Which AI labs pay the most for engineers? Disclosed base pay, October 2026

Anthropic had the highest median disclosed base pay for engineer roles among 49 AI labs tracked in October 2026, at $402,500 across 154 roles, followed by MatX at $380,000 and OpenAI at $339,000. The figures are midpoints of posted base salary ranges in US dollars, excluding equity, bonuses and offers, and labs are ranked only where at least ten open engineer roles disclosed a usable range. Frontier labs had the highest median by kind at $330,000, while defense companies were lowest at $190,000, a figure driven almost entirely by Anduril and Shield AI.