India sold the world $221 billion of software. Products were $2.90 of every $100.

What $100 of Indian software exports is made of

India's software export story is overwhelmingly a services story: people and teams doing work for clients abroad, mostly from offices in India. Products — something built once and sold many times — are a sliver.

Everything grew except products

IT services added almost $16 billion in a single year. Engineering services grew just as fast in percentage terms. BPO barely moved. Product exports went backwards.

Not a one-year blip

Across five survey rounds, products have hovered around 3% of the total. The industry has grown by more than $60 billion in that time. The product share has not.

Why this matters to you

• If you are salaried in tech: the services engine that employs most of India's IT workforce grew 12% in dollars last year. The weak spot is BPO, flat at $56 billion — the segment built most directly on routine, repeatable work.
• If you are a founder: India exports people-hours, not IP. That is a gap, not a verdict — a product that sells abroad is still competing in a category where India has barely a $6 billion footprint.
• If you run a business: in rupees, exports grew 13.0%; in dollars, 8.2%. The 4.8-point gap in growth is the weaker rupee, not more work. With 54% of the market in one country, that exposure cuts both ways.

Three cautions before you quote this

• This is a survey, grossed up. RBI contacted 7,569 companies; 2,363 replied, covering about 89% of exports. The rest is estimated by RBI's published method.
• “Software product development” is RBI's category. It is the closest official measure of product exports, not a full count of Indian SaaS revenue. Sales through Indian firms' overseas subsidiaries ($17.9bn in 2025-26) are counted separately and are not in the $221.4bn.
• Older years can be revised. Each year's figure here is the latest one we found in an RBI release; RBI sometimes revises the previous year in the next round.