In [26]: # openai_salary.ipynb
Direct answer: OpenAI ML engineer salary
OpenAI's own US job postings list the annual salary range for each role. On 17 October 2026, 8 of its 23 research engineer, research scientist and machine learning postings listed $380,000 - $500,000, the most common range, and 32 of 145 software engineer postings listed $266,000 - $445,000. Nearly every posting adds "Offers Equity" without stating an amount.
$380,000 - $500,000
Research / ML, most common
$266,000 - $445,000
Software eng., most common
PBC
equity issuer since Oct 2025
Abstract
OpenAI is one of the largest frontier AI labs, and it states a salary range on its US postings. Those ranges are the checkable part of an OpenAI package [1]. The equity part is set per offer and not published. Since its October 2025 recapitalization, that equity is in OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation; with a confidential IPO filing lodged in June 2026 and the CFO telling employees the company will be public in 2027, the liquidity outlook for that equity is changing.
1 Ranges read from OpenAI's public job board on 17 October 2026. Counts cover every US-located posting (San Francisco, New York, Seattle) with a published annual salary component; "research" means a title containing Research Engineer, Research Scientist, Machine Learning or ML. Postings open and close daily, so the counts are a dated snapshot, not a permanent band. This is not compensation advice.
table oai-1 : 17 October 2026
Table oai-1. Selected OpenAI US postings (all San Francisco) and the annual salary range each one states, read 17 October 2026; each role links to the posting, and every one also reads "Offers Equity". OpenAI does not publish an L4 to L7 ladder, so no level mapping is shown. For Anthropic's posted ranges, see the OpenAI vs Anthropic salary side-by-side.
section oai-2 : from capped profit to PBC stock
Until late 2025 OpenAI operated under a capped-profit structure: a for-profit operating entity with a cap on investor returns, governed by a non-profit parent. That structure ended on 28 October 2025, when OpenAI closed its recapitalization and the for-profit became OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation controlled by the renamed OpenAI Foundation.
OpenAI said the Foundation holds roughly 26 percent of the PBC and Microsoft roughly 27 percent, with the remainder owned by employees and investors. For an engineer weighing an offer, the point is that the equity's paper value moves with the company's valuation: OpenAI's March 2026 round raised $122 billion at an $852 billion post-money valuation, up from roughly $500 billion at its October 2025 employee tender offer.
OpenAI does not publish grant sizes, instruments or vesting terms for new hires, so get them in writing: the number of units, the instrument (RSUs or options), the vesting schedule, the valuation the grant is priced against, and the recent history of tender offers. RSUs are taxed as ordinary income when they vest (or, for double-trigger grants, when the liquidity condition is met); options are taxed on the spread at exercise, so the instrument decides when the tax bill arrives.
section oai-3 : liquidity outlook
OpenAI's reference valuation has risen steeply, which is why recent grants and secondary sales are struck against a fast-moving mark. The March 2026 round priced the company at $852 billion post-money on a $122 billion raise, and an August 2026 employee buyback of about $7 billion closed at the same $852 billion valuation. In September 2026 OpenAI was reported to be in early talks for a further private round at around a $1.2 trillion valuation, though no such round had closed and no figure is confirmed until a round prices.
OpenAI filed confidentially for a US IPO in June 2026. On 19 August 2026, CFO Sarah Friar told employees that OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027," or sooner if its business continues to inflect, and in September 2026 Sam Altman told Fortune it would not go public in 2026. No listing date, share price or share count has been set.
For an employee holding OpenAI equity, a completed IPO would create the first broad public liquidity event, supplementing periodic tender offers as a way to sell vested equity, and would typically carry a lock-up period after listing before employees can sell. Realised value would then depend on where the public market prices the company.
section oai-4 : common questions
How much does an ML engineer at OpenAI make in 2026?
OpenAI publishes an annual salary range on its US job postings. On 17 October 2026, 8 of its 23 US research engineer, research scientist and machine learning postings listed $380,000 - $500,000, the most common range; the highest top of range was $293,000 - $585,000 for Research Engineer, Retrieval & Search. Every posting adds "Offers Equity" without stating an amount, so these are salary ranges, not total compensation.
What is the software engineer salary at OpenAI?
On 17 October 2026, 32 of OpenAI's 145 US software engineer postings listed an annual salary range of $266,000 - $445,000, the most common range. Some infrastructure postings run wider, such as Software Engineer, Model Inference at $266,000 to $500,000.
What is OpenAI total compensation including equity?
OpenAI does not publish total compensation or equity amounts. Its postings show a salary range and the words 'Offers Equity', and the grant itself is set per offer. Crowd-sourced sites collect self-reported packages, but those are unverified submissions, so this page does not restate them as a market rate. On any offer, ask for the number of units, the instrument, the vesting schedule, the valuation the grant is priced against, and the recent history of employee tender offers.
Does OpenAI pay by level (L4, L5, L6, L7)?
OpenAI does not publish a levelling ladder or level-specific pay bands, and its postings do not carry L-numbers. Many postings cover a wide range (for example $295,000 to $500,000 for Training: ML Framework Engineer) so that one posting can hire across several seniority levels. Any L4 to L7 table for OpenAI is a third-party mapping, not OpenAI's own structure.
How does OpenAI equity work after the 2025 restructuring?
On 28 October 2025 OpenAI closed its recapitalization: the for-profit became OpenAI Group PBC, a public benefit corporation controlled by the renamed OpenAI Foundation. OpenAI said the Foundation holds roughly 26 percent and Microsoft roughly 27 percent, with the remainder owned by employees and investors. Grant terms for new hires are set per offer and not published; equity remains illiquid until a tender offer or IPO.
How much is OpenAI worth, and how does that affect equity?
OpenAI's March 2026 round raised $122 billion at an $852 billion post-money valuation, up from roughly $500 billion at its October 2025 employee tender offer. In August 2026 a $7 billion employee buyback closed at the same $852 billion mark, and in September 2026 OpenAI was reported to be in early talks for a further private round at around a $1.2 trillion valuation, though no such round had closed. A rising mark increases the paper value of new equity, but realisation still depends on a tender offer or an eventual IPO, and the paper value can move down as well as up.
When will OpenAI IPO?
OpenAI filed confidentially for a US IPO in June 2026. On 19 August 2026, CFO Sarah Friar told employees that OpenAI "will be a public company in 2027," or sooner if its business continues to inflect, and in September 2026 Sam Altman told Fortune it would not go public in 2026. No listing date, share price or share count has been set. A completed IPO would create the first broad liquidity event for employee equity and would typically carry a lock-up period after listing.
Does OpenAI pay more than Anthropic for ML engineers?
Not on posted salary. On 17 October 2026, OpenAI's most common US research engineer range was $380,000 - $500,000 against Anthropic's $500,000 - $850,000, and its most common software engineer range was $266,000 - $445,000 against Anthropic's $405,000 - $485,000. Both labs offer equity on top and neither publishes the amount, so posted salary is the only like-for-like comparison available. See the side-by-side page for the detail.
OpenAI vs Anthropic
Side-by-side posted salary ranges and equity
Anthropic salary deep dive
Single-lab: posted salary ranges, equity, IPO
Frontier-lab tier overview
T1 deep dive, equity forms
Total comp breakdown
How to value a PBC equity package
Negotiation playbook
Frontier-lab offer tactics
Bay Area metro
Where OpenAI HQs
In [ ]: # reader_questions.ipynb
Write in. A person opens every message, and the ones we can answer come back with the survey release or the public disclosure the number is drawn from, stated plainly enough that you can go and check it. We put no clock on a reply. Should an answer be worth reading twice we might set it out here stripped of anything identifying, and we will write and ask you before that happens.
Out[ ]:
Treat everything on this site as compensation reference assembled from published surveys and public filings, not as financial advice and not as a benchmark any single negotiation should be anchored to. Your own offer turns on the employer, the level it is pitched at, the equity instrument behind it and the market on the day it is made.