What SAP costs each year, and what the same budget buys in AI
The price of staying on SAP is documented in SAP's own pages and in user-group surveys. This guide adds the lines up, then shows how the same money can fund software the company owns.
Contents
Few finance directors can state from memory what SAP costs their company in a year, because the cost arrives in layers: support, subscriptions, adjustments, integrator invoices and, every decade or so, a migration. Each layer is documented. Together they describe a budget that could be spent differently.
The cost layers, from the sources
| Cost line | What the source says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Support | List price of 22% for new on-premise purchases, described as fixed until 2025; the rate applies to licence fees | SAP1; InfoWorld2 |
| Yearly adjustment | Tied to local consumer price indices, capped at 5%; first applied in 2023 | SAP statement to The Register3 |
| Extended maintenance, 2028 to 2030 | Two percentage points on the maintenance basis | SAP4 |
| Transition option, 2031 to 2033 | 20% uplift for customers signing in 2026; max success plan fee on top | SAP5 |
| Private cloud renewal | 10% or more without a negotiated cap | Gartner, reported by The Register3 |
| Migration to S/4HANA | Close to six in ten projects late and over budget | ISG6 |
| Migration to S/4HANA | Budget missed in more than six of ten projects; 30% longer than planned | Horváth7 |
An illustration on €1 million of licences
The figures below are arithmetic on the published rates, not a quote. A company with €1 million of SAP licence value pays €220,000 in the first year of support at 22%. If the yearly adjustment reached the 5% cap every year, the payments would run €220,000, €231,000, €242,550, €254,678 and €267,411: about €1.22 million over five years. Even with no adjustment at all, support equals the original licence value in a little over four and a half years.
On extended maintenance, the rate becomes 24%, or €240,000 a year on the same base4. None of these payments buys new capability. They keep the existing system supported.
Why the cost is harder to justify now
The case for paying this much rested on an assumption: that business software was so difficult to build that a company had to rent it and adapt itself to it. That assumption has weakened. With AI-assisted development and no-code builders, software can be shaped around one company's processes at a cost that was not possible five years ago.
SAP's own customers are drawing the comparison. In the DSAG's 2026 investment survey, 79% of respondents cited the economic viability of SAP software as an obstacle and 70% cited licence and contract terms8. Of the production AI use cases at member companies, 77% ran on non-SAP technology and 3% on SAP's9. A DSAG board member put the mood in one sentence: SAP solutions yes, but not at any price9.
ERP projects themselves carry a known risk. Gartner's senior director of ERP strategy says that 70% of ERP initiatives fall short of the business case they were approved on, and that a quarter fail catastrophically10.
What changed in customers' favour in 2026
Since 10 July 2026, commitments SAP made to the European Commission apply to all on-premise customers for ten years. SAP waives the reinstatement fee for customers that return to maintenance, caps back-maintenance at the lower of 50% of the fees for the period off support or six months of payments, and allows termination of licences and their maintenance in defined cases, including failed implementations and workforce reductions of more than 10% over two years11.
The advisory firm UpperEdge reads this as making third-party support more viable, and estimates that such providers charge roughly half of SAP's rate, without access to new SAP patches12. For a company planning to leave, the practical point is that reducing the SAP footprint in stages has become contractually easier.
Where the same money can go
| SAP budget line | What it can fund instead | Published reference |
|---|---|---|
| Support at 22% of licence fees | Hosting and engineering support for a system the company owns | OpenLazarus: hosting from $150 a month, engineering support from $4,500 a month13 |
| S/4HANA migration project | Building an AI operating system around the company's processes | OpenLazarus consultancy, priced per engagement13 |
| Per-user ERP subscriptions | A packaged ERP at a list price, where that fits better | Business Central $80 to $110; Dynamics 365 Finance $210 per user a month1415 |
| Cloud product subscriptions | Modules in the same system, or a direct rival | Navan free to 300 employees16; Salesforce from $25 per user a month17 |
| AI add-ons tied to contract type | AI credits used across every module | OpenLazarus: 5.5% fee on AI credits13 |
At its published starting prices, OpenLazarus hosting and engineering support come to $55,800 a year, before the build engagement and AI credits. OpenLazarus says that a single AI operating system and a fleet of agents cut IT costs by 80 to 90%, and that routing work across several AI models lowers token costs by more than 80%. Those are the company's own figures, and a buyer should ask for the calculation behind them for a business of its size.
The argument does not depend on those percentages. It depends on what the money buys. A support payment preserves a system; the same payment spent on a system the company owns produces software, data structures and AI agents that remain its property.
How to redirect the budget
- Add the layers up. Support, subscriptions, the last three years of integrator invoices, and the quoted cost of the next migration.
- Separate what is contractually fixed from what ends at the next renewal or with the 2027 date.
- Price the alternatives for your headcount using published list prices, then ask for quotes.
- Fund one process from the first saving. A cancelled add-on or an avoided extension can pay for the first workflow on the new system.
- Report the result in the same terms as the cost: euros per year, and what the company now owns.
The end state is an IT budget in which the largest line is investment in the company's own system, and the yearly bill for keeping old software alive has ended.
Questions buyers ask
How much does SAP maintenance cost per year?
SAP's Support Portal gives the list price of Enterprise Support for new on-premise purchases as 22%, a rate it describes as fixed until 2025 and one that applies to licence fees. On €1 million of licences that is €220,000 a year. Extended maintenance for Business Suite 7 from 2028 to 2030 adds two percentage points. SAP says its yearly adjustments follow local consumer prices, capped at 5%.
Why is SAP so expensive?
Because the cost has several layers that renew every year. Licences or subscriptions, support at 22% of licence fees, yearly adjustments, integrator fees for every change, and periodic migrations. In the DSAG's 2026 survey, 79% of respondents named the economic viability of SAP software as an obstacle to investment and 70% named licence and contract terms.
Is SAP increasing its prices?
SAP says maintenance fees for on-premise Business Suite 7 are adjusted yearly in line with local consumer price indices, capped at 5%, with the first adjustment in 2023. Gartner has warned that private cloud customers without a negotiated cap may face renewal increases of 10% or more, and expects yearly support increases to continue.
Is it cheaper to leave SAP than to migrate to S/4HANA?
There is no public average for either. What is documented is the risk. ISG reports that close to six in ten SAP migration projects ran late and over budget, and Horváth that the budget was missed in more than six of ten. Published prices for alternatives make the comparison possible, which is the purpose of the table in this guide.
Sources
- SAP Enterprise Support. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP agrees to delay full Enterprise Support price rise. InfoWorld, 29 Apr 2009. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Unwary SAP private cloud users face 10% renewal hikes, warns Gartner. The Register, 14 Oct 2025. 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.
- Most SAP migrations bust budgets and deadlines, study finds. The Register, 5 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP-Anwender kämpfen mit S/4HANA-Migration. Computerwoche, 21 Mar 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Wirtschaftlicher Druck macht SAP-Anwender pragmatischer. Computerwoche, 27 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- DSAG Investment Report 2026: companies are investing more selectively. DSAG, 26 Feb 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- ERP carnage continues as orgs jump in unprepared. The Register, 13 Nov 2025. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- SAP Maintenance & Support Commitments effective July 10, 2026. SAP Support Portal. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- The EU just handed SAP on-premise customers a win: what it means for SAP customers. UpperEdge, 17 Jul 2026. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Pricing. OpenLazarus. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Dynamics 365 Business Central pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Dynamics 365 Finance pricing. Microsoft. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Navan pricing. Navan. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
- Sales Cloud pricing. Salesforce. Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
Updated 11 Nov 2026: First published.