[Salary data]

Prompt Engineering Salary in 2026

What employers state on live listings that ask for prompt engineering, in roles where AI tools are part of the job. Prompt engineer is rarely a job title now; this is the pay of roles that require the skill. Sample size shown on every line.

All prompt engineering listings

$196Kmedian a year

185 of 845 open roles state a USD range we can use. Updated October 7, 2026.

Roles that ask for prompt engineering are listed at a median of $196K a year, about $16,300 a month. The middle half of listings pays $165K to $239K, based on 185 USD listings with a stated range.

This covers roles on this board that list prompt engineering as a skill, not roles titled prompt engineer, which are now rare. Roles where AI is only mentioned in vague terms are left out. It is not the pay for every prompt engineering role everywhere, and it only counts salaries employers chose to publish.

What is prompt engineering?

By seniority

Median a yearMiddle halfListings

EntryNot enough listings with stated pay yet (we need at least 20).

Mid$175K$151K – $240K31

Senior$185K$161K – $215K90

Lead$236K$204K – $263K56

By work arrangement

Median a yearMiddle halfListings

Remote$180K$150K – $218K61

Not remote (onsite or hybrid)$206K$170K – $260K124

Who is paying

Companies with the most listings that state pay, and the lowest and highest ends of their ranges, shown a year. Click a company to see its open roles.

Sierra$180K – $410K8

Scaleai$180K – $362K5

Samsara$74K – $246K5

Eclinicalsolutions$132K – $210K4

Accenturefederalservices$73K – $203K4

Waymo$168K – $310K3

Brillio 2$150K – $300K3

Clickup$144K – $270K3

Coinbase$186K – $257K3

Reacher$30K – $110K3

How this is calculated

234 board listings state a salary (roles where AI is only mentioned in vague terms are left out, like everywhere else on the board by default). 185 are USD ranges used for the USD figures above; 44 are in other currencies; 5 USD listings are left out (see below).
Yearly and monthly pay are used, with monthly pay multiplied by 12. Hourly, weekly, daily and one-time pay is left out, because turning it into a salary would be a guess. On each listing, pay is always shown exactly as the employer wrote it.
A listing needs both a low and a high end. "From $150K" or "up to $200K" alone would pull the numbers one way, so those are left out, as are obvious typos like a yearly salary of $1,000.
Each listing counts as the middle of its range. We show the median and the middle half (25th to 75th percentile), which a few very wide ranges can't distort, and we only show a figure when at least 20 listings back it.
These are salaries employers chose to publish. Not every listing states one, and the board covers AI-native roles only, so this is not a view of the whole market.

Browse open roles that require prompt engineering Pay across all AI-native engineering roles