IoT in Brazil in 2026: what the data reveal about the market

The Internet of Things (IoT) is already part of the everyday activities of Brazilian companies. Industrial sensors, smart meters, tracking devices, security systems, and telemetry equipment make it possible to monitor physical assets, collect information, and support operational decisions.

The advance of these technologies is visible in the expansion of machine-to-machine communication infrastructure. However, the growth in the number of connected devices does not necessarily mean that IoT is being adopted across the board by companies.

This distinction matters for understanding the current stage of the Brazilian market. How many organizations actually use IoT? How does adoption vary with company size? And what do the numbers say about growth opportunities?

Data released in 2026 by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), linked to the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br), and information from the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel) help answer these questions. Analyzed together, they reveal a market that is expanding but at different levels of maturity.

What do the numbers show about IoT in Brazil?

One of the most expressive indicators comes from Anatel. According to information published in December 2025, Brazil went from 10,942,954 licensed machine-to-machine (M2M) communication stations in 2021 to 28,276,978 at the end of 2025 [3].

The Agency describes this advance as growth of more than 258% over the period, based on the licensed totals disclosed [3].

The expansion is relevant because M2M communications are part of the infrastructure that makes it possible to connect equipment, meters, trackers, and other devices used in IoT applications.

But this indicator must be interpreted correctly. The number of licensed M2M stations does not represent all IoT devices in Brazil, nor does it say how many companies use these technologies. It also does not measure, on its own, the market’s revenue or economic return.

To understand business adoption, we need to turn to another source.

The TIC Empresas 2025 survey, by Cetic.br/NIC.br, presented in 2026, estimated that approximately 77.3 thousand Brazilian companies used some type of smart device or IoT in 2025, corresponding to about 14% of the business universe considered in the indicator [1][2].

The survey covers formal companies with ten or more employed persons, in economic sectors defined by the survey’s methodology. There is also an important caveat: the question about IoT was asked only of companies that had IT specialists, an IT area, or an IT department, although results are presented relative to the total number of companies. This condition must be taken into account when interpreting the percentages [2].

We therefore have two complementary measures. Anatel records the expansion of an important part of the communication infrastructure. Cetic.br investigates business use of smart devices and IoT. They are different perspectives and should not be confused.

Do more connections mean more companies using IoT?

The evolution of connected infrastructure may suggest that the Internet of Things is spreading quickly across all business segments. The adoption data, however, show a more heterogeneous picture.

In the TIC Empresas survey, the overall share of companies that used IoT remained close to 14% in 2024 and 2025 [1][2]. This does not mean the market has stopped growing, because the indicator does not measure the number of devices per company, the intensity of use, or the economic value of the applications.

It does mean, however, that the expansion of communication infrastructure does not automatically translate into an equivalent increase in the share of companies that use IoT.

The differences by size reinforce this interpretation. According to indicator H7 of TIC Empresas 2025, the use of smart devices or IoT was estimated at 12% among small companies, 27% among medium-sized ones, and 40% among large ones [2]. These percentages must be read with the survey’s methodological caveat.

Among large companies, the share is significantly higher than among small ones. These results do not, on their own, identify the causes of the differences. Even so, they are consistent with the hypothesis that larger organizations have more resources, technical structures, and opportunities to incorporate connected devices into their processes.

Size alone, however, does not determine the potential for use. A small company can obtain significant benefits from a specific application, while a large organization may struggle to integrate scattered projects and expand their use.

The central question is not only the ability to buy equipment, but the existence of concrete problems that can be solved in an economically viable way.

Where are the growth opportunities?

The diversity of applications helps explain why IoT represents an opportunity for different sectors.

Connected devices can support facility control, energy management, tracking of logistics assets, supervision of industrial equipment, and maintenance based on operating conditions.

These applications share one principle: bringing information from the physical environment closer to the systems used to monitor processes and make decisions.

In a logistics operation, for example, the location of vehicles and assets can contribute to delivery planning. In an industrial facility, sensors can provide information on temperature, pressure, or vibration. In commercial buildings, smart devices can support energy consumption management.

The value of these solutions does not come simply from the presence of sensors. It depends on how the information is used and on its contribution to the organization’s processes.

This perspective also appears in the study The Internet of Things: Catching up to an accelerating opportunity, published by the consultancy McKinsey & Company in November 2021 [4].

The report estimated that IoT could provide between US$5.5 trillion and US$12.6 trillion in annual global economic value by 2030. This is a projection of economic potential made in 2021, not revenue actually realized nor an estimate specific to the Brazilian market [4].

The research offers an international perspective on the economic importance of IoT, but its results should not be extrapolated directly to Brazil.

The Brazilian scenario must be analyzed from its own characteristics, including communication infrastructure, regional diversity, productive structure, investment capacity, and the needs of different sectors.

In this context, growth opportunities can arise both from deploying new applications and from the evolution of existing projects.

A company that uses connected devices to monitor a process can, for example, expand the benefits by integrating this information with maintenance, planning, or operational management systems. The potential gain lies in making data actually useful, not just in increasing the amount of installed equipment.

What is missing to turn connectivity into value?

The availability of devices and networks is an important condition for the development of IoT, but it does not solve every deployment challenge.

A solution may work properly in a pilot project and face difficulties when it needs to serve hundreds or thousands of devices spread across different locations.

At that stage, requirements arise related to systems integration, manufacturer diversity, security, maintenance, device updates, and operational continuity.

McKinsey itself identified, in its 2021 study, obstacles related to costs, change management, availability of skills, and cybersecurity. These factors help explain why the estimated economic potential of IoT does not automatically turn into concrete results [4].

Another important aspect is the reliability of information. A company may have connected devices and still face problems with stale data, incorrect measurements, or communication interruptions.

If the systems that depend on this information cannot identify these situations, the operational value of the solution is compromised.

For this reason, the maturity of an IoT initiative must also be evaluated by its ability to work reliably over time.

This involves planning not only the deployment, but the equipment lifecycle, technology dependencies, and the processes responsible for tracking and fixing problems.

The experience companies have accumulated in infrastructure, integration, and technology operations can contribute to this evolution, provided it is adapted to the characteristics of connected physical devices.

Conclusion

The indicators available in 2026 show that the Internet of Things already has a relevant presence in Brazilian business infrastructure and operations, but its adoption still shows important differences between organizations and sectors.

The expansion of licensed M2M stations evidences the growth of one dimension of connectivity. At the same time, the TIC Empresas 2025 results show that the use of IoT is not evenly distributed among the companies surveyed.

This information points to a market that still offers opportunities for expansion and maturation, but whose development should not be assessed only by the number of connected devices.

For managers and organizations considering investing in IoT, the most important reflection is to identify which problems can be solved, which results are expected, and how the solutions will be integrated and sustained over time.

The advance of IoT will be only as relevant as companies’ ability to turn connectivity into reliable information and operational results.

Understanding where these applications are already present and how they contribute to different business activities is the next step of this analysis.

About Target Solutions

Target Solutions has spent more than 15 years helping organizations evolve their infrastructure, monitoring, observability, automation, and operational intelligence operations. Across that journey, it has participated in projects in complex environments such as telecom, technology, government, energy, and large enterprises, helping increase operational efficiency and service reliability.

That experience also includes Internet of Things (IoT) projects, where connectivity, technical integration, and operational follow-up matter to turn connected devices into useful solutions for organizations.

About the author

Paulo Florêncio de Menezes is cofounder of Target Solutions and has spent more than 15 years on projects involving infrastructure, monitoring, observability, automation, and IT and telecom operations.

He holds a degree in data processing from the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), an MBA in business management from Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), and a professional master’s in economics from Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).

In his master’s research, he developed the IBEOP-IA (Brazilian Index of Occupational Exposure Potential to Artificial Intelligence), studying the potential exposure of Brazilian occupations to AI capabilities by combining occupational data, artificial intelligence patents, and natural language processing techniques.

References

[1] Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto BR (NIC.br), Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação (Cetic.br). Survey on the use of Information and Communication Technologies in Brazilian enterprises — TIC Empresas 2025 (report and tables). Available at: https://www.cetic.br/pt/tics/pesquisa/2025/empresas/

[2] Cetic.br/NIC.br. Indicator H7 — Enterprises that used smart devices or the Internet of Things (TIC Empresas 2025). Available at: https://www.cetic.br/pt/tics/pesquisa/2025/empresas/H7/

[3] Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel). Law extends tax incentives for IoT and VSATs and benefits more than 29 million telecommunications stations in Brazil (news item, 12/30/2025). Available at: https://www.gov.br/anatel/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/lei-prorroga-incentivos-tributarios-para-iot-e-vsats-e-beneficia-mais-de-29-milhoes-de-estacoes-de-telecomunicacoes-no-brasil

[4] McKinsey & Company. The Internet of Things: Catching up to an accelerating opportunity (Nov. 2021). Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/the-internet-of-things-catching-up-to-an-accelerating-opportunity