Sales Commission Rates by Industry: 2026 Benchmarks

TL;DR: Most sales commission rates land between 5% and 20% of deal value. B2B SaaS AEs earn roughly 10% of quota at plan, US home sales carry 5.5% to 5.7% total commission, P&C insurance pays 10% to 15% on new premium, and retail sits at 2% to 7%.

Most teams benchmark sales commission rates by industry to answer one question: are we paying enough? That's the wrong first question in 2026. The better question is what your rate costs you when fewer than half your reps hit quota.

The Bridge Group's 2026 research found 48% of reps achieved annual quota, down from 51% in 2024. A commission rate designed for a 65% attainment world overpays the top of the team and underpays the middle. Then the middle quits.

This guide gives you current commission benchmarks by industry and role, the math to translate them into your own rate, and the plan mechanics that make the rate on paper differ from what reps actually earn.

Key takeaways

• The 5% to 20% range still holds. The spread comes from who carries margin risk and lead cost, not from generosity.
• SaaS rates slipped. Quotas rose faster than OTE between 2024 and 2026, so the implied rate for a SaaS AE fell to roughly 10% to 11% of quota.
• Attainment is the real benchmark. RepVue shows only 41% to 42% of AEs reaching quota.
• Almost every company changed its plan. 97% of organizations surveyed by Alexander Group changed their sales comp plans for 2026, up from 86% the year before.
• The headline rate rarely equals the effective rate. Accelerators, tiers, caps and clawbacks move actual payout well away from the number in the plan document.

What are the average sales commission rates by industry in 2026?

Sources: Bridge Group, Sales Cookie, Clever Real Estate, Agentero, SLR Medical Consulting. See "How we built these benchmarks" below.

Where these ranges come from:

• SaaS: Sales Cookie's 2026 guide puts SaaS new-logo commissions at around 10% to 14% of ACV, with renewals at 3% to 5%. Its segment breakdown drops to 5% to 8% for enterprise AEs on $250K+ ACV, because deal size does the work the rate would otherwise do.
• Auto: Car sales commissions sit at 22% to 32% of dealership gross profit per vehicle, with 25% the most common plan number.
• Manufacturing and retail: In-house manufacturing reps typically earn 5% to 10% on a base-plus-commission plan, and retail rates run 2% to 7% on top of an hourly wage.

The pattern behind the table matters more than any single row. Rates go up when the rep carries the cost of finding the customer, and down when the company does. A real estate agent funds their own marketing and pipeline. An in-house manufacturing rep inherits accounts, marketing and product support. Both are "fair" for their model.

What is a good commission rate for sales?

A good commission rate is one where the rep earns their target variable pay at quota, and the company still hits its cost-of-sales budget at realistic attainment. For most B2B teams that works out to 8% to 12% of new revenue. Transactional and high-volume roles run lower.

Sales Cookie's 2026 benchmark guide puts most industries between 5% and 20% of sale value, stretching from under 2% in mass retail to 50%+ of first-year premium in life insurance. Treat that range as a sanity check, not a target. The rate follows from three inputs you already control: on-target earnings, pay mix and quota.

The formula: Commission rate = Variable pay at target ÷ Quota.

For example, a $180K OTE at a 50/50 mix is $90K variable. On a $900K quota, the commission rate is 10%. If you raise quota to $1.08M without touching OTE, the rate drops to 8.3%. Reps notice the quota increase long before they notice the rate change.

Is 5% commission a lot? Is 7% good? It depends entirely on what the percentage is calculated on:

• On total home price: 5% is roughly market. Clever Real Estate's August 2026 agent survey puts the average total US real estate commission at about 5.46%.
• On B2B software ACV: 5% is low for new business and normal for renewals.
• On gross profit: 7% is low for auto, where 25% is typical.

How much commission do SaaS sales reps earn in 2026?

Sources: RepVue AE data, RepVue Enterprise AE data, RepVue Mid-Market AE data (all September 2026), RepVue Sales Salary Guide, RepVue SDR data via Sales Comp Lab. SDR base is derived from OTE and RepVue's pay-mix split.

These are the underlying figures:

• Account Executives: RepVue's September 2026 data puts median AE OTE in the US at $200,000, with about 42% of AEs reaching or exceeding quota.
• Enterprise AEs: Median Enterprise AE pay is $140,000 base and $280,000 OTE, and about 41% reach quota.
• Mid-Market AEs: Median Mid-Market AE base salary is $95,000, with OTE at $180,000.
• Pay mix: Base lands between 50% and 53% of OTE across closing AE roles, while Sales Engineers and SDRs keep about 71% of OTE as base.

Why did the SaaS commission rate fall between 2024 and 2026?

Quotas outran pay. Bridge Group reports median AE OTE reached $200K, median quota is now $960K, and the quota-to-OTE ratio rose to 4.6x from 4.2x in 2024. Two years earlier, Bridge Group's 2024 report placed the median commission rate at 11.5% of bookings at full attainment.

Visdum's calculation: at a 47% to 50% variable share and a 4.6x ratio, the implied commission rate is roughly 10.2% to 10.9% of quota. That's about a full point below 2024. Most AEs didn't get a rate cut letter. They got a bigger number. (See our Quota to OTE ratio guide for the ratio math.)

Are top performers pulling away from the median?

Yes, and this is the structural shift of 2026. RepVue found top-performer earnings rose in every role between January and July 2026, while median pay barely moved and quota attainment fell almost everywhere. A Strategic AE's top-performer potential rose from $705,215 to $801,453 in six months.

This is what accelerators do when attainment is concentrated. Your commission expense grows even while median rep pay stays flat. Finance teams that forecast commission cost on median attainment get surprised in Q4.

If finance owns that forecast, the tool matters as much as the plan. Our comparison of commission software for finance teams ranks 7 platforms on audit trails, ASC 606 support and ERP sync. 

How do real estate commission rates work after the NAR settlement?

Total commission held up far better than predicted. Two recent surveys:

• Clever Real Estate's February 2026 survey put the average total commission at about 5.70%: 2.88% listing side and 2.82% buyer side.
• Clever's August 2026 survey of 434 agents (published September 1, 2026) reports approximately 5.46%, split 2.76% listing and 2.70% buyer side.

What changed is who negotiates the buyer side. Buyers are now contractually responsible for their own agent's fee under a written buyer-broker agreement after the NAR settlement rule changes took effect in August 2024, though sellers can still pay the buyer's agent through a concession negotiated outside the MLS. So the buyer-side rate is now set deal by deal, and the agent's take-home depends on their brokerage split.

On a $500,000 sale at 5.7%, one agent's side is about $14,250, and after a typical 70/30 brokerage split, the agent grosses roughly $9,975.

What commission do insurance agents earn?

Source: Agentero (May 2026).

Agentero reports P&C agency-level commission of 10% to 15% on new business and 8% to 12% on renewals, with producers keeping 30% to 90% of that depending on the split.

Insurance is the clearest example of front-loaded pay. The rep is paid most of the policy's lifetime commission in year one. That's why chargebacks on early lapses matter as much as the headline rate.

What do medical device, manufacturing and retail reps earn in commission?

Medical device

‍For W-2 reps at manufacturers, straight commission rates typically range from 3% to 8% depending on product and company, while independent 1099 reps earn 8% to 25% because they carry their own taxes, benefits and expenses. The rate is low because case values are high: SLR puts mid-level W-2 reps at a $70K to $100K base with $80K to $200K in commission.

Industrial and manufacturing

‍ Industrial, manufacturing and logistics sales tend to compress the variable component, with higher bases and lower upside that reflect longer, relationship-driven cycles. Manufacturing plans also carry more tier logic than any other vertical we see. Rate tables tied to discount levels and product lines are the norm, not the exception.

Retail‍

Rates are the lowest of any major sector. The growth area is per-unit SPIFFs. SPIFFs such as $25 per protection plan attached are increasingly common in 2026 as retailers chase margin over volume.

Why is the headline commission rate different from what reps actually earn?

The rate in the plan document is the stated rate. What a rep takes home divided by the revenue they closed is the effective rate. The gap between them is where most commission disputes, and most finance surprises, come from.

Five mechanics create the gap:

How common are these? Prowi's 2026 analysis reports 82% of SaaS startups use accelerators, fewer than 15% cap commissions, and 53% use clawback clauses.

Retroactive tiers are the mechanic that surprises finance most. A CFO at a 20-rep MedTech company described theirs on a Visdum call: at $99,000 a rep earns 7%, but at $101,000 "we'll go back to dollar one and pay them the higher percentage rate." That $2,000 of extra revenue can trigger a payout jump many times larger. It's a legitimate design choice, but it has to be modeled before it goes in the plan.

Individually negotiated rates break spreadsheets fast. In Visdum's buyer calls, "can each rep have a negotiated individual commission rate?" came up across 7 separate companies between 2025 and 2026. As one RevOps lead put it, "every rep is going to have different percentages." Once that happens, a blended team benchmark stops describing anyone on the team.

If your plan already has rep-level rates or retroactive tiers, test for them in every demo. Our commission management software guide includes a shortlist and demo checklist for exactly these edge cases. 

Flat rates create a different problem. A finance controller at a marketing agency described the annual conversation where the CEO asks the rep who "constantly overachieves" whether their targets are going up, because two others are underachieving. A flat rate with no tiering pushes that tension into quota-setting every year.

What changed in sales compensation plans for 2026?

Nearly everyone redesigned something. Alexander Group's 2026 Sales Compensation Trends Survey, also reported by WorldatWork:

• 97% of respondents changed their sales compensation plans for 2026, up from 86% the prior year.
• 66% of respondents cited changes aimed at strengthening pay for performance.
• The most common updates involved performance measures and weights, along with pay curves and pay mix.
• The No. 1 external factor shaping decisions was market and industry competition, cited by 77% of respondents.
• Quota setting is now the top challenge, cited by 57%, and 46% struggle to allocate quotas on time.

Budgets, meanwhile, are flattening. Alexander Group's 2026 survey projects sales compensation budgets rising only 2.7%, with cost of sales expected to stay roughly flat, and cites WorldatWork's salary increase budgets falling to 3.6% from 4.1% two years earlier. So 2026 plan changes are redesigns, not raises.

There's also a gap worth watching. The same survey found companies expect 55% of sellers to achieve quota in 2026, while Bridge Group measured 48% and RepVue around 42%. Plans built on the optimistic number will underspend on accelerators and overspend on reps who never reach them.

AI adoption is now showing up in attainment data. Organizations in Bridge Group's highest AI Engagement Score tercile reported 57% of reps at quota, compared to 39% in the lowest. Bridge is clear this is observational, not causal. But it's a large enough gap that comp leaders should ask what the high-attainment teams do differently before raising rates to fix retention.

What does this mean for plan design? Changing a plan every year is now the norm, and every change creates a transition quarter. Old and new rates, tiers and credit rules run side by side for anyone with deals spanning the change. That's where manual processes break.

For mid-market teams choosing a platform before the next plan cycle, our breakdown of Everstage vs Qobra vs QuotaPath vs Visdum compares pricing, integrations and ease of use. 

How should you use these benchmarks to set your own commission rate?

Work backward from what you can afford, not forward from what competitors pay.

1. Set your cost-of-sales ceiling first: Decide the share of new revenue you can spend on variable comp, before any rep-level math.
2. Choose pay mix by role: Use roughly 50/50 for closing AEs, 70/30 for SDRs and sales engineers, and heavier base for long-cycle industrial sales.
3. Set quota with a quota-to-OTE ratio: Use 4x to 5x for SaaS, adjusted for your ACV and ramp.
4. Derive the rate: Variable at target ÷ quota. Compare it to the benchmark table as a check, not a starting point.
5. Stress-test at 45% attainment, not 100%: Model what payout looks like when fewer than half the team hits plan and your top 10% hit accelerators.
6. Model the effective rate: Run last year's actual deals through the new plan, including tiers, clawbacks and splits, before announcing it.

Where does Visdum fit?

Benchmarks tell you what to pay. They don't tell you whether you actually paid it correctly. Once a plan has individual rates, retroactive tiers, clawbacks and mid-year changes, the risk shifts from "is our rate competitive?" to "can finance trust the payout number at close?"

Visdum is sales compensation software that gives Finance, RevOps and Sales one system for plan design, commission calculation, payout visibility and ASC 606 amortization. Rates, tiers and credit rules live in one audited system instead of a spreadsheet per rep. For the accounting side, see our guide to sales commission accounting. For the software shortlist, see the best sales commission software.

FAQs

1. What is the average sales commission rate?

Most commission rates fall between 5% and 20% of deal value. B2B SaaS new-logo commissions typically run 10% to 14% of annual contract value (ACV), retail pays 2% to 7%, and auto sales pays 22% to 32% of dealership gross profit per vehicle. For B2B SaaS AEs, the implied rate at target in 2026 is roughly 10% to 11% of quota.

2. What is a 70/30 split in sales?

It has two meanings:

• In sales pay mix, it means 70% base salary and 30% variable pay. This is the norm for SDRs and sales engineers, who keep about 71% of their OTE as base.
• In real estate, it's the brokerage split. On a $500,000 home at 5.7% total commission, one agent's side is about $14,250. On a 70/30 split, the agent keeps about $9,975 and the brokerage keeps $4,275.

3. Do SaaS reps get commission on renewals?

Often, but at a lower rate. Renewals typically pay 3% to 5% of ACV, compared with 10% to 14% for new logos. Many companies move renewal comp to account managers or customer success instead.

4. What is the difference between a stated and an effective commission rate?

The stated rate is the percentage written in the plan. The effective rate is what the rep actually earned divided by the revenue they closed, after accelerators, thresholds, tiers, clawbacks and caps are applied. The gap between the two is where most commission disputes start.

5. How often should commission rates be benchmarked?

At least once a year, before plan season. Nearly every company changed its sales compensation plan for 2026, up from 86% the year before. With plans changing that often, a benchmark older than 12 months is likely already out of date.

6. Is a 5% or 7% commission good?

It depends on what the percentage is calculated on:

• On a home sale, 5% is close to market. The average total US real estate commission is about 5.5%, split roughly evenly between the listing and buyer's agents.
• On B2B software ACV, 5% to 7% is low for new business and typical for enterprise deals or renewals.
• On auto gross profit, 7% is well below the norm, where 25% is the most common plan rate.

Always confirm the denominator before judging the percentage.

7. Which industry pays the highest commission rate?

By percentage, life insurance. First-year commissions run 50% to 120% of the first year's premium, but renewals drop to about 2% to 5%, so agents depend on writing new policies.

Auto sales comes next at 22% to 32% of gross profit. In absolute dollars, though, enterprise software and medical device reps often earn more, because their deal sizes are far larger even at lower rates.

8. What is a good commission rate for a SaaS account executive?

For new business, 10% to 14% of ACV is standard. For enterprise deals above $250K ACV, 5% to 8% is typical, because deal size does the work the rate would otherwise do.

A quicker check is the quota-to-OTE ratio. In 2026, median AE OTE is $200K against a median quota of $960K, a ratio of about 4.6x. At a 50/50 pay mix, that works out to roughly 10% to 11% of quota at 100% attainment.

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