Research Scientist compensation
Research Scientist Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The Research Scientist salary range at AI startups runs from $112,320 to $412,500, with a median of $216,750 — based on 122 disclosed salaries from postings on Fast AI Jobs. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$112,320Minimum
$216,750Median
$412,500Maximum
Sample size: based on 122 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Research Scientist salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | $312,500 | 10 |
| Series G+ | $275,000 | 31 |
| Series D | $250,000 | 5 |
| Series E | $215,175 | 10 |
| Series C | $201,500 | 14 |
| Series B | $200,000 | 23 |
| Series A | $176,000 | 21 |
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 122 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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