India’s software services exports rose 8.2% year-on-year to $221.4 billion in 2025-26, with the US continuing to account for more than half of the country’s software exports, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s annual survey released on Friday.
The RBI’s Survey on Computer Software and Information Technology Enabled Services Exports: 2025-26 showed that software services exports, excluding sales through the overseas commercial presence of Indian companies, increased from $204.7 billion in 2024-25 to $221.4 billion in 2025-26.
The survey covered exports by type of activity, delivery mode, destination and mode of supply.
IT leads
Computer services remained the largest component, accounting for 69.3% of total software services exports in 2025-26, up from 67.4% a year earlier. Within computer services, IT services exports rose to $147 billion from $131.3 billion, while software product development exports declined to $6.4 billion from $6.8 billion.
IT-enabled services (ITES) exports increased to $68 billion in 2025-26 from $66.6 billion in the previous year. Business process outsourcing (BPO) services continued to dominate ITES, accounting for $56 billion, or 82.4% of ITES exports. Engineering services contributed $12 billion, up from $10.8 billion in 2024-25.
US dominates
The US remained the largest destination for India’s software exports, with its share rising to 54.1% in 2025-26 from 52.9% a year earlier. Software exports to the US stood at $119.7 billion.
Europe was the second-largest destination, accounting for 31.8% of exports, with the UK contributing a 15.4% share.
The concentration of exports in the US and Europe was accompanied by the continued dominance of the US dollar in invoicing. The dollar accounted for 72.6% of software export invoices in 2025-26, up from 72% in the previous year. The euro accounted for 9.6%, while the rupee’s share declined to 6.3% from 7.1%. The pound sterling accounted for 6%.
Software services exports continued to be overwhelmingly delivered through off-site services. Off-site exports rose to $203 billion in 2025-26 and accounted for 91.7% of total software services exports, compared with a 90.7% share in 2024-25. On-site services accounted for the remaining 8.3%.
Private limited companies remained the largest organisational category, accounting for 60.8% of software services exports in 2025-26. Their exports increased to $134.6 billion from $123.1 billion a year earlier.
Public limited companies accounted for 36.9%, with exports of $81.7 billion.
Overseas presence
Including services delivered through the overseas commercial presence of Indian companies, total software services exports increased 9.5% during 2025-26 to $239.3 billion from $218.6 billion in the previous year.
Cross-border supply, or Mode 1, accounted for $202.7 billion, while commercial presence, or Mode 3, contributed $17.9 billion.
The survey also captured the growing role of foreign affiliates of Indian companies. Software business by these affiliates locally increased to $17.9 billion in 2025-26 from $13.9 billion in the previous year, with the US and UK remaining the major destinations.
The RBI contacted 7,569 software export companies for the 2025-26 survey, of which 2,363 companies responded. The participating companies accounted for around 89% of total estimated software services exports.
Leave a Reply