The median software engineer posting at a tech startup offers $221K base, with the middle half between $188K and $256K — from 2,406 live pay ranges at 189 companies. Entry-level postings sit around $144K; staff+ around $254K.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry / new grad | 21 | $144K | $133K–$173K |
| Level not stated | 1,064 | $203K | $170K–$275K |
| Senior | 754 | $212K | $191K–$225K |
| Staff+ | 567 | $254K | $224K–$293K |
| City | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 634 | $275K | $216K–$356K |
| New York | 296 | $250K | $216K–$357K |
| Mountain View | 142 | $227K | $196K–$243K |
| Seattle | 136 | $270K | $221K–$403K |
| Costa Mesa | 133 | $222K | $193K–$222K |
| Sunnyvale | 111 | $203K | $179K–$224K |
| Washington DC | 58 | $222K | $196K–$255K |
| Bellevue | 55 | $212K | $186K–$222K |
| Boston | 55 | $200K | $174K–$228K |
| Foster City | 52 | $246K | $219K–$302K |
| Denver | 44 | $184K | $173K–$208K |
| Long Beach | 41 | $192K | $163K–$223K |
| Irvine | 39 | $215K | $174K–$233K |
| Palo Alto | 36 | $310K | $255K–$310K |
| San Jose | 34 | $225K | $204K–$238K |
| South San Francisco | 34 | $205K | $190K–$220K |
| Broomfield | 30 | $192K | $147K–$221K |
| Waltham | 26 | $222K | $193K–$222K |
| Atlanta | 20 | $171K | $145K–$196K |
| Fort Collins | 20 | $147K | $147K–$221K |
| Company | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | 89 | $403K | $363K–$445K |
| Cohere | 29 | $393K | $263K–$393K |
| OpenAI | 157 | $356K | $326K–$366K |
| Mercor | 25 | $330K | $330K–$330K |
| Apptronik | 2 | $325K | $325K–$325K |
| xAI | 29 | $310K | $310K–$310K |
| Sierra | 28 | $310K | $285K–$310K |
| Decagon | 15 | $300K | $300K–$300K |
| Legora | 2 | $300K | $289K–$310K |
| Suno | 16 | $296K | $238K–$296K |
| Replit | 11 | $295K | $210K–$306K |
| AlphaSense | 6 | $293K | $230K–$293K |
| Shepherd | 6 | $285K | $285K–$306K |
| Rogo | 6 | $283K | $283K–$283K |
| Teleport | 5 | $266K | $261K–$282K |
| Software Engineer, Research Productivity Anthropic |
$405K–$625K |
| Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity Anthropic |
$405K–$625K |
| Staff Software Engineer, Code RL Anthropic |
$405K–$625K |
| Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code Anthropic |
$320K–$625K |
| Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure Anthropic |
$405K–$605K |
| Member of Technical Staff - Model Training xAI |
$180K–$600K |
| Software Engineer, Inference - Multi Modal OpenAI |
$295K–$555K |
| Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems) OpenAI |
$295K–$536K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, base salary as posted), across open roles at the startups we track, recalculated daily. Postings without a range, interns and contractors are excluded. Updated Oct 27, 2026.