Copies or Custom Work: How the Money Moves Through Software
Summary
Private software investment was $751.3 billion in 2025, about half of it prepackaged (Bureau of Economic Analysis). This Sky survey looks inside two industries that sell software: publishing, where software publishers make most of the output, and computer systems design, which writes custom software and also designs and runs clients' computer systems. Of each 2025 output dollar, publishing paid employee compensation of 27.5 cents and left 41.3 cents as gross operating surplus; computer systems design paid 60.7 cents and left 10.3.
Buy it, commission it, or write it
splits the 2025 software total⧉ three ways: $372.4 billion of prepackaged software, $279.1 billion of custom software, and $99.9 billion that businesses wrote in-house for their own use. Its handbook⧉ tracks prepackaged software's price with an index built on the producer price index for software publishing, and counts the custom software that computer systems design firms produce for sale in the custom total.
Writing the original is investment too. books software "originals from which copies are made for sale" as research and development⧉, and software publishers funded $74.5 billion of R&D investment⧉ in 2025. sorts by who pays for it, so that figure is all the they fund, not only software originals; software that other industries pay for counts under those industries.
Where each dollar goes
's industry accounts divide each dollar an industry produces among purchased inputs⧉, employee compensation, production taxes, and gross operating surplus⧉: the residual, which includes consumption of fixed capital, proprietors' income, and corporate profits. In publishing, where software publishers made about 86 percent of 2025 output⧉, employee compensation took 27.5 cents⧉ of each dollar of output⧉ and surplus was 41.3. In computer systems design, whose firms design and run clients' computer systems⧉ as well as write custom code, compensation took 60.7 cents and surplus was 10.3.
View data as table
| Publishing: purchased inputs | 29.9 | $216.8 billion of $724.4 billion |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing: employee compensation | 27.5 | $199.6 billion |
| Publishing: production taxes | 1.2 | $8.9 billion, less subsidies |
| Publishing: gross operating surplus | 41.3 | $299.1 billion; includes the using-up of fixed capital, proprietors' income, and corporate profits |
| Systems design: purchased inputs | 27.3 | $213.5 billion of $782.6 billion |
| Systems design: employee compensation | 60.7 | $474.9 billion |
| Systems design: production taxes | 1.7 | $13.6 billion, less subsidies |
| Systems design: gross operating surplus | 10.3 | $80.7 billion; includes proprietors' income |
Two shapes of company
Their output was similar; their workforces were not. Publishing had 790,000 full-time equivalent employees⧉ for $724.4 billion of output⧉ in 2025, about $917,000 per full-time equivalent. Computer systems design had 2.29 million for $782.6 billion, about $342,000 each. Wages averaged $219,239 and $185,612 per full-time equivalent, against $87,775 across private industry.
- Three ways to get code. Private software investment was $751.3 billion in 2025: $372.4 billion prepackaged, $279.1 billion custom, and $99.9 billion written in-house by businesses for their own use.
- Two splits of the dollar. Of each 2025 output dollar, publishing (where software publishers made about 86 percent of output) paid employee compensation of 27.5 cents and left 41.3 as gross operating surplus; computer systems design paid 60.7 and left 10.3.
- Two shapes of company. On similar output, computer systems design had 2.9 times publishing's full-time-equivalent workforce: about $342,000 of output per full-time equivalent against $917,000.
Where this sits: This is one slice of Sky: Industries, a survey of how the money moves, industry by industry. Technology's first slice is the split between prepackaged and custom software; a later one can follow data processing and hosting, and internet publishers and search portals. Next on the roadmap is insurance and its float. For 2025, 's -by-industry tables split value added into compensation, taxes, and surplus only for publishing as a whole, which includes $102.0 billion of newspaper, periodical, book, and directory output. 's underlying detail⧉, which it rates lower in quality, gives software publishers' total value added, about 71 cents per output dollar, but not that split. Figures are in current dollars and rounded, so parts may not sum to totals; the three software types add to $751,336 million exactly.
Sources(10) ▾
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry: Value Added by Industry (Tables TVA105, TVA110, TVA113), annual data 1997–2025 (2026-09-30) — 's summary-level value-added workbook, 'Data published September 30, 2026', read with openpyxl in the 2025 column. TVA105-A gives of $30,861,292 million (line 1) and value added of $2,313,131 million by information-communications-technology-producing industries (addenda line 100), whose footnote 3 lists the industries counted; TVA110-A puts that group at 7.5 percent of . TVA113-A splits 2025 value added into compensation of employees, taxes on production and imports less subsidies, and gross operating surplus for publishing industries, except internet (includes software) (lines 197–200) and for computer systems design and related services (lines 269–272). apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry: Gross Output by Industry (Table TGO105), annual data 1997–2025 (2026-09-30) — 's summary-level gross-output workbook (September 30, 2026 release), TGO105-A, 2025 column: publishing industries, except internet (includes software), $724,394 million (line 50); computer systems design and related services, $782,644 million (line 68). apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry: Intermediate Inputs by Industry (Table TII105), annual data 1997–2025 (2026-09-30) — 's summary-level intermediate-inputs workbook (September 30, 2026 release), TII105-A, 2025 column: publishing industries, except internet (includes software), $216,848 million (line 50); computer systems design and related services, $213,486 million (line 68). For both industries gross output less intermediate inputs equals the value added in TVA113-A. apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry, Underlying Detail: Gross Output by Industry (Table UGO205), annual data 1997–2025 (2026-09-30) — 's underlying-detail gross-output workbook (September 30, 2026 release), UGO205-A, 2025 column: publishing industries, except internet (includes software), $724,394 million (line 107), of which newspaper, periodical, book, and directory publishers $101,959 million (line 108) and software publishers $622,435 million (line 109). 's note on the sheet says these detailed estimates are excluded from its published tables because their quality is significantly less than that of the higher-level aggregates; the article uses them only for the rounded software share of publishing output. apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, GDP by Industry, Underlying Detail: Value Added by Industry (Table UVA205), annual data 1997–2025 (2026-09-30) — 's underlying-detail value-added workbook (September 30, 2026 release), UVA205-A, 2025 column: publishing industries, except internet (includes software), $507,546 million (line 107, equal to the published TVA113-A figure), of which software publishers $441,323 million (line 109). The workbook's sheets give value added and its price and quantity indexes, not its split into compensation, taxes, and surplus; 's note says these detailed estimates are left out of its published tables because their quality is significantly less than that of the higher-level aggregates. Used only to say that software publishers' total value added exists and is about 71 cents per output dollar. apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Section 5: Table 5.6.5, Private Fixed Investment in Intellectual Property Products by Type (2026-09-30) — 's NIPA Section 5 workbook (data published September 30, 2026), sheet T50605-A, 2025 column: private fixed investment in software $751,336 million (line 2), of which prepackaged $372,394 million (line 3), custom $279,052 million (line 4), and own account $99,890 million (line 5); research and development funded by software publishers $74,453 million (line 19). Footnotes: prepackaged excludes software embedded or bundled in computers and other equipment; asset types are defined by the type of funder. apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, Section 6: Tables 6.5D (Full-Time Equivalent Employees by Industry) and 6.6D (Wages and Salaries Per Full-Time Equivalent Employee by Industry) (2026-09-30) — 's NIPA Section 6 workbook (data published September 30, 2026), 2025 column. T60500D-A: full-time equivalent employees, in thousands, publishing industries (includes software) 790 (line 53) and computer systems design and related services 2,290 (line 67). T60600D-A: wages and salaries per full-time equivalent employee, in dollars, $219,239 and $185,612 for the same industries and $87,775 for all private industries (line 3). apps.bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, NIPA Handbook, Chapter 6: Private Fixed Investment (updated December 2024) (2024-12-01) — 's methodology chapter for private fixed investment, read in full via pdftotext. Page 6-1 defines private fixed investment. Pages 6-37 and 6-38 describe software: prepackaged software is deflated with a price index based on the producer price index for software publishing, except games; own-account wages exclude what the computer systems design and related services industry pays to produce custom software for sale; and software originals from which copies are made for sale are counted as research and development, not as own-account software. bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Glossary: Gross operating surplus (2018-04-13) — 's definition of gross operating surplus: the residual of an industry's output after intermediate inputs, compensation of employees, and taxes on production and imports less subsidies; it includes consumption of fixed capital, proprietors' income, corporate profits, and business current transfer payments (net). Used to say what the surplus bar in the chart contains. bea.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 NAICS Descriptions (North American Industry Classification System) (2026-07-13) — The Census Bureau's workbook of 2022 industry definitions, read with openpyxl. Industry group 5415, 'Computer Systems Design and Related Services' (the title of 's industry line), has four U.S. industries: 541511 custom computer programming services (writing, modifying, testing, and supporting software for a particular customer), 541512 computer systems design services (planning and designing computer systems that integrate hardware, software, and communication technologies), 541513 computer facilities management services (on-site management and operation of clients' computer systems), and 541519 other computer related services. The 2017 descriptions file on census.gov carries the same text for all four. Used to say that the industry's output covers more than custom software. census.gov · original document
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The industries the Bureau of Economic Analysis counts as producing information and communications technology, from computer and electronics makers and telecom carriers to software publishers and systems design firms, added $2.31 trillion of value in 2025⧉, 7.5 percent of . Private software investment⧉ was $751.3 billion that year. This slice looks inside two of the industries that sell software, one built around prepackaged products and one around custom work, and shows where each spends its dollar.