- India’s software services exports rose 8.2 per cent year-on-year to $221.4 billion.
- IT services accounted for $147 billion of the total, while software product development contributed just $6.4 billion.
- The US remained India’s biggest software market, accounting for 54.1 per cent of exports.
India’s software services exports climbed 8.2 per cent to $221.4 billion in 2025-26 from $204.7 billion a year earlier, according to the Reserve Bank of India’s annual survey.
The headline number points to continued strength in India’s technology sector. A closer look at the breakdown, however, shows where that growth is coming from.
Computer services remained the largest component of software services exports, accounting for 69.3 per cent of the total, up from 67.4 per cent in 2024-25.
Within computer services, IT services exports rose to $147 billion from $131.3 billion. By comparison, software product development exports fell to $6.4 billion from $6.8 billion.
That means IT services generated more than 20 times the export value of software product development during the year.
India’s services model remains the main engine
The other major contributor was IT-enabled services, or ITES, whose exports increased to $68 billion from $66.6 billion.
Business process outsourcing continued to dominate this segment, accounting for $56 billion, or 82.4 per cent of ITES exports. Engineering services contributed another $12 billion, up from $10.8 billion in 2024-25.
The figures underline how much of India’s technology export strength still comes from providing services to overseas clients rather than selling software products developed in India.
The US remained the largest destination, with its share of India’s software exports rising to 54.1 per cent from 52.9 per cent a year earlier. Software exports to the US reached $119.7 billion.
Europe accounted for 31.8 per cent of exports, with the UK alone contributing 15.4 per cent.
The concentration in the US and Europe was also reflected in invoicing. The US dollar accounted for 72.6 per cent of software export invoices, followed by the euro at 9.6 per cent and the British pound at 6 per cent. The rupee’s share fell to 6.3 per cent from 7.1 per cent.
More work is being delivered remotely
Another shift in the data is the growing importance of off-site delivery.
Off-site exports rose to $203 billion in 2025-26 and accounted for 91.7 per cent of total software services exports, compared with 90.7 per cent a year earlier.
On-site services, where Indian technology professionals work directly from a client’s overseas location, accounted for the remaining 8.3 per cent. Their value fell to $18.4 billion from $19 billion.
The change comes as Indian technology companies continue to rely heavily on remote delivery while navigating tighter immigration and visa rules in some major markets.
Including services delivered through the overseas commercial presence of Indian companies, total software services exports rose 9.5 per cent to $239.3 billion from $218.6 billion in 2024-25.
The RBI survey also showed that software business by foreign affiliates of Indian companies increased to $17.9 billion from $13.9 billion, with the US and UK remaining the major destinations.
The central bank contacted 7,569 software export companies for the 2025-26 survey, of which 2,363 responded. The participating companies accounted for around 89 per cent of total estimated software services exports.
The numbers point to a technology export industry that continues to expand, but largely through established strengths in IT services, BPO and engineering rather than software products.
For India, the challenge may increasingly be whether it can turn that enormous services base into a bigger software product business of its own.
