AI startup salary revealed: Open Alliance and human payments in 2025

Can you hear it? Groaning. The sound of your head hitting your desk. It is the sound of workers lamenting the employment war in technology and the choice to study anything other than English, psychology, or computer science, as AI engineers write their tickets.

When big technology and startups compete to dominate the next frontier of artificial intelligence, they offer money, perks and fairness to a limited pool of technical talent that joins them.

Technology salaries range from eye-opening to boundary indecent. Openai allows technical staff to pull up to $530,000 a year, according to data from federal submissions. In anthropology, research engineers earn up to $690,000. Even software engineers at Garden-Variety Unicorns, and at least one billion worth of venture support companies, earn $250,000 on a daily basis.

The numbers come from applications that companies must submit to the Ministry of Labor when hiring foreign workers H-1B Visa Program85,000 specialist workers can be brought in each year through the lottery system.

These government-mandated disclosures provide a peek into wage measures, as tech companies typically provide close protection for reward details. The numbers only reflect the year sal, excluding stock options, signature bonuses, and in many cases other perks that can double or triple the total compensation package.

For this list, Business Insider has drawn filings from some of the top AI startups over $2 billion, excluding robotics, defense and autonomous driving companies. See how your salary is stacked with someone else's salary, such as Cohere, Glean, Thinking Machines Lab.

Any hints? Please contact the reporter by email mrussell@businessinsider.com Or signal at @meliarussell.01. Use your personal email address and unprocessed devices. Here's a guide to sharing information safely:

Applidge

Indian American man leaning against a concrete wall. — Abridge CEO Shiv Rao, MD.

Applidge

Senior Software Engineer: $235,000
Software Engineer: $240,000

Humanity

Mankind CEO Dario Amody will be taking part in the Viva Technology Show at the PARC DES Expositions Porte de Versailles on May 22, 2024 in Paris. — Dario Amody, CEO of humanity.

Chesnot/Getty Images

Finance and Strategy: $230,000
Technical staff members: $300,000 to $405,000
Technical staff members (manager): $690,000
People's Partners: $285,000
Recruiter: $170,000
Regulatory work lead: $210,000
Research Engineer: $340,000 to $690,000
Research work: $230,000
Startup Account Executive: $126,000

Anysphere (cursor maker)

Anysphere CEO Michael Truell.

Lenny's podcast/YouTube

Product Designer: $250,000

I'll cooperate

White bearded man smiling in the background of a photo studio. — Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez.

Coleburston/AFP via Getty Images

Technical staff members: $240,000

collection

Arvind Jain Glean CEO and Founder — GLEAN CEO Arvind Jain.

collection

Lead Manager at Data Science Tech: $230,000
Software Engineer: $190,000 to $260,000
Software Engineer, Machine Learning: $210,000
Software Engineering Manager: $250,000

grammar

Shishir_mehrotra_coda2 — Grammar CEO Sisil Melotra.

Coda

AI Engineer: $223,000
Analytical Linguist: $164,800
Analytical Engineer: $250,000
Data Scientist: $170,000
Engineering Manager, Data Platform: $315,000
Machine Learning Software Engineer: $318,000
Marketing Manager: $225,000
Software Engineer: $180,000 to $302,100
Product Designer: $110,000 to $230,000
Product Manager: $200,000
Software Engineers, Data Platforms: $196,000
Systems Engineer, Finance Infrastructure: $280,000
Technical Accounting Manager: $201,600
User Researcher: $221,520

Mistral AI

AI Scientist: $280,000 to $350,000

A Mistral spokesman said that while some employees fall within that range, the more accurate pay band for US-based roles is between $150,000 and $450,000. Mistral is employed.

Openai

A white man in oversized sunglasses speaks to a gathering of reporters. — Openai CEO Sam Altman.

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Communication staff members: $216,000
Data Science Staff Members: $245,000-385,000
Design Staff Members: $245,000
Finance Staff Members: $265,000
Go To Market Staff Members: $220,000 to $280,000
Intelligence and Research Staff Members: $320,000 to $382,500
Program staff members: $270,000 to $340,000
Support and Community Staff Members: $235,000
Technical staff members (hardware engineers): $360,000
Technical staff members: $210,000 to $530,000
Technical staff members (research engineers): $210,000 to $440,000
Technical staff members (research scientists): $245,000 to $440,000
Technical staff members (security engineers): $310,000
Technical staff members (software engineers): $200,000 to $440,000

Openai recruiters said more accurate pay bands are listed on the company's career page. According to these listings, research engineers make between $295,000 and $530,000, while software engineers make between $255,000 and $590,000.