LLM salary: $229K median
From 2,095 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$229Kmedian advertised salary
$190K – $275Kmiddle half of roles
$239Kaverage advertised salary
2,095roles counted
LLM salary by level
Senior roles advertise a median of $207K, 26% more than junior roles ($164K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | $164K | $140K–$172K | 16 |
| Senior | $207K | $187K–$237K | 492 |
| Lead and above | $255K | $224K–$289K | 620 |
| No level in title | $225K | $172K–$285K | 963 |
LLM salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $250K | 1,073 |
| 🇺🇸California | $248K | 1,137 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $243K | 496 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $242K | 184 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $232K | 59 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $230K | 1,991 |
| 🇨🇦Canada | $212K | 33 |
| 🇺🇸Denver | $212K | 22 |
| 🇺🇸Boston | $209K | 39 |
| 🇺🇸Atlanta | $206K | 15 |
| 🇺🇸Chicago | $202K | 40 |
| 🇺🇸Texas | $184K | 48 |
| 🇺🇸Dallas | $181K | 18 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $172K | 35 |
| 🇺🇸Austin | $165K | 29 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $348K | 182 |
| Lambda | $330K | 8 |
| Mercor | $330K | 22 |
| Asana | $310K | 3 |
| Figma | $306K | 13 |
| River AI Inc. | $300K | 4 |
| Suno | $296K | 8 |
| Perplexity | $290K | 28 |
| Adyen | $288K | 5 |
| OpenAI | $287K | 58 |
| $286K | 19 | |
| Roblox | $286K | 25 |
| Motional | $285K | 3 |
| Sierra | $285K | 38 |
| OKX | $282K | 8 |
| Character.AI | $281K | 4 |
| Insitro | $281K | 3 |
| Decagon | $280K | 22 |
| Snorkel AI | $280K | 17 |
| Discord | $279K | 3 |
| Inworld AI | $275K | 7 |
| McMaster-Carr | $275K | 5 |
| GoFundMe | $274K | 3 |
| Plaid | $273K | 6 |
| $273K | 22 |
Highest-paying open LLM roles
All LLM jobs- Performance EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$280K - $850KMachine LearningLLM
- Performance Engineer, Inference SystemsAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$350K - $850KPythonSQLLLM
- Research Scientist / Research Engineer - Foundations, SearchOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$380K - $850KMachine LearningLLM
- Researcher, TrainingOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$300K - $600KLLM
- Tech Lead, Applied AI - SearchMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$350K - $600KLeadLLMAI
- Senior Director of Engineering, Generative AIRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$526K - $574KLeadMachine LearningLLMAI
- Staff / Principal Research Scientist, Models - USAInworld AI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$270K - $500KLeadLLMNLP
- Software Engineer, AgentsMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$160K - $500KPythonTypeScriptReact
- VP, ResearchScale AI · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA; New York, NY$397K - $496KLeadLLM
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Inference Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KRustPythonLLM
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KPythonC++Machine Learning
- Senior Manager, Detection and ResponseLambda · Bellevue Office$324K - $480KSeniorMachine LearningLLM
- Sr. Manager, Machine Learning Engineering-Applied ResearchPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$228K - $469KRemoteSeniorMachine LearningLLMAI
- Staff Machine Learning EngineerPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$228K - $469KRemoteLeadMachine LearningLLMAI
- Staff Security ArchitectLambda · Bellevue Office$314K - $465KLeadGoPythonTerraform
- Principal Product Manager, AI-Native Merchant ExperiencesAdyen · 🇺🇸San Francisco$330K - $462KLeadLLMAI
- Principal Research Scientist – Multimodal Reasoning & Embodied AIWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$407K - $460KLeadPythonMachine LearningLLM
- Director of Engineering – Studio SystemsRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$399K - $458KLeadC++LLM
- Research Engineer / Scientist, Data & EvalsHarvey · 🇺🇸San Francisco$230K - $450KPythonLLM
- Research Engineer / Scientist, Reinforcement LearningHarvey · 🇺🇸New York$230K - $450KPythonLLM
Questions about LLM pay
- What is the average LLM salary?
- $239K a year on average and $229K at the median, across 2,095 open LLM postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $190K to $275K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest LLM pay?
- Anthropic ($348K), Lambda ($330K), Mercor ($330K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for LLM roles at tech companies is $229K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $190K to $275K. Counted from 2,095 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/llm/
Free to use with the link.