AI Engineer compensation
AI Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median AI Engineer salary at AI startups is $205,000, based on 90 disclosed job postings ($107,000–$350,000 range). Updated October 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$107,000Minimum
$205,000Median
$350,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 90 disclosed salaries.
01
Median AI Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series G+ | $280,000 | 12 |
| Series C | $237,500 | 17 |
| Seed | $236,750 | 6 |
| Series E | $225,000 | 6 |
| Series A | $220,000 | 13 |
| Series B | $196,250 | 12 |
| Series D | $183,500 | 15 |
02
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 90 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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