Prompt Engineer Salary in the USA
Prompt Engineer roles in the USA pay a median of $225k a year, based on 33 live listings that disclose salary. The middle half earns $208k to $270k, and the top 10% more than $350k. 9% of these roles are remote. Highest median pay: Mercor.
- $225k
- median USD
- $208k
- 25th percentile
- $270k
- 75th percentile
- 33
- disclosed roles
Shaded: middle half ($208k to $270k)
By level
From the title and requirements, not from a company level framework.
| Level | n | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | 14 | $208k | $210k | $232k |
| Staff | 4 | $256k | $272k | $287k |
| Lead | 3 | $235k | $245k | $282k |
By city
| City | n | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 14 | $208k | $254k | $350k |
| Mountain View | 5 | $238k | $238k | $238k |
| Cambridge, US | 3 | $205k | $208k | $226k |
| Costa Mesa | 3 | $192k | $213k | $235k |
Remote vs on-site
| Group | n | P25 | Median | P75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-site / hybrid | 30 | $204k | $219k | $266k |
| Remote | 3 | $240k | $270k | $2.6M |
Top-paying companies
Companies with at least three disclosed salaries here, by median.
Live roles
Research Engineer, Intern – Benchmarking
MercorSan Francisco, California, US
$70/hr
prompt eval engineerInternintern$70/hr · 1d agoSenior Engineer, Competitive Benchmarking & Performance
ElasticUS
~$133k–$211k
prompt eval engineerSenior~$133k–$211k · 8d agoSoftware Engineering Manager, AI Observability & Evals Platform (New York, NY)
LangChainNew York, New York, US
~$200k–$250k
prompt eval engineerLead~$200k–$250k · 9d agoContract Student Worker – AI Validation and Benchmarking Engineer (40hrs / week Full-Time)
ZooxFoster City, CA, US
Not disclosed
prompt eval engineercontractor16d agoSenior Fullstack Software Engineer, AI Observability & Evals Platform (NY)
LangChainSan Francisco, CA, US
~$175k–$240k
prompt eval engineerSenior~$175k–$240k · 21d agoSenior Backend Software Engineer, AI Observability & Evals Platform (NYC)
LangChainNew York, New York, US
~$180k–$240k
prompt eval engineerSenior~$180k–$240k · 21d ago2027 Summer Intern, MS/PhD, Software Engineer, Eval Data Infra
WaymoMountain View, CA, US
~$70/hr
prompt eval engineerIntern~$70/hr · 24d agoSenior Software Engineer, Eval Efficiency & Optimization
WaymoMountain View, CA, US
~$213k–$263k
prompt eval engineerSenior~$213k–$263k · 27d agoMercor AI Research Fund Grants: Benchmarks
MercorRemote (US)
$5M
Remoteprompt eval engineertemporary$5M · 1mo agoSenior Fullstack Engineer, AI Observability & Evals Platform
LangChainCambridge, MA, US
~$175k–$240k
prompt eval engineerSenior~$175k–$240k · 1mo ago
Other roles
- Machine Learning Engineer Salary in the USA
- AI Engineer Salary in the USA
- Research Scientist Salary in the USA
- Data Scientist Salary in the USA
- Data Engineer Salary in the USA
- MLOps Engineer Salary in the USA
- Computer Vision Engineer Salary in the USA
- NLP Engineer Salary in the USA
- Robotics Engineer Salary in the USA
- AI Safety Researcher Salary in the USA
- AI Product Manager Salary in the USA
- Analytics Engineer Salary in the USA
Every live listing here that discloses a number, in any currency. Converted to USD at ECB reference rates as of 2026-10-28. Hourly, weekly, and monthly figures are annualised (2,080 / 52 / 12). Where a salary is a range we use its midpoint. Breakdowns with fewer than three disclosed salaries are left out. All AI and ML salaries