Data
How common are auto-renewal clauses?
How often does a business contract renew on its own — and how often does it set a deadline to stop it?
176 of 510 (34.5%) set a renewal term. 111 (21.8%) set a notice deadline for stopping renewal.
CUAD's renewal-term label covers both automatic renewals and extensions one side can trigger by notice, so not every contract counted here renews on its own. A renewal term and a notice deadline are labelled separately, and a contract can renew without stating how to stop it.
Renewal term
| Contract type | Contracts with it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All 510 contracts | 176 of 510 | 34.5% |
| Distribution agreement | 22 of 32 | 68.8% |
| Hosting agreement | 12 of 20 | 60.0% |
| Co-branding agreement | 11 of 22 | 50.0% |
| Strategic alliance agreement | 13 of 32 | 40.6% |
| License agreement | 12 of 33 | 36.4% |
| Maintenance agreement | 12 of 34 | 35.3% |
| Endorsement agreement | 6 of 24 | 25.0% |
| Development agreement | 7 of 29 | 24.1% |
| Collaboration agreement | 5 of 26 | 19.2% |
| Service agreement | 5 of 28 | 17.9% |
| Sponsorship agreement | 4 of 31 | 12.9% |
| Joint venture agreement | 2 of 23 | 8.7% |
Notice period to terminate renewal
| Contract type | Contracts with it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| All 510 contracts | 111 of 510 | 21.8% |
| Hosting agreement | 9 of 20 | 45.0% |
| Distribution agreement | 12 of 32 | 37.5% |
| Strategic alliance agreement | 11 of 32 | 34.4% |
| Co-branding agreement | 6 of 22 | 27.3% |
| Maintenance agreement | 8 of 34 | 23.5% |
| License agreement | 6 of 33 | 18.2% |
| Development agreement | 5 of 29 | 17.2% |
| Sponsorship agreement | 2 of 31 | 6.5% |
| Joint venture agreement | 1 of 23 | 4.3% |
| Endorsement agreement | 1 of 24 | 4.2% |
| Collaboration agreement | 1 of 26 | 3.8% |
| Service agreement | 1 of 28 | 3.6% |
What it means before you sign
Among contract types with at least 20 contracts in this set, renewal terms were most common in distribution, hosting and co-branding agreements. If yours renews, find the notice deadline and put it in your calendar before you sign.
How we counted
CUAD v1 labels. Renewal Term and Notice Period To Terminate Renewal are answered with text in CUAD; we count a contract when that text is present.
Limits
- Larger-company deals.
- We did not count the length of the renewal or of the notice period.
- Small groups per type.
Source: CUAD v1, The Atticus Project (Hendrycks et al., 2021), CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Counts derived from the published labels; no changes to the underlying data.
Informational — not legal advice.