How Much Do AI Engineer Jobs Pay in the USA? (November 2026)
As of November 2026, the median AI Engineer salary in the USA is $202,000 a year. Most roles pay between $129,960 and $285,000 (the 10th–90th percentile), drawn from 870 live salaried listings across 363 companies. All figures are converted to annual US dollars so different sources compare like-for-like.
How pay has moved
Median base salary by month, from our monthly salary snapshots.
Highest-paying employers
- Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)Research Engineer, Code RL (Reinforcement Learning)Research Engineer, Computer UseResearch Engineer, Model EvaluationsResearch Engineer, RL EngineeringAll Anthropic roles →
- Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-TrainingResearch Engineer, Real EnvironmentsData ScientistData Science InternAll Mercor roles →
- All OKX roles →
- All Datadog roles →
- Research EngineerResearch Engineer, Audio and SpeechResearch Engineer, SafetySenior Research EngineerSenior Research Engineer, SafetyAll Decagon roles →
Employers ranked by median advertised base among those with at least two salaried listings in the USA; each one’s best-paying open roles are listed beneath it.
Methodology: AI Engineer listings in the USA with a published salary, updated daily. Figures come from roles that are open right now. Ranges and single figures are converted to an annual US-dollar midpoint; hourly rates are annualised and out-of-band values dropped. Salary data is self-reported by employers and covers the roles that disclose pay — treat it as a directional guide, not a guarantee.