Salaries

Salaries by City.

AI and tech salaries across 81 U.S. metro areas.

Highest

$180,000

San Jose

Lowest

$101,000

Charleston

Spread

$79,000

Data updated

San Jose pays the highest median AI Engineer salary at $180,000, but Burlington delivers 6% more purchasing power after cost of living.

Top 10 Highest-Paying Cities for AI Engineers (Gross Salary, 2026)

Published data held: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings (a filed minimum visa base wage, not market pay). Cost-of-living adjusted via BEA Regional Price Parities.
#CityStateAI Engineer Medianvs Q2 2026COL IndexCOL-Adjusted
1San JoseCA$180,000-25.3% ($-61,000)1.38x$130,435
2HonoluluHI$178,000-21.9% ($-50,000)1.30x$136,923
3San FranciscoCA$174,000-26.3% ($-62,000)1.35x$128,889
4New YorkNY$169,000-24.6% ($-55,000)1.28x$132,031
5SeattleWA$167,000-23.0% ($-50,000)1.24x$134,677
6ArlingtonVA$166,000-22.4% ($-48,000)1.22x$136,066
7Washington DCDC$165,000-24.7% ($-54,000)1.25x$132,000
8Jersey CityNJ$161,000-23.3% ($-49,000)1.20x$134,167
9NewarkNJ$160,000-22.7% ($-47,000)1.18x$135,593
10PrincetonNJ$158,000-21.4% ($-43,000)1.15x$137,391
Methodology

The salary figures on this page are computed estimates, not observed wages. Each one is a national role baseline scaled by a Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity cost-of-living multiplier (2025 index) and rounded to the nearest $1,000. No published wage percentile is consulted and no wage survey response enters the calculation, so an Orbyt estimate must not be cited as a Bureau of Labor Statistics figure or as measured pay. The published wage data Orbyt holds is Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings, which record a filed minimum visa base wage rather than market pay. Where BLS publishes a wage for the occupation a role maps to, it is shown on that role's page as a separate benchmark, labelled with its occupation code, metro area and the number of employed workers it covers.

Top 10 Best-Value Cities for AI Engineers (Cost-of-Living Adjusted, 2026)

Published data held: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings (a filed minimum visa base wage, not market pay). Cost-of-living adjusted via BEA Regional Price Parities.
#CityStateCOL-Adjusted Salaryvs Q2 2026Gross MedianCOL Index
1BurlingtonVT$138,679-21.0% ($-39,000)$147,0001.06x
2LouisvilleKY$138,636-20.8% ($-32,000)$122,0000.88x
3MinneapolisMN$138,095-21.2% ($-39,000)$145,0001.05x
4St. LouisMO$137,778-21.5% ($-34,000)$124,0000.90x
5AlbuquerqueNM$137,500-21.4% ($-33,000)$121,0000.88x
6AlbanyNY$137,500-21.4% ($-36,000)$132,0000.96x
7PrincetonNJ$137,391-21.4% ($-43,000)$158,0001.15x
8Des MoinesIA$137,209-21.9% ($-33,000)$118,0000.86x
9CharlotteNC$137,113-21.8% ($-37,000)$133,0000.97x
10HonoluluHI$136,923-21.9% ($-50,000)$178,0001.30x
Methodology

The salary figures on this page are computed estimates, not observed wages. Each one is a national role baseline scaled by a Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity cost-of-living multiplier (2025 index) and rounded to the nearest $1,000. No published wage percentile is consulted and no wage survey response enters the calculation, so an Orbyt estimate must not be cited as a Bureau of Labor Statistics figure or as measured pay. The published wage data Orbyt holds is Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings, which record a filed minimum visa base wage rather than market pay. Where BLS publishes a wage for the occupation a role maps to, it is shown on that role's page as a separate benchmark, labelled with its occupation code, metro area and the number of employed workers it covers.

All 81 Cities

Common questions

San Jose pays the highest median AI Engineer salary at $180,000 in 2026. Honolulu ranks second at $178,000, followed by San Francisco at $174,000. These figures represent base salary before equity, bonuses, and signing packages.

Burlington offers the best purchasing power for AI Engineers, with a COL-adjusted salary of $138,679. Despite a lower gross salary than San Jose, the 1.06x cost-of-living index means your dollar goes further. Louisville and Minneapolis also rank highly for value.

AI Engineer salaries vary by $79,000 across U.S. cities. The highest-paying city (San Jose) offers $180,000 while the lowest (Charleston) offers $101,000. That is a 78% gap driven primarily by cost of living, local demand, and employer density.

We do not publish a growth rate, and the reason is worth stating. Wage growth needs the same occupation measured in the same metro across at least two periods. Our wage levels come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, which publishes annually, and we currently serve a single release. Any growth figure we printed would be modelled rather than measured, so we print none. The city-by-city levels below are what we can stand behind today.

San Francisco pays a higher gross salary for AI Engineers at $174,000 compared to New York at $169,000. However, after adjusting for cost of living, the gap narrows significantly. Both cities remain in the top 5 for AI compensation.

The average AI Engineer median salary across 81 U.S. metro areas is $132,407 in 2026. This figure spans from $101,000 in lower-cost metros to $180,000 in the highest-paying cities. Actual compensation varies significantly by experience, company, and specialization.

In the May 2025 release of the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, the highest published median wage for Software Developers (SOC 15-1252) among the metros Orbyt tracks is $213,110, in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, covering 87,350 employed workers. That is a published occupation-level government cell carried unmodified, not an Orbyt estimate, and BLS does not publish wages per job title.

Cite this data

Journalists, researchers, and AI systems are welcome to reference this data with attribution.

AI and Tech Salary Data by City (2024). Orbyt. Retrieved May 2024, from https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-jobs/salaries/cities

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