The top-paying AI startups for engineers in 2026 pay a median base salary of up to $403K, led by Anthropic, Mercor, OpenAI. Based on engineering-role salaries in public job postings.
| # | AI startup | Median base (eng) | Open roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthropic | $403K | 280 |
| 2 | Mercor | $315K | 120 |
| 3 | OpenAI | $308K | 584 |
| 4 | Scale AI | $305K | 122 |
| 5 | Decagon | $300K | 181 |
| 6 | Giga ML | $280K | 58 |
| 7 | Unify | $273K | 17 |
| 8 | Harvey | $258K | 185 |
Figures are base salary only, from public job postings (2025–2026) — equity and bonus are separate. Methodology: median of disclosed USD annual salary bands; companies with at least 10 disclosed-salary postings.
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For the latest engineering compensation benchmarks, levels.fyi and The Pragmatic Engineer are the most cited sources.
Related: Software Engineer Salary Guide: SF, NYC, and Remote (2026) · Data Engineer Salary Guide: SF, NYC, Remote (2026)Tell us about your open roles and we'll start sourcing within 48 hours.
