India's software services exports rose 8.2 per cent to $221.4 billion in 2025-26, with the United States taking a larger 54.1 per cent share, according to the Reserve Bank of India's annual survey on computer software and ITES exports.
Two Headline Numbers, Measured Differently
The Reserve Bank of India's survey reports software services exports on two bases, and the difference between them is worth understanding.
Excluding sales through the overseas commercial presence of Indian companies, exports rose 8.2 per cent year on year to $221.4 billion in 2025-26, from $204.7 billion. Including services delivered through that overseas commercial presence, total software services exports rose 9.5 per cent to $239.3 billion, from $218.6 billion in 2024-25.
The faster growth on the broader measure comes from one specific line. The local software business of foreign affiliates of Indian companies rose to $17.9 billion in 2025-26 from $13.9 billion the previous year, with the United States and the United Kingdom remaining the major destinations for that business.
The US Share Climbed Again
The United States remained India's largest software services market and increased its weight in the mix. Exports to the US rose to $119.7 billion from $108.3 billion, lifting the American share to 54.1 per cent in 2025-26 from 52.9 per cent a year earlier.
Europe moved the other way, accounting for 31.8 per cent of exports against 32.8 per cent in 2024-25. The United Kingdom was the largest European destination at 15.4 per cent of India's software services exports, worth about $34 billion. Asia accounted for 6.3 per cent, while Australia and New Zealand together made up 2.5 per cent.
For Indian IT investors, the concentration is the point worth noting. With more than half of software services exports going to a single country, US client budgets, US demand conditions and the trade environment between the two countries matter more to sector revenue than any other single external variable.
Inside the Export Mix
Computer services remained the largest component of software services exports, at 69.3 per cent of the total, up from 67.4 per cent in 2024-25. Within IT-enabled services, business process outsourcing stayed dominant at $56 billion, or 82.4 per cent of ITES exports.
Engineering services exports rose to $12 billion from $10.8 billion. Private limited companies dominated software exports during the year, growing 9.3 per cent.
The composition tells a consistent story. Growth in 2025-26 came from established strengths in computer services, business process outsourcing and engineering services, with computer services gaining share within the overall mix.
Off-Site Delivery Still Carries the Model
Around 91.7 per cent of India's software services exports were delivered through off-site modes in 2025-26, meaning work performed from India for clients abroad rather than by staff stationed at the client's location.
The mode-of-supply breakdown reinforces that. Cross-border supply accounted for $202.7 billion, or 84.7 per cent of the total. Commercial presence contributed $17.9 billion, while services supplied through the presence of natural persons, essentially on-site work, accounted for $18.4 billion, down from $19 billion in the previous year.
That decline in on-site earnings alongside growth in the overall total is one of the more revealing details in the survey. Indian technology companies delivered more export revenue in 2025-26 while earning slightly less from people physically posted overseas, which is relevant to both visa exposure and the cost structure of large IT services firms.
How the Survey Was Conducted
The Reserve Bank of India contacted 7,569 software export companies for the 2025-26 round of the survey, of which 2,363 responded, including most of the large companies. Respondents accounted for around 89 per cent of total estimated software services exports.
The survey examines exports by activity, mode of delivery, destination and mode of supply, covering computer services as well as ITES and business process outsourcing services. It is an annual exercise, which makes it a slower but more granular counterpart to the monthly and quarterly trade data that markets usually react to.
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Why the Data Matters for the IT Sector
Listed Indian IT companies report quarterly revenue and margins, but they do not publish a shared view of where national export demand is coming from or how it is delivered. The RBI survey supplies that, which is why it is useful context for anyone tracking the sector rather than a single company.
Three readings stand out for FY26: growth held in the high single digits on the narrower measure, the US became more important rather than less, and the model shifted a little further toward delivery from India. Each of those is a structural factor that sits behind the quarterly numbers the market trades on.
