Ask three salary trackers what a US prompt engineer earns and the answers are $97,940, $113,650 and $134,000. ZipRecruiter, Indeed and Glassdoor each measure a different slice of pay. These prompt engineering salary statistics split base from total pay, then cover cities, employers, experience, industries, UK permanent and contract rates, federal wage benchmarks and the 2026 AI skills premium.
Prompt Engineering Salary Statistics
How Much Does a Prompt Engineer Make in 2026?
Glassdoor puts US median total pay for prompt engineers at $134,000, with a typical range of $106,000 to $171,000. The page draws on 32 submitted salaries.
| Pay component | Annual range (US) |
|---|---|
| Total pay | 106,000–171,000 |
| Base pay | 85,000–132,000 |
| Additional pay | 21,000–39,000 |
Source: Glassdoor, Prompt Engineer Salaries, October 2026
Indeed reports a $113,650 average base salary from 49 salaries in job postings over 36 months. ZipRecruiter lists $97,940 in average annual pay, equal to $47.09 an hour or $8,161 a month.
Glassdoor’s figure adds bonuses and other pay to base salary. Indeed’s covers posted base salary alone.
Source: Indeed and ZipRecruiter, both updated October 4, 2026
How ZipRecruiter Salaries Spread
Most ZipRecruiter salaries sit between $74,500 at the 25th percentile and $126,500 at the 75th. The top 10% earn $163,500.
The largest band in its histogram, 19% of jobs, covers $108,000 to $122,500.
Source: ZipRecruiter, Prompt Engineer Salary, October 4, 2026
$141,784 in Los Angeles: Prompt Engineering Salary by US City
Los Angeles tops Indeed’s city list at $141,784 in average base salary. New York follows at $136,996 and McLean, Virginia, at $126,892.
San Francisco ranks fifth at $114,889, against the $113,650 national average.
Source: Indeed, prompt engineer salaries by city, updated October 4, 2026
Top-Paying Employers in Indeed Postings
| Employer | Average annual pay |
|---|---|
| Lockheed Martin | $230,000 |
| Scale AI | $213,800 |
| ICF | $177,195 |
| Strategic Staffing Solutions | $166,400 |
| Aquent | $166,400 |
| Pop-Up Talent | $160,000 |
Source: Indeed, average pay from job postings in the past 36 months, updated October 4, 2026
Some firms pay by the hour instead. On Glassdoor, Outlier AI and DataAnnotation both show a $58 hourly median for prompt engineers, and TEKsystems shows $65.
Source: Glassdoor, median hourly total pay, October 2026
Prompt Engineering Salary Statistics in the UK
UK permanent job ads citing prompt engineering reached 321 in the six months to 11 October 2026. The same window held 78 ads in 2025 and 13 in 2024.
The median advertised salary fell 15.07% to £77,500, from £91,250 a year earlier. That still beats the £60,000 median across all UK permanent vacancies needing process or methodology skills, the category that holds prompt engineering.
Source: IT Jobs Watch, UK permanent vacancies, 6 months to 11 October 2026 and same periods in 2025 and 2024
London held 196 of the 321 ads. Ads quoting a salary rose to 181, from 24 a year earlier.
| Location | Median annual salary |
|---|---|
| London | £87,500 |
| England | £78,500 |
| Work from Home | £76,263 |
| UK excluding London | £67,500 |
| North of England | £67,500 |
Source: IT Jobs Watch, permanent ads by location, 6 months to 11 October 2026
UK Contract Day Rates
| Daily rate | 6 months to 8 Oct 2026 | Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | £417 | £281 | £349 |
| 25th percentile | £475 | £400 | £403 |
| Median | £560 | £519 | £513 |
| 75th percentile | £680 | £663 | £628 |
| 90th percentile | £800 | £750 | £686 |
Contract ads citing prompt engineering rose to 304 from 105, and the median day rate rose 7.90% while the permanent median fell. London contracts paid a £600 median, against £530 outside London.
Source: IT Jobs Watch, UK contract vacancies, 6 months to 8 October 2026; the 2024 column rests on 2 quoted rates
Skills Listed With Prompt Engineering
AI appears in 96.57% of UK permanent ads citing prompt engineering and 99.34% of contract ads. Shares overlap because one ad can list many skills.
Retrieval-augmented generation features in 67.29% of permanent ads; the retrieval layer behind it is sized in these vector database market statistics.
AI agents, tracked in our AI agent adoption statistics, appear in 44.86% of permanent ads and 46.71% of contract ads.
The job title “Artificial Intelligence Engineer” co-occurs in 36.45% of permanent ads. OpenAI is named in 20.56% and Anthropic Claude in 10.28%, vendors compared in enterprise LLM vendor market share data.
Source: IT Jobs Watch, co-occurring skills, permanent ads to 11 October 2026 and contract ads to 8 October 2026
Does Prompt Engineering Salary Rise With Experience?
Glassdoor’s medians climb from $110,000 in the first year to $120,000 at one to three years and $129,000 at four to six years. The 15-plus band reaches $216,000.
At the top end, Glassdoor’s trajectory estimate reaches $384,351 at the highest seniority level, from an estimated $69,654 at entry.
Source: Glassdoor median total pay by experience, compiled by Coursera, September 2026; trajectory estimates from Glassdoor, October 2026
Which Industries Pay Prompt Engineers the Most?
| Industry | Median total pay |
|---|---|
| Legal | $159,000 |
| Agriculture | $146,000 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | $136,000 |
| Financial services | $134,000 |
| Pharmaceutical and biotechnology | $122,000 |
Source: Glassdoor median total pay as of August 2026, compiled by Coursera
Legal leads the five listed industries at $159,000; AI use inside law firms is covered in our AI in legal industry statistics.
AI Engineer vs Prompt Engineer Salary on Glassdoor
| Glassdoor title | Median total pay | Total pay range | Period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prompt Engineer | 134,000 | 106,000–$171,000 | October 2026 |
| AI Prompt Engineer | 142,000 | 118,000–$174,000 | Last updated April 10, 2025 |
| AI Engineer | 147,000 | 118,000–$185,000 | October 2026 |
Source: Glassdoor US salary pages, accessed October 2026
Glassdoor tracks the role under two titles. “AI Prompt Engineer” shows a $142,000 median from 141 submitted salaries, on a page last updated in April 2025.
AI engineers earn a $147,000 median. Their additional pay runs $26,000 to $48,000, against $21,000 to $39,000 for prompt engineers.
BLS Benchmark: Research Scientists Earn a $140,300 Median
The BLS has no separate prompt engineer occupation. Computer and information research scientists, whose BLS profile ties future demand to new AI technologies, earned a $140,300 median annual wage in May 2025.
Its lowest 10% earned under $82,200 and the top 10% over $230,630. The median for all US occupations was $50,980.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
BLS counts employee wages and Glassdoor counts self-submitted total pay, so the two sets of figures do not line up one to one.
Is Prompt Engineering Still a Good Career? Job Outlook Data
BLS projects computer and information research scientist jobs to grow 22%, from 38,600 in 2025 to 47,000 in 2035. Computer occupations overall are projected at 6% and all occupations at 3%.
About 2,900 openings a year are projected over the decade.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025–35, page last modified August 27, 2026
PwC’s 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer cites prompt engineering as an example of a specific AI skill. Jobs requiring such skills grew 69%, against 9% for the total jobs market.
The average AI skills wage premium reached 62%, up from 57% a year earlier. Our generative AI adoption rates show how widely the underlying tools are used.
Companies most able to use AI grew headcount 52%, against 36% at the least exposed, from a 2018 baseline to 2025. Corporate AI budgets are tracked in our enterprise AI spending statistics.
| Segment | AI skills wage premium |
|---|---|
| Average, 2026 edition | 62% |
| Average, previous edition | 57% |
| Consumer markets | 118% |
| Government and public sector | 16% |
Source: PwC 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer, released June 15, 2026; more than one billion job ads in 27 countries and territories
FAQs
How much do prompt engineers make per month?
ZipRecruiter’s $97,940 average annual pay works out to $8,161 a month, or $47.09 an hour, as of October 4, 2026. Glassdoor’s higher $134,000 median includes bonuses and other pay.
Is prompt engineering a high-paying job?
Yes, by national standards. Glassdoor’s $134,000 median total pay in October 2026 sits far above the $50,980 BLS median for all US occupations in May 2025, though the two measure pay differently.
Can prompt engineers make $300K a year?
Some can. Glassdoor estimates pay at the highest seniority level reaches $384,351 a year, and Lockheed Martin postings on Indeed average $230,000. The US median total pay is $134,000.
Is prompt engineering still in demand?
UK ad data points that way. Permanent ads citing prompt engineering hit 321 in the six months to 11 October 2026, up from 78 a year earlier, and contract ads reached 304, per IT Jobs Watch.
What does Reddit say about prompt engineer salaries?
Reddit threads share individual offers, but no primary dataset tracks them. Verified October 2026 figures come from Glassdoor (134,000mediantotalpay),Indeed(113,650 average base) and ZipRecruiter ($97,940 average).
Sources
https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/prompt-engineer-salary-SRCH_KO0,15.htm
https://www.indeed.com/career/prompt-engineer/salaries
https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Prompt-Engineer-Salary
https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/uk/prompt%20engineering.do
https://aboutchromebooks.com/ai-job-displacement-statistics-by-industry