyed: the vendor reports what happened in the contracts, licences or payments it processes, across a customer base that is not a random sample. Survey data carries its stated sample and fieldwork period wherever the producer published one, and is marked where the producer published none.

What is excluded. A statistic is dropped rather than downgraded. Where the original source could not be reached, or the figure appears only inside a chart image or a gated report, the number is left off this page. Two widely circulated claims about renewal tracking were checked and are absent because neither traces to a published primary source. Two US state statutes were removed for the same reason: their official legislature pages refuse connections from every network available for this research, so the text could not be read at source.

Reconciliations. Renewal and retention figures are not interchangeable, and the five denominators are named once in the retention section rather than blended. Software repricing figures from Vertice and Cledara are treated as corroborating observations from different customer bases rather than competing estimates. Jurisdictions are also not interchangeable: the New York, UK and EU rules described above apply only where they are named.

Key takeaways at the top of this page summarise figures that carry their full attribution in the sections below. Each statistic is attributed once in the body.

Changelog.

• September 2026, second revision: rebuilt business first on a revised approved outline. Added sections on how B2B contracts renew and on the auto-renewal rules that apply to business contracts, both built from filings, audit reports and statute text. Moved the two consumer sections to the end and trimmed them. Removed two US state statutes whose official text could not be read on the legislature’s own site.
• September 2026, first publication. Verified statistics against primary sources. Dropped the WorldCC figures on exclusive CLM storage and shared-drive storage, and the Tropic figures on contract term length, because each appears only inside a chart image. Dropped any count of US states with automatic renewal laws because no government or legislature source publishes one. Recorded the vacatur of the FTC click-to-cancel rule and the restoration of the 1973 Negative Option Rule.

How to cite this page

Preferred citation format:

Contracko. "Contract renewal statistics." Last verified September 2026. https://contracko.com/blog/contract-renewal-statistics

A specific number should be credited to the original producer named beside it rather than to this page. Every figure above links to the source document, and that link is the one a reader needs.

Sources

Every figure on this page links to the organisation that produced it. Sample sizes, collection periods and record types are stated so a reader can judge each number.

Footnotes

1. Vertice. SaaS renewals, vertice.one/explore/saas-renewals, 2026. What it is: platform data on auto-renewal clause frequency and negotiation duration observed in the contracts Vertice negotiates. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. UK National Audit Office. Lessons learned: competition in public procurement, nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/lessons-learned-competition-in-public-procurement.pdf, 2023. What it is: administrative record analysing 16,024 contracts worth £99.6 billion awarded by 17 major UK departments in 2021-22. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

3. ServiceNow. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2025, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1373715/000137371526000007/now-20251231.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, with the renewal rate defined in the filing as annual contract value retained. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

4. Gartner. Survey on technology buyers and renewal decisions, gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-06-14-gartner-survey-reveals-60-percent-of-technology-buyers-involved-in-renewal-decisions-regret-nearly-every-purchase-they-make, 2023. What it is: survey of 1,503 respondents at organisations with annual revenue of at least $50 million across Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, conducted February to March 2023. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

5. BetterCloud. 2025 State of SaaS trends, bettercloud.com/monitor/2025-state-of-saas-trends, 2025. What it is: survey of about 600 IT professionals. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

6. National Archives Office of Inspector General. Audit of NARA's software asset management process, 23-AUD-03, naraoig.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/reports/2023-08/NARA-OIG-Audit-Report-Audit-NARAs-Software-Asset-Management-Process-FINAL-1.pdf, 2023. What it is: audit report covering one enterprise software contract across its base year and first option year. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

7. Zylo. SaaS pricing trends, zylo.com/blog/saas-pricing-trends, 2026. What it is: survey of 218 IT leaders. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

8. New York State Senate. General Obligations Law 5-903, nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GOB/5-903, 2026. What it is: statute text governing automatic renewal clauses in contracts for service, maintenance or repair, applying to firms and corporations as well as individuals. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

9. Ofgem. Micro and small business customer engagement in the energy market, 2016, ofgem.gov.uk/sites/default/files/docs/2017/04/ofgem_-micro_and_small_business_engagement_2016-_research_report.pdf, 2017. What it is: survey of a representative sample of 1,254 micro and small businesses interviewed by telephone in November and December 2016. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

10. CBRE Research. US sees uptick in office lease signings but for less space on average, cbre.com/insights/briefs/us-sees-uptick-in-office-lease-signings-but-for-less-space-on-average, 2024. What it is: official market statistics covering US office leases of 10,000 sq ft and above, first half of 2024, and leases signed 2021 to 2024. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

11. CompStak. 2026 Office Market Outlook, compstak.com/blog/2026-office-market-outlook-data, 2026. What it is: platform data covering US office lease comparables, as of Q4 2025. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

12. US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Custom Communications, Inc. v. Federal Trade Commission, No. 24-3137, ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/07/243137P.pdf, 2025. What it is: court opinion, filed 8 July 2025, vacating the FTC's 2024 negative option rule. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

13. Vertice. SaaS pricing benchmarks, vertice.one/platform/saas-pricing-benchmarks, 2026. What it is: the producer's statement of dataset scope, "over 250,000 human-negotiated contracts and 32,000+ global vendors". Accessed September 2026. ↩

14. HubSpot. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1404655/000119312526046646/hubs-20251231.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

15. Salesforce. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1108524/000110852426000060/crm-20260131.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

16. Samsara. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1642896/000162828026018167/iot-20260131.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

17. Domo. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1505952/000162828026025356/domo-20260131.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

18. Klaviyo. Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1835830/000183583026000007/kvyo-20251231.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

19. Jack Henry & Associates. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 30 June 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/779152/000077915226000067/jkhy-20260630.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

20. Zylo. Software renewal management guide, zylo.com/blog/software-renewal, 2026. What it is: platform data covering more than 40 million SaaS licences and more than $75 billion in spend under management, across nine years of data. Accessed September 2026. ↩

21. Zylo. SaaS Management Index, zylo.com/reports/2025-saas-management-index, 2026. What it is: platform data covering more than 40 million SaaS licences under management and more than $75 billion of SaaS and cloud spend, across nine years of spend, licence and usage data. Accessed September 2026. ↩

22. Aleph and Benchmarkit. Gross revenue retention benchmarks, getaleph.com/answers/gross-revenue-retention-saas-2026, 2026. What it is: benchmark study of 342 B2B SaaS and AI-native software companies, full-year 2025 actuals. Accessed September 2026. ↩

23. Aleph and Benchmarkit. Net revenue retention benchmarks, getaleph.com/answers/net-revenue-retention-saas-2026, 2026. What it is: same study of 342 companies, full-year 2025 actuals. Accessed September 2026. ↩

24. Snowflake. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1640147/000164014726000008/snow-20260131.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

25. Asana. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 January 2026, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1477720/000147772026000021/asan-20260131.htm, 2026. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

26. The Travelers Companies. Fourth quarter and full year 2025 results, investor.travelers.com/newsroom/press-releases/news-details/2026/Travelers-Reports-Excellent-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Results/default.aspx, 2026. What it is: issuer disclosure of segment results, with retention defined in the release as premium available for renewal that was retained, excluding rate and exposure changes. Accessed September 2026. ↩

27. GATX Corporation. First quarter 2026 earnings release exhibit, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/40211/000004021126000051/a1q26earningsreleaseex991.htm, 2026. What it is: issuer disclosure filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, covering the North American railcar fleet excluding boxcars. Accessed September 2026. ↩

28. Costco Wholesale Corporation. Form 10-K for fiscal year ended 31 August 2025, sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/909832/000090983225000101/cost-20250831.htm, 2025. What it is: audited filing lodged with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accessed September 2026. ↩

29. NASA Office of Inspector General. NASA's management of its software licences, IG-23-008, oversight.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/2023-01/IG-23-008.pdf, 2023. What it is: audit report covering agency-wide software licence spending over five years. Accessed September 2026. ↩

30. US Government Accountability Office. Federal software licence management, GAO-24-105717, gao.gov/products/gao-24-105717, 2024. What it is: audit report covering 24 federal agencies for the vendor count and nine agencies for the over-purchase test, as of October 2023. Accessed September 2026. ↩

31. UK National Audit Office. Managing PFI assets and services as contracts end, nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Managing-PFI-assets-and-services-as-contracts-end.pdf, 2020. What it is: audit report with a survey of 107 of the 571 English PFI contracts expiring over seven years, returning 75 responses. Accessed September 2026. ↩

32. Zylo. 2026 SaaS Management Index, zylo.com/news/2026-saas-management-index, 2026. What it is: survey of 218 IT leaders, published alongside the platform index above. Accessed September 2026. ↩ ↩²

33. Zylo. 2025 SaaS Management Index, zylo.com/news/2025-saas-management-index, 2025. What it is: platform data on licence utilisation measured in Zylo customers' environments; this edition's page does not quantify the dataset. Accessed September 2026. ↩

34. Flexera. 2026 State of ITAM report announcement, flexera.com/about-us/press-center/flexera-2026-state-of-itam-report-reveals-only-31-percent-organizations-have-visibility-into-ai-as-spend-surges, 2026. What it is: producer announcement of the same survey of 512 technology professionals worldwide. Accessed September 2026. ↩

35. The Atticus Project. CUAD: an expert-annotated NLP dataset for legal contract review, arxiv.org/pdf/2103.06268, 2021. What it is: peer-reviewed corpus of more than 13,000 expert labels across 510 commercial contracts and 41 clause categories. Accessed September 2026. ↩

36. Tropic. 2025 Software Buying Trends To Power Your 2026, cdn.prod.website-files.com/6676e796800e7ce0354cf8cb/699f68a8dc4f367754472765_2526%20Software%20Buying%20Trends%20Report%20(1-compressed.pdf), 2025. What it is: platform data covering over $18 billion of spend under management and renewals negotiated for Tropic customers; report PDF, linked from the producer's report page at tropicapp.io/reports/software-spending-trends-2025. Accessed September 2026. ↩

37. Tropic. Contract renewal process, tropicapp.io/glossary/contract-renewal-process, 2026. What it is: platform data covering more than 500 customers and over $10 billion in spend managed through the platform. Accessed September 2026. ↩

38. Vertice. SaaS Inflation Index, vertice.one/l/saas-inflation-index-report, 2026. What it is: platform data compiled into a price index from the software spend Vertice manages; the landing page does not quantify the dataset. Accessed September 2026. ↩

39. Vertice. Average contract length, vertice.one/insights/average-contract-length, 2026. What it is: platform data on contract length by software category from the same managed spend; the page does not quantify the dataset. Accessed September 2026. ↩

40. Cledara. SaaS renewal benchmarks 2026, cledara.com/blog/saas-renewal-benchmarks-2026, 2026. What it is: platform data covering renewal patterns observed in card-issuing records from January 2024 through March 2026. Accessed September 2026. ↩

41. Gartner. Worldwide IT spending forecast, gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-07-27-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-it-spending-to-grow-14-point-2-percent-in-2026-totaling-6-point-37-trillion, 2026. What it is: forecast built on analysis of sales by over a thousand vendors; not a survey. Accessed September 2026. ↩

42. Flexera. 2026 State of ITAM Report, info.flexera.com/ITAM-REPORT-State-of-IT-Asset-Management, 2026. What it is: survey of 512 professionals with IT asset management responsibilities worldwide, conducted in early 2026. Accessed September 2026. ↩

43. New York State Senate. General Obligations Law 5-901, nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GOB/5-901, 2026. What it is: statute text governing automatic renewal clauses in leases of personal property. Accessed September 2026. ↩

44. New York State Senate. General Obligations Law 5-905, nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GOB/5-905, 2026. What it is: statute text governing automatic renewal clauses in leases of real property. Accessed September 2026. ↩

45. UK Parliament. Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4, Chapter 2, legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13/part/4/chapter/2, 2024. What it is: statute text creating the UK subscription contracts regime for consumers. Accessed September 2026. ↩

46. Ofgem. Decision on automatic rollovers and contract renewals for micro-business consumers, ofgem.gov.uk/publications/decision-automatic-rollovers-and-contract-renewals-micro-business-consumers, 2014. What it is: regulatory decision text, with the changes taking effect on 30 April 2015. Accessed September 2026. ↩

47. Ofcom. Automatically renewable contracts statement, ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-3/automatically-renewable-contracts, 2011. What it is: regulatory decision text prohibiting automatically renewable contracts for residential customers and small businesses with no more than ten employees in fixed voice and broadband. Accessed September 2026. ↩

48. US General Services Administration. Federal Acquisition Regulation 17.207, acquisition.gov/far/17.207, 2026. What it is: regulation text setting the conditions for exercising a contract option. Accessed September 2026. ↩

49. US General Services Administration. Federal Acquisition Regulation clause 52.217-9, acquisition.gov/far/52.217-9, 2026. What it is: regulation text setting the default 60-day preliminary notice for extending a contract term. Accessed September 2026. ↩

50. CBRE Research. US office lease term contraction in 2020, cbre.com/insights/briefs/us-office-marketflash-lease-term-contraction-in-2020-likely-more-cyclical-than-structural, 2021. What it is: official market statistics covering US office leases signed in 2020 against 2019. Accessed September 2026. ↩

51. JLL. US Office Market Dynamics Q1 2025, jll.com/content/dam/jllcom/en/global/documents/reports/research-reports/25-research-us-office-market-dynamics-q1-2025.pdf, 2025. What it is: official market statistics compiled from US office leasing activity, measured over the six quarters to Q1 2025. Accessed September 2026. ↩

52. CompStak. 2024 Year-End Office Market Report, part two, compstak.com/blog/2024-year-end-office-market-report-part-two, 2025. What it is: platform data covering commercial lease comparables contributed by brokers and appraisers across US gateway markets. Accessed September 2026. ↩

53. CompStak. 2026 Industrial Gateway Market Overview, compstak.com/blog/2026-industrial-gateway-market-overview-rents-concessions-ex, 2026. What it is: platform data covering industrial lease comparables in major US markets, as of Q1 2026. Accessed September 2026. ↩

54. Federal Trade Commission. Final click-to-cancel rule announcement, ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/10/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-click-cancel-rule-making-it-easier-consumers-end-recurring, 2024. What it is: regulator announcement carrying an administrative record of consumer complaints received by the Commission in 2024 and 2021. Accessed September 2026. ↩

55. Federal Trade Commission. Amazon settlement announcement, ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/09/ftc-secures-historic-25-billion-settlement-against-amazon, 2025. What it is: regulator announcement of settled enforcement terms, including the penalty, the refund sum, and the Commission's estimate of consumers affected. Accessed September 2026. ↩

56. Federal Trade Commission. Action against Adobe and two executives, ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/06/ftc-takes-action-against-adobe-executives-hiding-fees-preventing-consumers-easily-cancelling, 2024. What it is: regulator announcement of a complaint filed on 17 June 2024, describing the terms alleged. Accessed September 2026. ↩

57. New York Attorney General. Attorney General James secures $375,000 from 1-800-Flowers, ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-secures-375000-1-800-flowers-deceiving-consumers-about, 2026. What it is: regulator announcement of settled enforcement terms, also recording the May 2025 Equinox settlement. Accessed September 2026. ↩

58. European Commission. Enforcement of consumer protection: sweeps, commission.europa.eu/topics/consumers/consumer-rights-and-complaints/enforcement-consumer-protection/sweeps_en, undated. What it is: administrative record of a coordinated Consumer Protection Cooperation sweep screening 399 web shops; the page carries no publication year. Accessed September 2026. ↩

59. Federal Trade Commission. Revision of the Negative Option Rule, federalregister.gov/documents/2026/02/12/2026-02866/revision-of-the-negative-option-rule-withdrawal-of-the-cars-rule-removal-of-the-non-compete-rule-to, 2026. What it is: rule text authored by the Commission and published in the Federal Register. Accessed September 2026. ↩

60. Federal Trade Commission. Advance notice of proposed rulemaking on negative option marketing, ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/03/ftc-seeks-public-comment-response-advance-notice-proposed-rulemaking-regarding-negative-option, 2026. What it is: regulator rulemaking notice opening a public comment period on 13 March 2026. Accessed September 2026. ↩

61. California Legislature. Business and Professions Code section 17602, leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml, 2025. What it is: statute text, the California Automatic Renewal Law as amended by AB 2863 and applying to contracts entered into on or after 1 July 2025. Accessed September 2026. ↩

62. New York State Senate. General Business Law section 527-a, nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GBS/527-A, 2026. What it is: statute text governing consumer automatic renewal notices in New York. Accessed September 2026. ↩

63. UK Department for Business and Trade. Consumers to save around £400 million every year from government crackdown on costly subscription traps, gov.uk/government/news/consumers-to-save-around-400-million-every-year-from-government-crackdown-on-costly-subscription-traps, 2026. What it is: government announcement of 2 April 2026 stating the expected annual saving and the commencement timetable. Accessed September 2026. ↩

64. UK Department for Business and Trade. Subscription traps impact assessment, assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64464e6f529eda00123b02c4/annex_2-subscription_traps_impact_assessment.pdf, 2023. What it is: government impact assessment estimating unwanted subscriptions and their cost across the UK market. Accessed September 2026. ↩

65. Citizens Advice. Consumers spend £688 million on unused subscriptions in the last year, citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/press-releases/consumers-spend-688-million-on-unused-subscriptions-in-the-last-year, 2024. What it is: consumer research published by a national advice charity; the release does not state a sample size or fieldwork period. Accessed September 2026. ↩