Software license waste estimator
Estimate your idle software license spend
Pick a widely used publisher or enter your own numbers, and see the yearly cost of seats nobody uses, and what a disciplined SAM program could realistically win back.
Your estimate
Spent on licenses nobody uses, every year
0
Realistically recoverable, per year
0
- In use
- Recoverable
- Idle but hard to recover
How this estimate works
Idle spend is seats multiplied by cost per license multiplied by the share unused. Recoverable spend applies the recovery rate you pick, which reflects reclaiming unused seats, right-sizing editions and renegotiating renewals. Year 1 counts half a year of savings because a program takes time to start, and later years count in full. Publisher prices are indicative list prices in USD gathered from public 2026 sources, so check them against your own contract. It is a planning estimate based only on your inputs. It is not a quote, a benchmark or a guarantee.
Want the real number instead of an estimate?The SAM assessment scores your license governance, contracts and processes and shows where the money is leaking.
What is software license waste?
Software license waste is money spent on seats that nobody uses, or on editions that are bigger than the job needs. Most organizations carry some of it, because licenses are bought in bulk, assigned quickly and reviewed rarely. A leaver keeps a seat for months, a team moves to another tool, or a premium edition is rolled out to everyone when only a few people use its features.
The calculator above turns that into a number. Choose a widely used publisher or enter your own price, set how many licenses you pay for and how many sit idle, and it shows the yearly cost, the share you could realistically recover and the cumulative savings over three years.
Where idle licenses usually hide
| Publisher and plan | Indicative list price (USD) | Common sources of idle seats |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 E3 | About 39 per user per month, annual commitment | Leavers, shared or unassigned mailboxes, users on E5 who only need E3 |
| Google Workspace Business Standard | About 14 per user per month, one-year commitment | Suspended or inactive accounts, leavers, shared mailboxes |
| Adobe Creative Cloud Pro for teams | About 99.99 per license per month, annual contract | People who use one app, or none, in the bundle |
| Salesforce Sales Cloud Pro Suite | About 100 per user per month, billed annually | Inactive users, people on a higher edition than their role needs |
| Zoom Workplace Business | About 219.96 per user per year | Licensed users who rarely host meetings and could use a lower tier |
These are indicative public list prices gathered in 2026. Your negotiated price, regional pricing and contract terms will differ, so treat the table as a starting point and replace it with your own numbers.
How to use the calculator
- Pick a publisher to load a realistic list price, or choose Custom and enter your own cost per license.
- Enter the number of paid licenses and the share you think is unused or underused. If you are unsure, start with the "Some gaps" preset and refine it with real usage data.
- Choose how much of the idle spend you could recover, then read the yearly waste, the recoverable amount and the three-year savings.
How to reduce software license waste
- Build one trusted inventory. Combine contracts, purchase records and discovery data so you know what you own and who holds each seat.
- Measure real usage. Use last sign-in, feature use and activity data, not assignment, to decide what is idle.
- Reclaim and right-size. Remove seats from leavers and inactive users and move people to the lowest edition that fits their work.
- Time it to renewals. Most savings are captured at renewal or true-down windows, so track dates and notice periods.
- Make it a routine. Tie license changes to joiner, mover and leaver processes so waste does not rebuild.
This is the core of software asset management. Read more about our software asset management and software license management services, or see how licenses connect to hardware asset management and the wider IT asset management practice.
Software license waste calculator FAQ
What is software license waste?
Software license waste is money spent on licenses that nobody uses, or on editions that are larger than the work requires. It is often called shelfware. It usually builds up around leavers, role changes, duplicate tools and premium editions that were bought for everyone.
How do I calculate the cost of unused software licenses?
Multiply the number of paid licenses by the average annual cost per license, then by the share that is unused or underused. For example, 1,000 licenses at 300 per year with 25 percent idle means 75,000 of annual idle spend. The calculator above does this for you and shows the recoverable portion.
How much of the idle spend can I recover?
It depends on contract terms, renewal dates, minimum commitments and how quickly you can reclaim seats. The calculator offers cautious, realistic and ambitious scenarios at 50, 70 and 85 percent. These are planning assumptions, not benchmarks, so use your own usage data when you have it.
Are the publisher prices in the calculator exact?
No. They are indicative list prices in US dollars collected from public sources in 2026. Negotiated discounts, enterprise agreements and regional pricing change the real figure, so edit the cost per license when you know your contract price.
How does software asset management reduce license waste?
Software asset management (SAM) connects what you own, what you pay for and what people actually use. It reclaims idle seats, right-sizes editions, aligns renewals with real demand and keeps you ready for vendor audits. A SAM assessment shows where your own process and data gaps are.
Want the real number instead of an estimate?
The SAM assessment scores your license governance, contracts and processes, and shows where the money is leaking. If you are choosing tooling, our vendor-neutral SAM tool assessment can help.