Our goal was to build a current, benchmarkable view of how organizations worldwide allocate cybersecurity budgets across industries, company sizes, market segments, and internal spending categories.
The headline number: global cybersecurity spending reaches $240 billion in 2026, up 12.5% from $213 billion in 2025 (Gartner). Global cybercrime damages, by comparison, will hit $10.5 trillion this year (Cybersecurity Ventures). Attackers extract roughly $49 for every dollar defenders spend, and that ratio keeps widening.
This report covers:
- Global spending by market segment, 2024–2026
- Spending benchmarks by industry vertical (revenue %, per-employee, and breach cost)
- Spending by organization size and tier
- How organizations allocate budgets internally by category
Global Cybersecurity Spending by Segment: 2026
Security software now commands the largest share of global cybersecurity investment, driven by cloud-native platforms and AI-enhanced detection tools. Gartner divides the global market into three primary segments. All three show double-digit growth.
Segment | 2024 (Actual) | 2025 (Estimate) | 2026 (Projected) | YoY Growth |
Security Software | $95.0B | $105.9B | $121.2B | +14.4% |
Security Services | $77.1B | $83.8B | $92.8B | +10.7% |
Network Security | $21.3B | $23.3B | $25.8B | +10.7% |
Total | $193.4B | $213.0B | $239.8B | +12.6% |
Key Insights:
- Security software now accounts for 50.5% of total global spending, overtaking services for the first time. Cloud-native tools have automated functions that previously required manual effort, driving the category's 14.4% YoY growth.
- Security services are still valued at $92.8 billion in 2026. The managed security services market alone accounts for $39.5 billion of that figure, driven by a global shortage of 4.8 million unfilled cybersecurity positions (ISC2).
- Network security is the slowest-growing segment at 10.7%. The market has shifted away from hardware-based perimeters toward software-defined security architectures, and traditional network spending reflects that decline in relative weight.
Cybersecurity Spending by Industry Vertical: 2026
Healthcare spends the least on cybersecurity as a percentage of revenue. It also faces the highest average breach cost of any industry. That gap, 0.3–0.5% of revenue invested against a $7.42 million average breach (IBM), represents the most severe security underinvestment paradox across any major sector.
Financial services lead in spending intensity, where regulatory mandates like PCI-DSS and SOX create effective spending floors.
Industry | Spend (% of Revenue) | Per-Employee Spend | Avg. Breach Cost | Orgs Spending >$5M/yr |
Technology | 0.9%+ | $4,200 | $4.79M | 55–60% |
Financial Services | 0.8–1.0% | $3,500 | $5.56M | 50–55% |
Government/Defense | ~0.6% | $2,400 | — | — |
Healthcare | 0.3–0.5% | $2,100 | $7.42M | 65–70% |
Manufacturing | ~0.4% | — | $4.56M | 40–45% |
Retail | ~0.3% | — | — | 35–40% |
Education | ~0.3% | $1,200 | $3.80M | — |
Global Average | ~0.69% | $2,700 | $4.44M | — |
Key Insights:
- Healthcare carries a 22:1 damage-to-investment ratio. Financial services, by comparison, sits at roughly 6:1. The difference traces directly to investment levels and the regulatory environment each sector operates in.
- Manufacturing anticipates the fastest budget growth in 2026. Between 90 and 95% of manufacturers plan significant budget increases, with OT security as the primary driver. In the first half of 2025 alone, researchers identified 670 new OT vulnerabilities (Elisity).
- Technology companies spend more per employee ($4,200) than any other sector. Despite that level of investment, they still absorb an average of $4.79 million per breach, evidence that the volume of tooling alone does not close the gap.
Cybersecurity Spending by Organization Size: 2026
Mid-market companies, those spending $1 million to $10 million annually, account for 54% of the global market by volume. They face a structural challenge: operations are too complex for minimal controls, yet too resource-constrained for full in-house security programs. Enterprise organizations, meanwhile, spend more but confront a different problem: tool sprawl.
Organization Tier | Annual Security Budget | Market Share | Dominant Strategy |
SME / Emerging | Under $1M | ~13% | Foundational controls |
Mid-Market | $1M–$10M | ~54% | Managed services, cloud-native tools |
High-Growth Enterprise | $10M–$25M | ~16% | Zero Trust buildout, SOC expansion |
Global Elite | Over $25M | ~17% | Platform consolidation, AI-led operations |
Key Insights:
- The mid-market tier (54% of the market) relies heavily on MSSPs. Outsourced service allocations for this tier run 19 to 21% of total security spend, the highest rate of any organizational size (Picus Security).
- Global elite organizations (>$25M) face a complexity problem. The average enterprise with more than 25,000 employees manages 60 to 100+ security tools. About 35% of high-spending organizations manage more than 50 tools, and many report that tool proliferation creates blind spots rather than eliminating them.
- SMEs remain the most exposed relative to their spend. Small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees absorb 43% of all cyberattacks despite representing 13% of total global security investment (Total Assure, 2025).
Internal Budget Allocation by Category: 2026
Total budget figures tell part of the story. The more actionable benchmark is how organizations distribute spending internally. The table below shows how the average enterprise security budget breaks down, based on Forrester's 2026 Budget Planning Guide and IANS Research benchmarking.
Category | Average Allocation | 2025–2026 Trend |
Security Software & Platforms | ~40% | ↑ Increasing |
Internal Personnel | ~30% | → Stable |
Hardware & Appliances | ~15% | ↓ Declining |
Outsourced Services | ~15% | ↑ Increasing |
Key Insights:
- Personnel is the single largest discrete spending category. Staffing accounts for 30 to 37% of the average security budget (IANS Research), and annual security salaries rise by 5 to 8%. Organizations increasingly pair in-house teams with managed services rather than compete in a tight hiring market.
- Hardware allocations are shrinking across all tiers. The move from appliance-based perimeter security to software-defined and cloud-hosted alternatives has structurally reduced the hardware share of the budget.
- Building an in-house Security Operations Center costs an average of $14.6 million annually (KPMG). That figure pushes most organizations, particularly in the mid-market, toward managed providers as the more cost-effective path to 24/7 coverage.
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Sources
- ORDR Inc. "Cybersecurity Spending: 2026 Data." ORDR Inc. June 2026.
- Gartner. "Gartner Forecasts Worldwide End-User Spending on Information Security to Total $213 Billion in 2025." Gartner, Inc., Stamford, CT. July 29, 2025.
- IBM Security. "Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025." IBM Corporation. Armonk, NY. 2025.
- IANS Research and Artico Search. "2025 Security Budget Benchmark Report." IANS Research. Boston, MA. 2025.
- House, Nathan. "Cybersecurity Spending Statistics [2026]: Budgets & ROI." StationX. June 2026.
- Toll, William. "2026 Cybersecurity Budget: Complete Enterprise Planning Guide." Elisity. September 17, 2025.
- Özeren Hacıoğlu, Sıla. "How to Optimize Cybersecurity Budget in 2026?" Picus Security. February 2, 2026.
- ISC2. "ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study 2024." ISC2. Clearwater, FL. 2024.