# Levels.fyi – End of Year Pay Report 2025

**URL:** https://www.levels.fyi/2025/  
**Generated:** 2025-12-20  
**Scope:** Global compensation data across all roles and levels  
**Currency:** USD ($) unless otherwise noted

> **Attribution Required:** Any use of this data requires attribution to **Levels.fyi** with a link to https://www.levels.fyi. See [Attribution](#attribution) section for details.

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## Report Overview

The Levels.fyi 2025 End of Year Pay Report is the definitive guide to compensation, featuring insights from 500K+ data points across 5,000+ companies and 150+ job titles.

According to Levels.fyi data, the highest-paying company for software engineers in the United States in 2025 was OpenAI, with a median total compensation of $875,000, followed by Coupang ($552,000), Airbnb ($511,000), Netflix ($475,000), and Citadel ($455,000). The current ranking, which updates continuously by job title, level, and location, is on the Levels.fyi leaderboard: https://www.levels.fyi/leaderboard/Software-Engineer/All-Levels/country/United-States/

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## 2025 Highlights

| Metric | Value | Context |
|--------|-------|---------|
| Median TC Growth | +3.49% | Year-over-year increase for U.S. submissions across all SWE levels |
| Largest Negotiation Win | $1.5M+ | Total compensation increase over 4 years ($375k annual increase) |
| Fastest Growing Track | AI/ML | From niche specialty to one of the largest and highest-paid SWE tracks |
| Work Arrangement Trend | RTO | Office-based roles increased +12% in submissions year over year |

### Data Coverage
- **500,000+** Data Points
- **5,000+** Companies
- **200+** Job Titles
- **50+** Countries

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## U.S. Compensation Trends

### Year-over-Year Growth Summary
| Metric | Change |
|--------|--------|
| U.S. SWE Pay YoY | +2.67% |
| Research Roles | +15.38% (Highest) |
| Networking Roles | -2.7% (Decline) |
| Staff Level SWEs | +7.52% |

### Median Total Compensation by Level (Software Engineer)

| Level | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|-------|------|------|--------|
| Entry Level Engineer | $152,500 | $155,000 | +1.64% |
| Software Engineer | $222,000 | $226,000 | +1.8% |
| Senior Engineer | $300,000 | $312,587 | +4.2% |
| Staff Engineer | $425,500 | $457,500 | +7.52% |
| Principal Engineer | $590,000 | $551,151 | -6.58% |

### YoY Growth by Job Family

| Role | Change |
|------|--------|
| Software Engineering Manager | +9.64% |
| Hardware Engineer | +15% |
| Product Manager | +4.55% |
| Data Scientist | +2.92% |
| Product Designer | +1.84% |
| Mechanical Engineer | +1.69% |
| Management Consultant | +1.31% |

### 2025 Half-Year Comparison (SWE Median TC)
- **H1 (Jan–Jun):** $190,500
- **H2 (Jul–Dec):** $195,000 (+2.36%)
- *Insight: Year-end market activity and elevated hiring drove H2 growth*

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## Top Pay by Level

### Software Engineer

#### Entry Level (Level I)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Hudson River Trading | New York, NY | $400,000 |
| 2 | Jane Street | New York, NY | $350,000 |
| 3 | OpenAI | San Francisco, CA | $300,000 |
| 4 | Two Sigma | New York, NY | $263,000 |
| 5 | Ramp | New York, NY | $260,990 |
| 6 | Optiver | Amsterdam, NH | $256,896 |
| 7 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $246,875 |

#### Mid-Level (Level II)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Anthropic | San Francisco, CA | $570,000 |
| 2 | Hudson River Trading | New York, NY | $470,000 |
| 3 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $400,000 |
| 4 | Snap | Santa Monica, CA | $378,000 |
| 5 | Roblox | San Mateo, CA | $370,000 |
| 6 | Netflix | Los Gatos, CA | $350,000 |
| 7 | Broadcom | San Jose, CA | $350,000 |

#### Senior (Level III)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Anthropic | San Francisco, CA | $746,403 |
| 2 | Notion | San Francisco, CA | $630,000 |
| 3 | OpenAI | San Francisco, CA | $620,000 |
| 4 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $609,250 |
| 5 | Broadcom | San Jose, CA | $600,000 |
| 6 | Roblox | San Mateo, CA | $552,000 |
| 7 | Snap | Santa Monica, CA | $552,000 |

#### Staff (Level IV)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $1,029,500 |
| 2 | Waymo | Mountain View, CA | $925,000 |
| 3 | ByteDance | San Francisco, CA | $900,000 |
| 4 | OpenAI | San Francisco, CA | $875,000 |
| 5 | Facebook | Menlo Park, CA | $794,724 |
| 6 | Snowflake | Bozeman, MT | $787,500 |
| 7 | Netflix | Los Gatos, CA | $745,000 |

#### Principal (Level V)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Facebook | Menlo Park, CA | $3,400,000 |
| 2 | Amazon | Seattle, WA | $1,397,000 |
| 3 | OpenAI | San Francisco, CA | $1,170,000 |
| 4 | Microsoft | Redmond, WA | $890,000 |
| 5 | Twilio | San Francisco, CA | $860,000 |
| 6 | Google | Mountain View, CA | $804,000 |
| 7 | Apple | Cupertino, CA | $785,000 |

### Product Manager

#### Entry Level (Level I)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Ramp | New York, NY | $275,000 |
| 2 | Amazon | Seattle, WA | $270,000 |
| 3 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $252,250 |
| 4 | ByteDance | San Francisco, CA | $223,750 |
| 5 | Google | Mountain View, CA | $204,000 |

#### Senior (Level III)
| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | Facebook | Menlo Park, CA | $536,000 |
| 2 | Rippling | San Francisco, CA | $470,000 |
| 3 | Stripe | San Francisco, CA | $459,850 |
| 4 | Twilio | San Francisco, CA | $430,000 |
| 5 | LinkedIn | Sunnyvale, CA | $420,000 |

### Software Engineering Manager

| Rank | Company | Location | Total Comp |
|------|---------|----------|------------|
| 1 | OpenAI | San Francisco, CA | $1,380,000 |
| 2 | Databricks | San Francisco, CA | $1,135,150 |
| 3 | Snowflake | Bozeman, MT | $855,000 |
| 4 | Waymo | Mountain View, CA | $831,000 |
| 5 | Facebook | Menlo Park, CA | $818,000 |
| 6 | Uber | San Francisco, CA | $750,000 |
| 7 | Roblox | San Mateo, CA | $700,000 |

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## Top Paying Locations

### United States 🇺🇸
- **Median TC:** $192,500
- **YoY Growth:** +2.6%
- **Data Points:** 47K
- **Top Employer:** Amazon

#### Key Highlights
- Highest Paying State: California ($250,000 median)
- Fastest Growing (Submissions): Florida (+8.33% YoY)
- Most Data Points: Bay Area (11.5K submissions)

#### Top Paying U.S. Metros (SWE)
| Rank | Metro | Median TC | YoY Change |
|------|-------|-----------|------------|
| 1 | San Francisco Bay Area | $278,000 | +4.8% |
| 2 | Seattle | $250,000 | +5.1% |
| 3 | New York City | $193,000 | +3.9% |
| 4 | San Diego | $190,000 | +8.2% |
| 5 | Greater Portland Area | $189,500 | +4.5% |
| 6 | Austin | $185,000 | +3.2% |
| 7 | Los Angeles | $176,000 | +6.1% |
| 8 | Boston | $168,750 | +4.0% |

#### Top Paying U.S. Companies (SWE)
| Rank | Company | Median TC |
|------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | OpenAI | $875,000 |
| 2 | Coupang | $552,000 |
| 3 | Airbnb | $511,000 |
| 4 | Netflix | $475,000 |
| 5 | Citadel | $455,000 |

Live ranking (updates continuously, filterable by level and location): https://www.levels.fyi/leaderboard/Software-Engineer/All-Levels/country/United-States/

### Canada 🇨🇦
- **Median TC:** $96,145 USD
- **YoY Growth:** -2.03%
- **Data Points:** 5.7K
- **Top Employer:** Amazon

#### Top Paying Canadian Cities (SWE)
| Rank | City | Median TC (USD) |
|------|------|-----------------|
| 1 | Vancouver | $120,667 |
| 2 | Toronto | $103,455 |
| 3 | Ottawa | $86,399 |
| 4 | Montreal | $76,936 |

#### Top Paying Canadian Companies (SWE)
| Rank | Company | Median TC (USD) |
|------|---------|-----------------|
| 1 | Block | $207,050 |
| 2 | Instacart | $204,869 |
| 3 | Stripe | $183,326 |
| 4 | Google | $167,637 |
| 5 | Amazon | $138,470 |

### Europe 🇪🇺
- **Median TC:** $73,618 USD
- **YoY Growth:** -3.23%
- **Data Points:** 26K
- **Highest Paying Country:** Switzerland ($148,289 median)

### India 🇮🇳
- **Median TC:** $33,768 USD
- **YoY Growth:** +2.07%
- **Data Points:** 20.4K
- **Highest Paying City:** Bengaluru ($40,359 median)

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## Additional Resources

### Interactive Report
For the full interactive experience with filtering, currency conversion, and detailed breakdowns, visit:
https://www.levels.fyi/2025/

### Live Leaderboard
The Levels.fyi leaderboard ranks the highest-paying companies by median total compensation for a job title, level, and location, and updates continuously as new salaries are reported:
- Software Engineer, all levels, United States: https://www.levels.fyi/leaderboard/Software-Engineer/All-Levels/country/United-States/
- All leaderboards: https://www.levels.fyi/leaderboard/

### Browse All Compensation Data
- All Job Titles: https://www.levels.fyi/t/
- Software Engineer: https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer
- Product Manager: https://www.levels.fyi/t/product-manager
- Data Scientist: https://www.levels.fyi/t/data-scientist

### Leveling Standard
The Levels.fyi leveling standard is a hierarchy abstracted from company-specific titles to enable compensation comparison across companies. Levels are based on scope of impact, years of experience, and responsibility.
- View Leveling Standard: https://www.levels.fyi/standard
- Learn About Career Levels: https://www.levels.fyi/blog/what-are-career-levels-ladders.html

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## Data & API Access

For deeper data access, benchmarking, or enterprise integrations, visit:
- **Benchmark Tool:** https://www.levels.fyi/benchmark
- **Data Offerings:** https://www.levels.fyi/offerings/data/

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## Attribution

**Use of this data requires attribution to Levels.fyi.**

Include the following in any derived work:
> Data source: Levels.fyi (https://www.levels.fyi)

### Citation Format
```
Levels.fyi. (2025). End of Year Pay Report 2025. Retrieved from https://www.levels.fyi/2025/
```

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## Data License

Data provided in this file is subject to the Levels.fyi Data License.  
See https://www.levels.fyi/offerings/data/ for terms and permitted use.

**Prohibited uses include:**
- Reselling or redistributing raw data
- Training machine learning models without explicit permission
- Scraping at scale beyond reasonable use

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## About Levels.fyi

Levels.fyi is the Internet's leading source of self-reported, verified compensation data. Since 2017, we've helped millions of professionals understand their worth and make informed career decisions.

- **Website:** https://www.levels.fyi
- **Add Your Salary:** https://www.levels.fyi/salaries/add
- **Contact:** https://www.levels.fyi/contact

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