38 AI Engineer Salary Statistics for 2026

ByShane Tran Updated on

Companies are competing for AI engineering talent, and pay reflects it. The numbers vary by title, company, and what gets counted. Here are 38 AI engineer salary statistics for 2026.

Top AI Engineer Salary Statistics

How Much Do AI Engineers Make?

The answer depends on the source and what it counts. Base salary, total compensation, and survey medians each give a different number.

1. The starting salary for AI/ML engineers in the US ranges from $134,000 to $193,250, with a midpoint of $170,750 (Robert Half, 2026 US Salary Guide).

2. The median annual total compensation for AI/ML engineers in the US is $189,500, including salary, bonuses, and perks (Stack Overflow, 2025 Developer Survey).

3. The median annual wage for computer and information research scientists was $140,300 in May 2025 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OOH).

The BLS category covers a broader set of roles than AI-specific titles. It tends to run lower than recruiter and survey data.

Tech Workforce Salary Benchmarks

Seniority and AI involvement both affect pay. The figures below cover the broader US tech workforce, not AI engineers alone.

4. The lowest-paid 10% of computer and information research scientists earned less than $82,200, while the top 10% earned more than $230,630 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OOH).

5. The average US technology professional earned $112,521 in 2024, a 1.2% year-over-year increase (Dice, 2025 Tech Salary Report).

6. Tech professionals working on AI solutions command salaries 17.7% higher than peers not involved in AI work (Dice, 2025 Tech Salary Report).

7. Mid-career tech professionals with 3–5 years of experience saw a nearly 6% salary increase in 2024, reversing an 8% decline the prior year (Dice, 2025 Tech Salary Report).

8. Veteran tech professionals with 15+ years of experience earned an average of $133,047 in 2024, the highest-compensated cohort (Dice, 2025 Tech Salary Report).

How Fast Are AI Engineer Salaries Growing?

AI salaries are pulling away from the broader tech market. Multiple sources confirm the trend.

9. AI, machine learning, and data science roles are projected to see 4.1% starting salary growth in 2026, the highest rate among the roles Robert Half’s press release highlights (Robert Half, 2026 Salary Guide).

10. Globally, workers with AI skills earn a 56% wage premium over similar roles without AI skills, up from 25% a year earlier (PwC, 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer).

11. Job postings that list AI skills offer 28% higher salaries — roughly $18,000 more per year — than postings without AI skills (Lightcast, 2025).

How Much Do AI Engineers Make at Top Tech Companies?

Total compensation at major tech companies includes stock and bonuses on top of base salary. The figures below are median total compensation packages self-reported to Levels.fyi, as of September 7, 2026.

12. NVIDIA AI engineers earn a median total compensation of $460,000 per year in the US (Levels.fyi, NVIDIA AI Engineer).

13. Meta AI engineers earn a median total compensation of $448,000 per year, ranging from $359,000 at E4 to $645,000 at E6 (Levels.fyi, Meta AI Engineer).

14. Apple machine learning engineers earn a median total compensation of $386,000 per year, ranging from $171,000 to $528,000 (Levels.fyi, Apple ML Engineer).

15. Google AI engineers earn a median total compensation of $280,000 per year, ranging from $177,000 at L3 to $1.15 million at L6 (Levels.fyi, Google AI Engineer).

16. Microsoft AI engineers earn a median total compensation of $282,000 per year, ranging from $184,000 to $502,000 (Levels.fyi, Microsoft AI Engineer).

17. Amazon machine learning engineers earn a median total compensation of $280,000 per year (Levels.fyi, Amazon ML Engineer).

18. Software engineers at OpenAI report a median total compensation of $930,000 per year in the US, with the highest reported package at $1.4 million (Levels.fyi, OpenAI Software Engineer).

Government H-1B filings show a different picture. These numbers are base salary only, filed with the Department of Labor.

19. OpenAI’s H-1B filings show a median base salary of $310,000 across 155 applications submitted in 2025 (h1bdata.info, OpenAI H-1B filings).

20. OpenAI’s Member of Technical Staff — AI Systems Engineer role carried a median H-1B base salary of $360,000 in 2025 (h1bdata.info, OpenAI H-1B filings).

21. Anthropic’s Member of Technical Staff role showed a median H-1B base salary of $300,000 in San Francisco across 82 filings submitted between 2021 and 2025 (h1bdata.info, Anthropic H-1B filings).

AI Engineer Salary by Country

Salary levels vary widely by market. The figures below are from recruiter salary guides and self-reported platforms in local currencies.

22. The midpoint starting salary for an AI engineer in Canada is CA$115,000 per year, ranging from CA$89,000 to CA$140,000 (Robert Half, 2026 Canada Salary Guide).

23. The median starting salary for an AI engineer in Australia is AU$170,000 per year, with the 25th to 75th percentile spanning AU$150,000 to AU$195,000 (Robert Half, 2026 Australia Salary Guide).

24. The median starting salary for an AI engineer in Switzerland is CHF 125,000 per year, with the 25th to 75th percentile spanning CHF 100,000 to CHF 150,000 (Robert Half, 2026 Switzerland Salary Guide).

25. The average annual salary for AI/ML engineers in Singapore is S$100,000 to S$170,000 (Morgan McKinley, 2026 Salary Guide).

26. The median total pay for an AI engineer in India is ₹1,100,000 (approximately ₹11 LPA) per year, with a range of ₹678,000 to ₹1,800,000 (Glassdoor, India AI Engineer).

AI Engineer Salary by Specialization

Salary data by sub-field is thinner. Two roles with public Glassdoor medians are below.

27. The median total pay for an NLP engineer in the US is $166,000 per year, with a range of $139,000 to $201,000 (Glassdoor, US NLP Engineer).

28. The median total pay for a computer vision engineer in the US is $168,000 per year (Glassdoor, US Computer Vision Engineer).

AI Job Market and Demand

Demand for AI engineers is growing faster than most other roles. The data points below cover job postings, growth projections, and the skills gap.

29. Employment of computer and information research scientists is projected to grow 22% from 2025 to 2035 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OOH).

The average growth rate for all occupations is 3.5% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections).

30. AI engineer ranked as the #1 fastest-growing job title in the US in LinkedIn’s 2026 Jobs on the Rise report (LinkedIn, Jobs on the Rise 2026, via Dice).

31. Globally, job postings requiring AI skills grew 7.5% year over year even as total postings fell 11.3% (PwC, 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer).

32. US job postings mentioning generative AI jumped from 16,000 in 2023 to more than 66,000 in 2024 (Stanford HAI AI Index 2025 / Lightcast).

33. US job postings mentioning large language modeling grew from 5,000 to 20,000 between 2023 and 2024, while prompt engineering postings rose from 1,400 to nearly 6,300 (Stanford HAI AI Index 2025 / Lightcast).

34. The US saw a 20% rise in demand for AI skills between 2023 and 2024, compared with 4% in Canada and 2% in the UK (Stanford HAI AI Index 2025 / Lightcast).

35. 51% of job postings requiring AI skills sit outside IT and computer science, with generative AI roles in non-tech industries growing 800% since 2022 (Lightcast, 2025).

36. Globally, 63% of employers cite the skills gap as the top barrier to business transformation, with nearly 40% of job skills set to change by 2030 (World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025).

37. IDC predicts that by 2026, more than 90% of organizations worldwide will face the IT skills crisis, amounting to $5.5 trillion in losses (IDC, 2024).

38. India’s AI talent demand is projected to grow from 600,000–650,000 to more than 1,250,000 professionals between 2022 and 2027 (Deloitte India & NASSCOM, 2024).

Conclusion

Base pay, total compensation, and H-1B filings each tell a different story. The numbers vary widely depending on the source, the company, and the job title. The sources that compare AI and non-AI roles point the same w