AI Engineer compensation
AI Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The AI Engineer salary range at AI startups runs from $94,456 to $280,000, with a median of $196,000 — based on 63 disclosed salaries from postings on Fast AI Jobs. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$94,456Minimum
$196,000Median
$280,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 63 disclosed salaries.
01
Median AI Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series C | $237,500 | 15 |
| Series A | $195,000 | 9 |
| Series D | $190,000 | 11 |
| Series B | $185,750 | 12 |
| Series E | $155,518 | 8 |
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How we calculate this
Roughly a quarter of AI-startup postings disclose pay. We extract the USD range from those that do, normalize each to a midpoint, and aggregate across distinct postings (deduplicated by posting ID). The minimum, median, and maximum above are based on 63 disclosed salaries. We publish aggregate ranges only — never a single company's salary — so the numbers stay representative rather than anecdotal.
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