What are standard payment terms in a B2B contract?
30 days is the median across the largest cohort we measured: Master Services Agreements under United States law, based on 49 contracts. The full spread by contract type is below.
What this clause is
Payment terms are how long you have to pay an invoice after you receive it. Net 30 means the money is due 30 days after the invoice date.
Why it matters
Payment terms are working capital. Moving from 30 days to 14 days pulls cash out of your business two weeks earlier on every invoice, every month, for the life of the contract. It is one of the easiest terms to negotiate and one of the most commonly conceded without anyone noticing.
What the market actually does
Measured across 239 contracts in 7 cohorts. Each row is a separate group of contracts, so a technology cohort and a healthcare cohort are counted and reported separately rather than averaged together.
| Contract type | Governing law | Industry | Median | Middle 50% range | Contracts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master Services Agreement | United States | Healthcare | 30 days | 30 days | 49 |
| Professional services | United States | Technology | 30 days | 15 days to 30 days | 39 |
| Professional services | United States | Healthcare | 30 days | 30 days | 39 |
| Licence agreement | United States | Healthcare | 30 days | 30 days to 52.5 days | 31 |
| Master Services Agreement | United States | Technology | 30 days | 30 days | 30 |
| SaaS agreement | United States | Technology | 30 days | 30 days | 30 |
| Supply agreement | United States | Healthcare | 30 days | 30 days | 21 |
Sources: negotiated agreements filed with the us sec, sec filings and published standard terms, covering 2020 to 2026. Individual companies are never named. Cohorts are published only where at least 20 contracts were measured.
If your contract is worse than this
If a supplier is asking for payment faster than the market, ask what they are offering in return. Shorter payment terms are a genuine commercial concession and should be priced as one, usually as a discount.
Check your own contract against this
Citrus reads a supplier contract and tells you which clauses sit outside the market, in plain English, with the comparison shown. One contract, no card.
Other clause benchmarks
Figures reflect the Citrus reference set as at 2026-07-19. These are market observations, not legal advice, and the right position for your contract depends on what you are buying and what leverage you have.