SAP licence cost and maintenance fees: what each line is and how it grows
The licence is paid once. The maintenance is paid every year, on a base that only moves one way. This guide sets out each fee, the rate behind it and the rights customers gained in 2026.
Contents
SAP’s on-premise customers paid €10.5 billion for software support in 20251. That is maintenance on licences already bought. For most of those customers it is the largest recurring SAP line, and the one they understand least, because the rate, the base and the yearly adjustment sit in different documents.
The situation for the person holding the invoice
A maintenance invoice arrives once a year and looks like a fixed cost. It is the product of three things: a licence value agreed years ago, a percentage, and an index applied on top. A fourth factor arrives in 2028 for companies still on ECC. None of the three is published as a list price, and SAP’s user groups have asked for clearer terms for years. In DSAG’s 2026 investment survey, 70% of 198 member companies named licence and contract design as a challenge for their SAP investment decisions2. In a December 2025 survey by the UK and Ireland user group, 61% cited licensing and pricing models as their largest information gap3.
The fees, one by one
| Fee | Rate or price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Support | 22% of software licence fees a year, phased in from 17% under a 2009 agreement with user groups | InfoWorld4 |
| On-premise maintenance in recent deals | 17% to 22% of licence cost a year | Vendr, marketplace estimate5 |
| Yearly adjustment | Local consumer price index, capped at 3.3% in 2023 and at 5.0% since | The Register, quoting SAP67 |
| 2027 adjustment | Announced for 1 January 2027, capped at 5%; in Germany tied to an index of earnings in IT services | Complion8 |
| Extended maintenance, ECC, 2028 to 2030 | Two percentage points on the maintenance basis | SAP910 |
| Private edition transition option, 2031 to 2033 | A standard 20% uplift for customers signing in 2026, with the Max Success Plan fee on top | SAP11 |
| Cloud subscription, S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition | $200 to $300 per user a month | Vendr, marketplace estimate5 |
| Cloud renewal without a cap | Increases of 10% or more, according to Gartner; SAP disputes the analysis | The Register7 |
How the yearly adjustment came back
For about ten years SAP kept support prices largely stable, and it waived adjustments in 2021 and 2022. In September 2022 it announced an increase of up to 3.3%, or the local consumer price index if lower, from 1 January 2023, covering Standard Support, Enterprise Support and Product Support for Large Enterprises. SAP cited inflation, energy and labour costs and said it was the first adjustment in nearly a decade6.
It has been applied each year since. Gartner recorded a 5% increase for 2025 and expects on-premise customers to face annual support increases for the foreseeable future. SAP’s response was that the contracts allow adjustments tied to local indices, capped at 5.0%, with the lower index applying where it is lower, and that list prices for new purchases are unaffected7. The adjustment for 2027 follows the same pattern8.
DSAG’s chairman, Jens Hungershausen, said in 2023 that “reliable mechanisms for price development are needed”, after a survey in which nearly half of members were dissatisfied with SAP’s cloud pricing12.
What the compounding does
Take €1 million of net licence value at 22%.
| Year | Maintenance with a 5% adjustment each year | Cumulative |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | €220,000 | €220,000 |
| 3 | €242,550 | €693,550 |
| 5 | €267,411 | €1,215,639 |
| 10 | €341,292 | €2,767,136 |
This is our arithmetic at the cap, so it is an upper bound; where the local index is lower, the lower figure applies7. Without any adjustment the ten-year total is €2.2 million. On either line the customer pays for the licences a second time before year five.
Indirect access: the licence nobody counted
Licence cost is also a matter of who counts as a user. In February 2017 the High Court in England found for SAP against Diageo, whose sales staff and customers reached SAP data through two Salesforce-based systems. The court held that named-user licences were required for access whether direct or indirect. SAP’s claim was £54,503,578 in additional licence and maintenance fees; the ruling settled liability13. Any plan to put AI agents or other software in front of an SAP system should be checked against the contract’s user definitions before it is built.
What changed in 2026: rights worth using
In September 2025 the European Commission opened a formal investigation into SAP’s on-premise maintenance and support. Its concerns included the requirement to buy support from SAP for all on-premise ERP software at the same service type, the inability to end maintenance on unused licences, and reinstatement and back-maintenance fees for customers who return14. In July 2026 the Commission accepted SAP’s commitments: customers may use outside support providers for each part of the on-premise ERP system, licensing provisions are clarified, and licences can be terminated, with their maintenance and support fees, in specific scenarios. The commitments apply globally for ten years and concern on-premise policies only15.
A plan for the maintenance line
- Reconstruct the base. List every licence on the maintenance schedule with its value and its rate.
- Mark what is unused. Shelfware that still carries maintenance is the first candidate for termination under the 2026 commitments15.
- Model the stay. Apply the yearly cap and, for ECC, the two-point premium from 20289. Use the table on the cost guide.
- Price the alternatives for support. Third-party support is now explicitly permitted for each part of the estate15; Rimini Street reports savings of up to 50% of annual fees16.
- Decide where the released budget goes. A lower support bill is a means. The reallocation guide sets out how to turn it into a system the company owns.
What to have in writing before the next renewal
- The licence value and rate behind every maintenance line.
- The index and cap that govern the yearly adjustment.
- The termination rights that apply to unused licences.
- For cloud contracts, a renewal price cap for every term.
The end state is a maintenance line that the company has chosen, on licences it uses, with a known ceiling, and a budget for what replaces it.
Questions buyers ask
How much does an SAP licence cost per user?
SAP publishes no list price that we could open. For cloud ERP, Vendr’s marketplace data puts S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition at $200 to $300 per user a month. For on-premise, the licence value is set in each contract, and the recurring cost is the maintenance percentage charged on it every year.
What percentage is SAP maintenance?
SAP set Enterprise Support at 22% of software licence fees in 2009, up from 17% for the service before it. Vendr’s data on recent deals gives a range of 17% to 22% of licence cost a year for on-premise maintenance.
How much will SAP maintenance increase in 2027?
An adjustment has been announced for 1 January 2027, capped at 5% and tied to local price or earnings indices. SAP describes these as adjustments under existing contract terms and says the lower index applies where it is below the cap.
What does extended maintenance for SAP ECC cost?
Two percentage points on the existing maintenance basis, for the three years from the start of 2028 to the end of 2030. On €1 million of licence value at 22%, that is €240,000 a year in place of €220,000.
Can we stop paying maintenance on SAP licences we do not use?
In July 2026 the European Commission accepted commitments from SAP that include the right to terminate licences, along with their maintenance and support fees, in specific scenarios. The commitments run for ten years. The exact scenarios should be confirmed against the published commitments and your contract.
Sources
- SAP’s grand cloud escape plan €2B short of the runway. The Register, 19 Mar 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- DSAG Investment Report 2026: AI establishes itself. DSAG, 26 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Half of German-speaking SAP users set to blow past 2027 ECC support deadline. The Register, 27 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP agrees to delay full Enterprise Support price rise. InfoWorld, 29 Apr 2009. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP software pricing and plans 2026. Vendr. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP support fees to rise in January to offset inflation cost. The Register, 12 Sep 2022. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, says Gartner. The Register, 14 Oct 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP passt Wartungsgebühren 2027 an. Complion. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP S/4HANA: commitment to innovation and maintenance until 2040. SAP News Center, 4 Feb 2020. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Maintenance strategy: SAP S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite 7. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Navigating your RISE with SAP journey: updates for SAP ERP, private edition, transition option. SAP News Center, 4 Aug 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP users balk at German vendor’s price rises. The Register, 2 May 2023. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Ditching your call centre for an app? Be careful not to get SAP-slapped. The Register, 20 Feb 2017. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- EU probes SAP over alleged software support stranglehold. The Register, 25 Sep 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP loosens ERP maintenance and support rules. CIO Dive, 9 Jul 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Third-party support for SAP. Rimini Street. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
Updated 11 Nov 2026: First published.