Peppol statistics 2026: Belgium leads the world with 2 million participants
- Author
- Tom Van Asbroeck
- Published
- June 2026
- Read time
- 8 min read
Six months after Belgium mandated B2B e-invoicing via Peppol, the country has surpassed 2 million registered participants in the OpenPeppol SMP directory. That is 47% of the entire global network and more than double the second-largest country, France. The Peppol network now counts 4.523.020 participants across 100+ countries.
"Belgium is now the test bed for the rest of Europe. If you want to see how a national e-invoicing mandate plays out at scale, the Peppol directory is the scoreboard."Tom Van Asbroeck, e-invoice.be
Belgium · Peppol participants
2.072.529
Registered receivers in the OpenPeppol SMP directory, six months after the January 2026 mandate took effect.
- Share of global network
- 45.8%
- Global participants
- 4.523.020
- Belgian growth since Jan 2026
- +1.132.175
Belgium overtook every Peppol country in six months
In December 2025, Belgium had 940,354 Peppol registrations. By January 30, 2026, it became the first country to pass 1 million. By June 2026, that number had more than doubled to 2.072.529.
Peppol participants by country, June 2026
Source: OpenPeppol SMP directory
Belgian Peppol participants since the mandate
Source: OpenPeppol SMP directory
Why Belgium pulled ahead
Three factors combined to produce this explosive growth:
- The January 1, 2026 B2B mandate. All VAT-registered Belgian businesses must be able to receive structured e-invoices via Peppol. The Belgian e-invoicing mandate left no sector exempt.
- Multiple ID schemes per company. Many Belgian businesses are registered under both the KBO/CBE enterprise number (scheme 0208) and their VAT number (scheme 9925). That means the directory often counts the same company twice or more.
- Banks and accountants auto-registering customers. Major Belgian banks and accountancy platforms registered their entire client base in bulk, pushing adoption from compliance checkbox to actual network participation. You can register your own Peppol ID in minutes.
What document types are flowing
The most widely supported document types across the global Peppol network reflect the dominance of the BIS Billing 3.0 standard:
| Document type | Receivers registered |
|---|---|
| Peppol BIS Billing UBL Invoice V3 | 3.817.472 |
| Peppol BIS Billing UBL Credit Note V3 | 3.746.389 |
| Peppol Invoice Response transaction 3.0 | 1.996.561 |
| Peppol Message Level Response transaction 3.0 | 1.671.488 |
| Peppol BIS Self-Billing UBL Invoice V3 | 1.662.589 |
| Peppol BIS Self-Billing UBL Credit Note V3 | 1.654.134 |
| France CDAR | 918.701 |
| France CII Invoice CIUS | 910.586 |
One notable absence from the top of the list is the UBL.BE Invoice 3.0 profile. UBL.BE is a conformant extension on EN 16931, not a compliant specification, so the 2026 Belgian law does not permit it for sending B2B invoices. The roughly 678.820 UBL.BE registrations still in the directory are leftover endpoints. Some access points keep publishing the UBL.BE document type IDs for customers that have not migrated their SMP entries. Mandate-compliant Belgian invoices flow through Peppol BIS Billing 3.0.
How the rest of Europe compares
The Nordic bloc (Norway + Sweden + Denmark + Finland) collectively has around 616.002 participants. These were early Peppol adopters but never mandated universal B2B participation.
The DACH region tells a different story. Germany has roughly 10,500 registered participants. Austria has 477. Switzerland has 281. The combined DACH total is smaller than a single Belgian postal code district. Germany's e-invoicing mandate is still in phased rollout and does not yet require Peppol as the transport network.
Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece) has adopted different national e-invoicing systems. Italy's SDI handles domestic invoices, which is why its Peppol count of 21.365 only reflects cross-border capability.
The punchline: Belgium has more Peppol participants than Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordics, and the UK combined.
The methodology
These statistics count published Peppol participants in the OpenPeppol SMP directory. Each entry represents a business or entity that has registered to receive documents via the Peppol network.
These are receivers registered in the directory. Active issuers are not all visible. A company can send Peppol invoices without publishing a receiver capability. That means the real adoption of Peppol is higher, not lower, than these numbers suggest.
For the canonical methodology specification, see the OpenPeppol End User Statistics Reporting spec.
Press kit: for journalists
Press kitFree to reuse, CC BY 4.0
Headline
Belgium becomes the world's largest Peppol country with 2 million e-invoicing participants, holding 47% of the global network six months after its B2B mandate.
Quotable · attributable to Tom Van Asbroeck, founder, e-invoice.be
"Belgium is now the test bed for the rest of Europe. If you want to see how a national e-invoicing mandate plays out at scale, the Peppol directory is the scoreboard."
"In four months Belgium doubled its Peppol footprint. That tells you the mandate is sticking, not just on paper but in the daily workflow of every accountant in the country."
"The next milestone is France. The French mandate is still ramping, and the Peppol numbers will tell us when it tips."
Background paragraph · 60 words, paste verbatim
The Peppol network is the backbone of structured e-invoicing in Europe. Belgium mandated B2B e-invoicing via Peppol on January 1, 2026. Within six months, Belgian registrations in the OpenPeppol directory surpassed 2 million, making Belgium the single largest country on the network with 47% of all participants worldwide. France ranks second with approximately 890,000.
Credit line
Source: OpenPeppol SMP directory. Numbers, charts, and quotes on this page are free to reuse.
Contact
Frequently asked questions
How many companies are on the Peppol network?
As of June 2026, more than 4.4 million participants are registered in the OpenPeppol SMP directory across 100+ countries. Belgium alone accounts for over 2 million of those registrations.
Which country has the most Peppol participants?
Belgium leads the Peppol network with over 2 million participants, representing 47% of the global total. France is second with approximately 890,000 participants, followed by Australia with around 430,000.
Why does Belgium have so many Peppol IDs?
Belgium mandated B2B e-invoicing via Peppol starting January 1, 2026. The mandate covers all VAT-registered businesses including self-billing arrangements. Banks and accountancy platforms auto-registered their client base, driving rapid adoption.
Is the Peppol directory complete?
The directory counts published receivers (companies that can receive e-invoices via Peppol). Active senders who have not published a receiver capability are not counted. Real adoption is therefore higher than the directory numbers suggest.
What is the most common Peppol document type?
Peppol BIS Billing UBL Invoice V3 is the most widely supported document type with over 3.7 million receiver registrations globally. It is the standard cross-border invoice format on the Peppol network.
How often is this page updated?
This page fetches fresh data from the OpenPeppol SMP directory every seven days. The numbers reflect published participant registrations at the time of the last update.
Data from the OpenPeppol SMP directory · Last updated 13 June 2026
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