How Many Businesses Send Recurring Invoices? [2026 Data]

No government agency or trade body publishes a running count of how many businesses send a recurring invoice each month, but the market built to support them gives a clear signal. Grand View Research values the global subscription economy at $1.5 trillion by 2033, up from $492.3 billion in 2024, a growth curve that only holds together if the number of businesses billing customers on a repeat basis keeps expanding alongside it. This data study pulls together what verified 2025 research actually shows about that expansion, from the software market built around recurring billing to how fast subscription-model businesses are growing compared to everyone else.

How big is the recurring billing market getting?

Big enough that market researchers are treating it as its own category rather than a subset of general invoicing. Grand View Research’s Subscription Economy Market Size Report, updated in July 2025, values the global subscription economy at $492.3 billion in 2024, projects it will reach $628.2 billion in 2026, and forecasts $1.5 trillion by 2033, a 13.3% compound annual growth rate across the 2025 to 2033 forecast window. That is not a niche SaaS metric anymore; it spans every business model where a customer is billed on a repeat schedule rather than paying once, from software subscriptions to membership services to recurring service contracts.

Figure 1: Projected global subscription economy market size, 2024 actual vs 2033 forecast. Source: Grand View Research, Subscription Economy Market Size Report (2025-2033).

How fast are subscription businesses actually growing compared to everyone else?

Faster than the broader market, at least over the last two years. Zuora’s 2025 Subscription Economy Index, built from performance data across more than 600 subscription businesses, found that companies in the index grew revenue 11% faster than the S&P 500 over the trailing two years, even through a period of macroeconomic pressure that hit pricing power across most industries. That outperformance is not evenly distributed: Zuora’s research also found that businesses running 4 or more revenue models, mixing subscription, usage-based, and one-time charges instead of relying on a single pricing structure, saw 4.5% faster average-revenue-per-account growth and lower churn than businesses running just one model. The index treats that spread across pricing models, rather than any single model in isolation, as the actual driver of outperformance, which is a different story than the early days of the subscription economy when a single flat monthly fee was treated as the whole strategy.

Figure 2: Subscription Economy Index revenue growth, indexed against the S&P 500 as a baseline of 100, trailing two years. Source: Zuora, 2025 Subscription Economy Index (600+ subscription businesses).

Are more customers actually signing up for recurring billing relationships?

Yes, and the growth is not just coming from businesses launching new subscription offers; it is coming from consumers actively choosing to start new ones. The same Zuora index, drawing on a Harris Poll survey of US consumers, found that 68% subscribed to a new recurring service for the first time in 2024. That is a meaningful share of the population adding at least one new recurring billing relationship in a single year, and it lines up with why the software market built to invoice those relationships keeps expanding. The retention side of the picture matters just as much as new signups: 84% of consumers said they were getting the same or more value from their subscriptions year over year, evidence that the businesses acquiring these new recurring customers are not simply losing them as fast as they sign up.

Figure 3: Share of US consumers who subscribed to a new recurring service for the first time in 2024. Source: Zuora, 2025 Subscription Economy Index (Harris Poll survey).

How much is the software behind recurring invoicing actually worth?

Enough to have its own dedicated market forecast, separate from general invoicing tools. Verified Market Reports values the recurring billing software market at $5.4 billion in its 2025 base year, projecting growth to $21.85 billion by 2033, a 15.1% compound annual growth rate, more than double the pace of the general billing and invoicing software category covered below. That report’s own vendor list, which includes Zoho, Intuit, and PayStand among the companies it tracks, is itself a sign of how mainstream recurring billing tooling has become rather than a niche add-on sold by one or two specialist vendors, not a category still waiting for demand to show up.

Figure 4: Recurring billing software market size, 2025 base year vs 2033 forecast. Source: Verified Market Reports, Global Recurring Billing Software Market (2026 edition).

That 15.1% growth rate only means something next to a baseline, and the baseline is the broader billing and invoicing software category, which covers one-off invoicing as well as recurring billing. Market Research Future values that wider market at $12.06 billion in 2025, projecting it will reach $23.69 billion by 2035, a 6.98% compound annual growth rate, meaning it roughly doubles over a decade rather than the near-quadrupling recurring-specific tools are on pace for in about half the time. The gap between those two growth rates, 15.1% for recurring-specific tools versus 6.98% for the category overall, is itself a signal: buyers are shifting spend toward tools purpose-built for repeat billing faster than they are toward invoicing software in general, which points toward more businesses adopting a recurring invoicing workflow rather than sticking with one-off billing. Confidence in that shift shows up on the buyer side too: Chargebee’s 2025 State of Recurring Revenue and Monetization report, surveying 473 subscription companies, found 96% expected revenue growth in 2025, with two-thirds expecting more than 20% growth, hardly the posture of an industry treating recurring billing as an experiment rather than the plan.

Figure 5: Billing and invoicing software market size, projected 2025 to 2035 at a 6.98% compound annual growth rate. Source: Market Research Future, Billing and Invoicing Software Market Size Report.

None of this growth happens in isolation from the late-payment problem that BillyPaid tracks across the wider invoicing economy. The 55% of US B2B invoices that go overdue and the average $17,500 owed to small businesses with unpaid invoices apply just as much to a recurring billing relationship as a one-off invoice; a subscription that fails to collect on schedule creates the same cash-flow gap as any other overdue bill, just on a repeating basis. A business moving toward recurring invoicing is not exempt from that risk, it is taking on a version of it that recurs every cycle instead of once.

Recurring Billing and Invoicing Market at a Glance

Metric	2025 (or nearest base year)	Forecast	Source
Global subscription economy	$492.3B (2024)	$1.5T by 2033	Grand View Research
Recurring billing software market	$5.4B	$21.85B by 2033	Verified Market Reports
Billing and invoicing software market	$12.06B	$23.69B by 2035	Market Research Future
Subscription Economy Index revenue growth	11% faster than S&P 500 (2yr)	N/A	Zuora 2025 SEI

Table 1: Market size and growth figures for recurring billing and the broader subscription economy. Sources: Grand View Research; Verified Market Reports; Market Research Future; Zuora 2025 Subscription Economy Index.

The Bottom Line

There is no single census that counts how many businesses send a recurring invoice each month, but every proxy available points the same direction: up, and accelerating faster than one-off invoicing. The global subscription economy is on pace to reach $1.5 trillion by 2033, the software market built specifically for recurring billing is growing more than twice as fast as general invoicing software, and the businesses already running recurring billing relationships are outgrowing the S&P 500 by 11% while consumers keep signing up for new ones. For a business still rebuilding the same invoice by hand every billing cycle, that gap between recurring-tool growth and general-invoicing-tool growth is the market telling you where billing workflows are headed. A BillyPaid recurring invoice automates the schedule once and sends itself on repeat, with a payable link and reminders built in, rather than adding another manual task to a billing cycle that is only going to repeat more often as this market keeps growing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many businesses actually send recurring invoices? No government census or industry body counts this directly, but the market built to support recurring billing gives the clearest proxy. Grand View Research values the global subscription economy at $628.2 billion in 2026, up from $492.3 billion in 2024, and projects it will reach $1.5 trillion by 2033, a 13.3% compound annual growth rate that only makes sense if the number of businesses billing customers on a recurring basis keeps climbing alongside it.

Is the recurring billing software market actually growing? Yes, and faster than the general billing and invoicing software market. Verified Market Reports puts the recurring billing software market at $5.4 billion in 2025, growing to $21.85 billion by 2033 at a 15.1% compound annual growth rate, versus 6.98% for the broader billing and invoicing software category, which Market Research Future values at $12.06 billion in 2025 rising to $23.69 billion by 2035.

Are subscription and recurring-revenue businesses actually outperforming other companies? Zuora’s 2025 Subscription Economy Index, drawn from more than 600 subscription businesses, found that companies in the index grew revenue 11% faster than the S&P 500 over the trailing two years. Businesses running 4 or more revenue models, combining subscription, usage-based, and one-time charges rather than relying on a single pricing model, saw 4.5% faster average-revenue-per-account growth than single-model businesses in the same index.

Are consumers actually signing up for more recurring services? Yes. Zuora’s 2025 Subscription Economy Index, based on a Harris Poll survey of US consumers, found that 68% subscribed to a new recurring service for the first time in 2024, and 84% said they were getting the same or more value from their subscriptions year over year, a sign that recurring billing relationships are not just growing in count but holding up once they start.

Sources and References

1. Grand View Research: Subscription Economy Market Size Report, 2025-2033, global market size and growth forecast.
2. Zuora: 2025 Subscription Economy Index (600+ subscription businesses, plus a Harris Poll consumer survey, published April 2025), revenue growth vs S&P 500, consumer subscription behavior, and revenue-model diversification data.
3. Market Research Future: Billing and Invoicing Software Market Size Report, market size and CAGR forecast through 2035.
4. Verified Market Reports: Global Recurring Billing Software Market Size Report (2026 edition, last updated April 2026), market size and CAGR forecast through 2033.
5. Chargebee: 2025 State of Recurring Revenue and Monetization Report (473 subscription companies surveyed), revenue growth expectations.

Note: All figures verified as of August 2026.