Key Takeaways
- The median US software developer earned $135,980 in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half of developers earned between $105,210 and $171,980.
- Total compensation at tech companies runs much higher: the median software engineer package reported to Levels.fyi is $198,000 once stock and bonuses are included.
- Level is the biggest lever. At the top-paying tech companies, median total pay climbs from $155,000 for entry-level engineers to $551,200 for principal engineers.
- Silicon Valley pays the most even after adjusting for cost of living. After that adjustment, cheaper metros such as Huntsville, Kansas City and St. Louis jump about 20 places in our ranking of 43 metros.
- Fully remote US developers earn about 11% more than in-person developers with similar experience, but the premium only shows up for experienced engineers, and remote job postings keep shrinking.
Software engineer salary 2026, in one number: about $136,000 a year in the United States. The median software developer wage was $135,980 in the latest government data, and most developers earn between $105,000 and $172,000. What you should expect depends mostly on three things: your level, where you live, and whether the employer pays in stock. A new graduate at a typical company might start near $90,000, while a staff engineer at a top tech company can make more than $450,000 in total compensation.
This guide breaks those numbers down by level, city, country and work arrangement, using government wage data, Stack Overflow's 2026 survey microdata and Levels.fyi's crowdsourced pay reports. The interactive explorer below lets you find a realistic range for your own situation.
Software Engineer Salary 2026: The Key Numbers
If you only need a quick answer, this table has it. The first rows are government data on base wages, which cover every employer. The later rows show how much higher pay runs once stock and bonuses are counted at tech companies.
| Measure | Annual pay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US median wage, software developers | $135,980 | BLS, May 2025 |
| Middle 50% of developers | $105,210 – $171,980 | BLS, May 2025 |
| Bottom 10% earn less than | $82,460 | BLS, May 2025 |
| Top 10% earn more than | $214,670 | BLS, May 2025 |
| Highest-paying metro (San Jose) | $213,110 median | BLS, May 2025 |
| Highest-paying state (California) | $174,410 median | BLS, May 2025 |
| Median total compensation, US software engineers | $198,000 | Levels.fyi, October 2026 |
| Entry-level to principal, top tech total comp | $155,000 – $551,200 | Levels.fyi 2025 report |
Find Your Number: Interactive Salary Explorer
Pick where you work, your experience level and your work arrangement. For US locations, the explorer starts from the BLS median for that metro and scales it by how pay at your level and arrangement compares with all US developers in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. For other countries it uses the survey's own medians, converted to US dollars. Turn on the cost-of-living adjustment to compare metros on equal footing.
Interactive
What should you expect to make?
United States · All levels · Any arrangement
$135,980median annual wage
Typical range (middle 50%): $105,210 – $171,980 · +0% vs. the US median ($136K)
Bar: BLS wage percentiles for all software developers in United States. Marker: this estimate.
Same region and level, by work arrangement
BLS wages, May 2025, for 1,687,890 software developers.
Two cautions. The level estimates for US metros assume each metro's pay scales with experience the way the national survey does, which is a simplification. And every number here is a median: half of engineers at that level earn more.
How Much Does a Software Engineer Make? Wages vs Total Compensation
You'll see two very different answers to this question online, and both are right. They measure different things.
The government number is a wage. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey surveys employers about the pay of roughly 1.69 million software developers. It counts base pay, commissions and production bonuses, but not stock. It covers banks, insurers, hospitals, government contractors and small agencies as well as tech companies. That's why its median, $135,980, is the best answer for a typical job.
The tech-industry number is total compensation. Levels.fyi collects self-reported offers, mostly from large tech companies, and adds stock grants and bonuses to salary. Its US median for software engineers was $198,000 on October 23, 2026, based on 47,830 reported salaries, with a 25th percentile of $139,000 and a 90th percentile of $391,000. Levels.fyi's data skews toward the companies that pay the most, so treat it as the top of the market, not the average.
The gap between $136,000 and $198,000 is stock, bonuses and the kind of employer. Whether a company grants equity can matter as much as your city.
Has pay kept up with inflation?
Barely. The BLS median rose from $133,080 in May 2024 to $135,980 in May 2025, a 2.2% increase. Consumer prices rose 2.4% over the same 12 months, according to the Consumer Price Index, so the typical developer's real pay was roughly flat. Prices have risen another 4.9% since May 2025, so it would take about $142,600 in September 2026 to match the buying power of the May 2025 median. That figure is a useful floor for anyone asking for a raise this year.
Software engineer vs related roles
Job titles matter too. In the same BLS data, the median was $140,300 for computer and information research scientists, $120,230 for data scientists, $104,300 for software quality assurance analysts and testers, $100,390 for computer programmers and $92,650 for web developers. "Software developer" is one of the best-paid titles in the group.
Software Engineer Salary by Level and Experience
Your level moves your pay more than any other factor. The chart below shows it two ways: what all employed US developers earn at each experience band in the Stack Overflow survey, and what engineers at each level earn at the companies that report to Levels.fyi.
Among US developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, median pay rises from $90,000 with 0–2 years of experience to $100,000 at 3–5 years, $144,000 at 6–10 years and $170,000 at 11–15 years. It levels off after that: developers with 16 or more years reported a median of $167,000. Respondents who describe themselves as senior or staff-level individual contributors had a median of $175,000, against $130,000 for other individual contributors.
At the top-paying tech companies, the curve is far steeper. Levels.fyi's 2025 pay report puts US median total compensation at $155,000 for entry-level engineers, $226,000 for mid-level software engineers, $312,600 for senior engineers, $457,500 for staff engineers and $551,200 for principal engineers.
Entry-level software engineer salary
New engineers see the widest spread of outcomes. A typical US employer pays a median of about $90,000 in the first two years, but the top of the market is extraordinary: Levels.fyi lists entry-level packages of $400,000 at Hudson River Trading and $350,000 at Jane Street, two trading firms. Those offers are rare. Getting hired at all is the harder problem for juniors right now, which we cover in our software engineer job market 2026 analysis.
Senior and staff software engineer salary
The money concentrates at the top. In Levels.fyi's 2025 data, staff-level pay grew 7.52% from 2024, the fastest of any level, while principal pay fell 6.58%. Senior engineers rose 4.2% and entry-level engineers 1.64%. That pattern matches what hiring data shows: employers are competing hardest for experienced engineers.
Best Places to Be a Software Engineer in 2026
Silicon Valley is still the best-paid place to be a software engineer, even after you account for its prices. The San Jose metro's median developer wage is $213,110, 57% above the national median. Divide by the Bureau of Economic Analysis's regional price parities, which measure how expensive each metro is relative to the US average, and San Jose is still first at about $193,000 in average-price dollars.
We ranked 43 large and tech-heavy metros. After San Jose, the adjusted top five are San Francisco–Oakland, Boulder, Boston and Stamford, Connecticut. Seattle and New York fall a few places because they're expensive, but stay in the top ten.
The bigger surprises come further down. Once prices are taken into account, several cheaper metros climb far up the ranking, while some popular relocation destinations fall.
Huntsville, Alabama, has a median developer wage of $128,080. That's 37th of our 43 metros, but local prices are about 7% below the national average, so it ranks 14th after adjustment, ahead of Austin, Denver and Chicago. Miami goes the other way: a $132,650 median in the second most expensive metro on our list drops it from 24th to 42nd.
Highest-paying states for software engineers
By state, the BLS medians are highest in California ($174,410), Washington ($166,540), New York ($166,180) and Massachusetts ($165,210), followed by Oregon ($142,720). The lowest are Mississippi ($95,330), South Dakota ($96,310) and Louisiana ($102,800).
| Metro | Median wage | Middle 50% | Developers employed |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Jose (Silicon Valley) | $213,110 | $173,650 – $226,080 | 87,350 |
| San Francisco–Oakland | $186,640 | $163,500 – $219,670 | 69,030 |
| Seattle | $167,280 | $132,800 – $211,860 | 92,770 |
| New York City | $166,830 | $130,650 – $205,970 | 121,000 |
| Boston | $166,090 | $131,880 – $183,740 | 42,310 |
| Los Angeles | $160,920 | $127,530 – $191,540 | 55,540 |
| Washington, DC | $154,930 | $123,720 – $176,230 | 69,060 |
| Denver | $137,610 | $123,640 – $171,350 | 27,010 |
| Austin | $134,120 | $104,000 – $168,730 | 31,960 |
| Chicago | $134,380 | $104,530 – $167,650 | 40,370 |
| Dallas–Fort Worth | $133,290 | $105,660 – $164,100 | 67,030 |
| Atlanta | $132,960 | $104,640 – $164,200 | 36,300 |
Software engineer salary in Texas, California and New York
Texas is the clearest example of a state where pay is close to the national median but taxes are low. Its statewide median is $132,150, with Austin at $134,120, Dallas–Fort Worth at $133,290 and Houston at $129,440. California's statewide median of $174,410 is driven by the Bay Area. Los Angeles ($160,920) and San Diego ($163,270) are lower but still well above average. The New York City metro, which includes northern New Jersey, has a median of $166,830 and employs 121,000 developers, more than any other metro.
Levels.fyi's total-compensation rankings follow the same order at a higher level. In its 2025 report, median packages were $278,000 in the San Francisco Bay Area, $250,000 in Seattle and $193,000 in New York City.
Remote vs In-Person: How Work Arrangement Affects Pay
Remote software engineers earn more than in-person ones, not less. In the Stack Overflow 2026 microdata, fully remote US developers earned a median about 11% higher than in-person developers with similar experience, and hybrid developers about 6% more. We compared developers within the same experience band, so the gap isn't simply because remote workers are more senior.
The premium depends on experience. Remote developers with 11–15 years of experience reported a median of $181,000, against $137,500 for their in-person peers, a 32% gap. Between 3 and 5 years there was no gap at all. And among developers with 0–2 years, the small remote group (13 responses) earned less than in-person juniors.
That makes the premium a correlation, not a price you can collect by switching to remote work. Remote roles are concentrated at larger, better-paying employers, and the engineers who get them tend to be in demand already.
There are fewer remote jobs to compete for
The pool is also getting smaller. According to Indeed's remote work tracker, 30.4% of US software development job postings mentioned remote or hybrid work at the end of September 2026, down from a peak of 45.2% in May 2023. Software postings are more likely to mention remote or hybrid work in the UK (45.7%), Germany (44.8%) and Canada (43.4%). Levels.fyi's 2025 report reached the same conclusion from the other direction: office-based roles were its fastest-growing work arrangement, up 12% from the year before. For more on why, see our look at the future of remote work.
Location-based pay for remote engineers
Whether a remote job pays more depends on the employer's pay policy. Many companies set remote pay by location. GitLab's handbook says it "pays local market rates based on cost of labor, not cost of living," using three geographic zones for US employees. Others pay the same everywhere: 37signals, the company behind Basecamp, says in its handbook that it pays at the top 10% for its industry at San Francisco salary levels, regardless of where you live. Ask which model applies before you compare a remote offer with a local one.
Software Engineer Salary by Country
The United States pays software engineers far more than anywhere else, in dollars. In the Stack Overflow 2026 survey, the median employed US developer earned $150,000. That's higher than the BLS median because survey respondents skew toward experienced developers. Switzerland was second at about $124,000, followed by Australia ($104,550), Canada ($91,656), the United Kingdom ($90,438) and Germany ($79,610).
These are dollar figures at survey-time exchange rates, so they overstate the real gap. They don't account for lower prices, public healthcare or stronger pensions in much of Europe. They're most useful if you're weighing a remote job paid in another currency, or a move abroad.
Experience pays off everywhere, but by different amounts. UK developers go from a median of about $42,600 in their first two years to about $99,100 with 16 or more years. In Germany the climb is from about $51,200 to $91,000. In India it's steepest of all: from about $6,100 to $47,000, nearly eight times as much.
Is Your Software Engineer Salary Fair? Six Checks Before You Accept
A good software engineer salary is one at or above the median for your level in your location, once stock, location policy and cost of living are taken into account. These six checks turn the data above into a decision.
- Place the offer on your metro's range. Use the explorer to see where it falls between the 10th and 90th percentile for your metro. An offer below the 25th percentile needs a good reason.
- Compare base to base. Levels.fyi figures include stock and bonus. Compare base salary first, then value stock at a discount unless the company is public.
- Ask how pay is set for remote roles. If pay is banded by location, moving later could change your salary.
- Adjust for cost of living and tax. A $128,080 median in Huntsville buys more than a $133,290 median in Dallas–Fort Worth, but Texas has no state income tax and Alabama does.
- Benchmark the level, not the title. "Senior" at one company can be mid-level at another. Ask what scope the level carries and how it maps to Levels.fyi's ladder.
- Get a second offer. A competing offer is the strongest negotiating lever you have.
That last point is where most of the money is won or lost. Your level, and therefore your pay band, is usually decided in the interview loop, before anyone talks numbers. At the top tech companies, one level is the difference between $226,000 and $312,600 in median pay, far more than a typical negotiation moves an offer within a level. I wrote Mastering the Tech Interview for exactly that stage, and our guide to how to prepare for a software engineering interview covers the basics.
Once you have the offer, our guide to negotiating your first software engineering offer walks through the conversation, and the interview prep hub collects the rest.
How We Built These Numbers
We used primary data only, and say when a number comes from a company that sells salary data.
- US wages: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for software developers (SOC 15-1252), May 2025, pulled from the BLS public data API for the nation, all 50 states plus DC, and 43 metros we chose for size and tech employment.
- Cost of living: BEA regional price parities for 2024 (all items, US = 100). Adjusted wage = median wage ÷ (price parity ÷ 100).
- Experience, work arrangement and countries: the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 public microdata. We kept employed respondents whose role starts with "Developer" and who reported annual pay between $1,000 and $2 million: 6,807 people. Remote-versus-in-person comparisons are made within the same country and experience band, using bands with at least 10 responses in each group. The explorer hides combinations with fewer than 15 responses.
- Top-of-market pay: Levels.fyi's 2025 pay report and its live software engineer page. Levels.fyi is a vendor, and its self-reported data skews toward large tech companies.
- Remote postings: Indeed Hiring Lab's public remote tracker data, through September 30, 2026.
Limits: BLS wages exclude stock, and survey respondents aren't a random sample of developers. Medians hide wide ranges within every group. The explorer's US level estimates assume pay scales with experience the same way in every metro. We'll update this page when the May 2026 BLS data is released.
FAQ
How much does a software engineer make in 2026?
The median US software developer earns $135,980 a year, according to BLS data for May 2025, and the middle half earn between $105,210 and $171,980. At large tech companies, total compensation including stock is higher: the Levels.fyi median is $198,000.
What is a good salary for a software engineer?
A good salary is one at or above the median for your level and location. In the Stack Overflow 2026 survey, US medians were $90,000 for engineers with 0–2 years of experience and $144,000 for 6–10 years, and pay runs higher in metros such as San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle.
What is the entry level software engineer salary?
Employed US developers with 0–2 years of experience reported a median of $90,000 in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. At the top-paying tech companies, Levels.fyi puts the median entry-level total compensation at $155,000.
Do remote software engineers get paid less?
No, on average they're paid more. Fully remote US developers earned about 11% more than in-person developers with similar experience in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. But many employers set remote pay by location, and the remote premium only appears for experienced engineers.
Which city pays software engineers the most?
San Jose (Silicon Valley) has the highest median software developer wage in the US at $213,110, followed by San Francisco–Oakland at $186,640 and Seattle at $167,280. San Jose stays first even after adjusting for cost of living.
Which country pays software engineers the most?
The United States, by a wide margin. The median employed US developer in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey earned $150,000, against about $124,000 in Switzerland, $104,550 in Australia, $91,656 in Canada and $90,438 in the United Kingdom.
Further Reading
- BLS: Occupational Employment and Wages, Software Developers — national, state and metro wage percentiles.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Software Developers — pay and the 2025–35 job outlook.
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 — results and the public microdata we analyzed.
- Levels.fyi 2025 Pay Report — total compensation by level, company and city (vendor data).
- BEA: Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area — the cost-of-living index used for adjusted wages.
- GitLab Handbook: Compensation — an example of location-based pay for remote employees.
