Наталя Хандусенко Money 20 February 2026, 12:41

In 2025, Ukrainian IT exports returned to growth after two years of decline: what are the forecasts for 2026?

The IT sector continues to be the largest exporter of services in Ukraine, and in the overall structure it ranks second.

IT exports have broken a two-year downward trend

In 2025, IT exports amounted to $6.66 billion, which is 3.3% more than in 2024, according to the Lviv IT Cluster. But this amount is still 1.1% lower compared to 2023 data.

December showed the highest result among all months of both last year and 2023. This month brought in $685 million, which is 26.2% more than in November and 11.2% more than in December 2024. In addition, it entered the top three most successful Decembers of the last 5 years and was second only to December 2021 ($792 million) and 2022 ($751 million).

If we talk about the best quarter, then this is the last one: the total export revenue of IT services in the period from October to December amounted to $1.79 billion. This is $142 million or 8.6% more than in the third quarter. This figure is also higher by $126 million or 7.6% compared to the fourth quarter of 2024.

The worst quarter in 2025 was the first quarter. It brought $1.57 billion to the Ukrainian economy. This is 1.3% or $20 million. less than the same period in 2024. In addition, January last year was the worst since the start of the full-scale invasion: exports of IT services amounted to $489 million, while in 2024 and 2023 they amounted to $508 million and $528 million, respectively.

Despite all this, the IT sector continues to be the largest exporter of services in Ukraine. Computer services account for 41.6% of the total volume of services. For comparison, in 2024 this figure was 37.4%.

In the overall structure of Ukraine's exports, the IT sector ranks second. In 2025, the share of computer services among all exports of goods and services amounted to 12.3%. Food products and agricultural products remain the leaders with a share of 41.5%. At the same time, compared to the results of 2024, the position of the agricultural sector has weakened somewhat: then it accounted for 44% of exports. The third largest export industry is metallurgy - last year its share increased to 8.7%, compared to 7.9% in 2024.

Forecasts from IT market participants

"If this dynamics continues, 2026 can probably end at least at the level of current volumes without sharp fluctuations in either direction. However, it is still inappropriate to make long-term forecasts at this time. First, we need to assess the dynamics of the first months of this year, key macroeconomic indicators, early market trends and IT market sentiment. Therefore, our baseline forecast for 2026 is cautiously neutral and we continue to monitor all factors that may affect IT export indicators," explains Yaryna Voznyak, head of the research department of the Lviv IT Cluster.

According to the IT Research Ukraine 2025: From Adaptation to Restructuring study, 33% of CEOs predict industry growth in the coming year, while in 2024 there were 15.6%.

In addition, the number of negatively minded tech company executives has decreased. While in 2024, 59.4% of CEOs were dominated by thoughts about the industry losing ground in the short term, in 2025 this figure was 29%.

According to the survey results, 42% of IT company executives expect their business turnover to increase. The same number do not foresee any changes in the volume of their business activities, and 16% predict a decrease.

The demand for IT services in the world continues to grow. According to Gartner, global IT spending in 2026 will amount to $6.15 trillion, with a growth of 10.8%. Even after a slight correction of the previous forecast of +15.2%, Gartner predicts +14.7% growth in the software segment in 2026 - and this is more than $1.4 trillion in market volume, the Lviv IT Cluster notes.

"Demand continues to shift towards complex engineering competencies — AI, data engineering, cloud, infrastructure optimization. The fastest growth in 2026 is predicted in: Data Center Systems (+31.7%), Server spending (+36.9%), GenAI models (over 80% growth). For Ukrainian IT exports, these are good chances of market opportunities for further growth — provided that competitiveness is maintained, AI competencies are developed, and regulatory conditions are stable. 2026 is likely to be a stabilizing year in the restructuring of the industry architecture and a year of qualitative transformation," notes Yaryna Voznyak.

Ukrainian IT accounts for 42% of all services exports. What else is interesting in the Opendatabot research

In the first half of 2025, the volume of IT services accounted for almost half of all Ukrainian exports