Software Engineer compensation
Software Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Software Engineer salary at AI startups is $200,450, based on 1435 disclosed job postings ($24,000–$1,200,000 range). Updated September 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$24,000Minimum
$200,450Median
$1,200,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 1435 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Software Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | $293,750 | 36 |
| Series G+ | $209,550 | 373 |
| Growth | $209,000 | 17 |
| Series E | $205,000 | 116 |
| Series D | $205,000 | 232 |
| Series F | $205,000 | 61 |
| Series C | $200,500 | 186 |
| Private Equity | $197,750 | 24 |
| Debt | $195,000 | 60 |
| Series B | $194,000 | 185 |
| Series A | $192,250 | 130 |
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 1435 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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