Profitability · Updated June 2026
Gross Margin Benchmarks
GAAP gross margin by industry and business model. All combinations covered — pure SaaS, usage-based, hybrid, and marketplace.
Gross margin — SEC EDGAR, by industry segment (public companies)
| Industry segment | Median | Cohort | Vintage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dev Tools / Infrastructure | 75.2% | n=10 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| General B2B SaaS | 81.3% | n=8 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| Security / Compliance | 76.7% | n=9 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| MarTech / Sales Tech | 73.9% | n=9 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| Vertical SaaS | 65% | n=10 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| Fintech / Payments | 70% | n=5 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| HR / Workforce | 74.5% | n=5 | TTM Q4 2025 |
| Healthcare / MedTech | 71.2% | n=4 | TTM Q4 2025 |
All segments combined median: 75% (n=60)
Primary source: SEC EDGAR companyfacts API (data.sec.gov), us-gaap XBRL facts, computed TTM per-company and aggregated as a segment median. See data/benchmarks_public.json for the full derivation (method, company sample, period) behind every number on this page.
Method: (Revenue - CostOfRevenue) / Revenue, or GrossProfit / Revenue where reported directly, TTM, cohort median. Period: TTM ending 2025-12-31. Companies used: 60 (SEC CIKs, see derivation.cik_sample in benchmarks_public.json). Flags: G1, G3.
Definition traps
G1 — Revenue tag varies by issuer
Public companies report revenue under different us-gaap XBRL tags depending on when they adopted ASC 606:
RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax or ...IncludingAssessedTax (post-2018), or the older Revenues tag (pre-ASC 606, or issuers who never switched). This pipeline checks all three tags and uses whichever has data for the period — flagged here whenever a segment's cohort includes at least one company using a fallback tag.G3 — TTM sometimes requires a Q4 plug
10-Q filings report cumulative year-to-date figures, not always a discrete quarter. Where a discrete Q4 fact is not filed directly, this pipeline derives it as Q4 = FY (10-K total) − sum(Q1+Q2+Q3, 10-Q). Every company/period where this plug was used is logged explicitly — never silently assumed.
Private company context (attributed, not canonical)
SaaS gross margin by business model (Bessemer / KeyBanc, attributed)
Gross margin % — all industries and business models
| Industry | Business Model | Median GM% | Top Quartile GM% | Bottom Quartile GM% | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pure SaaS / Subscription — highest gross margins in software | |||||
| Dev Tools / Infrastructure | Subscription | 78% | 87% | 68% | High |
| General B2B SaaS | Subscription | 76% | 84% | 65% | High |
| Security / Compliance | Subscription | 74% | 83% | 63% | High |
| MarTech / Sales Tech | Subscription | 72% | 81% | 60% | High |
| Vertical SaaS | Subscription | 68% | 78% | 56% | Mid-High |
| Fintech / Payments | Subscription | 68% | 79% | 55% | Mid-High |
| HR / Workforce | Subscription | 66% | 76% | 54% | Mid-High |
| Healthcare / MedTech | Subscription | 65% | 76% | 52% | Mid-High |
| Usage-Based / Consumption — margins compressed by infrastructure costs scaling with usage | |||||
| Dev Tools / Infrastructure | Usage-based | 62% | 74% | 48% | Variable |
| General B2B SaaS | Usage-based | 60% | 72% | 45% | Variable |
| MarTech / Sales Tech | Usage-based | 58% | 70% | 42% | Variable |
| Fintech / Payments | Usage-based | 55% | 67% | 40% | Variable |
| Security / Compliance | Usage-based | 60% | 71% | 44% | Variable |
| Healthcare / MedTech | Usage-based | 52% | 63% | 38% | Variable |
| Hybrid (SaaS + Professional Services) — services revenue drags blended margin | |||||
| General B2B SaaS | Hybrid | 58% | 68% | 44% | Mid |
| MarTech / Sales Tech | Hybrid | 55% | 65% | 40% | Mid |
| Vertical SaaS | Hybrid | 52% | 63% | 38% | Mid |
| HR / Workforce | Hybrid | 50% | 61% | 36% | Mid |
| Healthcare / MedTech | Hybrid | 48% | 58% | 34% | Mid |
| Security / Compliance | Hybrid | 56% | 66% | 42% | Mid |
| Fintech / Payments | Hybrid | 50% | 61% | 36% | Mid |
| Marketplace / Transaction — take-rate model; gross margin reflects net revenue, not GMV | |||||
| Fintech / Payments | Marketplace / Transaction | 42% | 55% | 28% | Low |
| MarTech / Sales Tech | Marketplace / Transaction | 45% | 58% | 30% | Low |
| Vertical SaaS | Marketplace / Transaction | 38% | 50% | 24% | Low |
| Healthcare / MedTech | Marketplace / Transaction | 35% | 48% | 20% | Low |
Sources: KeyBanc Capital Markets SaaS Survey 2023, Bessemer State of the Cloud 2024, public SaaS company SEC filings 2023–2025. Gross margin = (Revenue − COGS) / Revenue per GAAP.
Business model matters more than industry
A healthcare subscription SaaS runs 65% gross margins. A healthcare marketplace runs 35%. Same industry, 30-point gap. When benchmarking your gross margin, match by business model first, industry second. Usage-based models compress margins because infrastructure scales with consumption — the best mitigation is pricing efficiency (cost per unit of consumption declining as you scale). Services revenue above 15% of total revenue will structurally hold blended margins below 65%.Sponsored placement
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