New OpenAI offers to senior US software engineers carry a median total pay of $730,000, against $280,000 for comparable new hires at Microsoft, according to Levels.fyi data posted by its co-founder Zuhayeer Musa (post). By our arithmetic, that is 2.6 times as much.
The gap narrows at the top. At the principal level, Levels.fyi puts OpenAI’s median new offer at $1.25 million and Microsoft’s at $884,000, about 1.4 times. Musa wrote that at that level “the Microsoft offers quite aggressively start to catch up”.
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The key insight: Levels.fyi data shows OpenAI‘s median new offer to senior US software engineers at $730,000 against Microsoft’s $280,000, 2.6 times by our arithmetic; the ratio is about 1.4 times at the principal level.
The graphic covers median total pay in new offers to US software engineers from October 2024 to October 2026, split into base salary, stock and bonus, with levels matched using the Levels.fyi leveling comparison. Microsoft levels are grouped in pairs because, as Musa wrote, Microsoft has “a much more granular leveling system”. OpenAI offers show no reported bonus.
At entry level, OpenAI’s L2 median is $245,000 against $171,000 for Microsoft levels 59-60. At mid level, OpenAI’s L3 median is $340,000 against $220,000 for levels 61-62. At senior level, OpenAI’s L4 median is $730,000 against $280,000 for levels 63-64. At staff level, OpenAI’s L5 median is $875,000 against $380,000 for levels 65-66.
Stock makes up most of OpenAI’s senior and principal medians. Levels.fyi shows stock at 60% of OpenAI’s senior median ($435,000 of $730,000) and 68% at principal ($850,000 of $1.25 million). Microsoft’s stock share is 18% at senior and 44% at principal, where its median offer includes a $214,000 bonus.
Median total pay in new offers to US software engineers, Oct 2024 to Oct 2026, by matched level. Data: Levels.fyi submissions (self-reported), as posted by co-founder Zuhayeer Musa.
What Was Posted on X
The difference in AI lab pay vs big tech pay is starkest when you look at @Microsoft.
Here’s how new offers compare between software engineers at Microsoft and @OpenAI for example.
You’ll notice that at the Principal level, the Microsoft offers quite aggressively start to catch up.
Also for this graphic, we are coupling a few of the levels together for Microsoft since they have a much more granular leveling system.
Zuhayeer Musa, co-founder of Levels.fyi, posted the graphic at 20:46 UTC on 6 November with the comment that at the principal level “the Microsoft offers quite aggressively start to catch up”. The figures in this piece are read from that graphic: median new offers submitted to Levels.fyi by US software engineers, October 2024 to October 2026.
The Ratio, Level by Level
By our arithmetic, OpenAI’s median new offer is 1.43 times Microsoft’s at entry level, 1.55 times at mid level, 2.61 times at senior, 2.30 times at staff and 1.41 times at principal. In dollars, the widest gap is at staff level, $495,000, and the widest ratio is at senior level.
Connecting the Coverage
We have tracked how stock drives AI lab pay, including an earlier estimate that OpenAI’s stock compensation averaged $865,000 per employee (our piece), and the movement of engineers from Apple to Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic (our piece). The stock at the core of these offers is tied to valuations we covered this week, with OpenAI’s latest round reported at $1.25 trillion (our piece).
The Structural Read
As we read the Levels.fyi graphic, the widest ratio sits at senior level (2.61 times) and the widest dollar gap at staff level ($495,000), by our arithmetic.
As we read the split, stock is 60% of OpenAI’s senior median and 68% of its principal median in the Levels.fyi data, against 18% and 44% at Microsoft.
As we read Musa’s post, the narrowing at the principal level comes with a $214,000 bonus in Microsoft’s median offer, a component OpenAI’s offers do not show.
Zuhayeer Musa, Levels.fyi co-founder, on X
“You’ll notice that at the Principal level, the Microsoft offers quite aggressively start to catch up”
Three Implications
FOR ENGINEERS COMPARING OFFERS Levels.fyi shows OpenAI medians above Microsoft’s at every matched level, from 1.41 times to 2.61 times by our arithmetic.
FOR THE STOCK COMPONENT Levels.fyi computes stock as the median total minus median base and bonus, so the stock figures are derived, not reported directly.
FOR THE DATA The OpenAI mid-level and Microsoft principal-level columns rest on fewer than 10 offers, per Levels.fyi.
The analysis says: “The transformer is a commodity now; what changes between paradigms is where intelligence accumulates and who can capture it.”
As we read it, the engineers these offers target are one place that accumulation happens; the analysis does not discuss pay, OpenAI or Microsoft.
What Is Not Established
The figures are medians of offers that users submit to Levels.fyi, not company disclosures. Levels.fyi marks the OpenAI mid-level and Microsoft principal-level columns as resting on fewer than 10 offers. The stock value is the median total minus median base and bonus, as the graphic states, and the value of unvested OpenAI equity depends on future valuations.
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Levels.fyi data shows OpenAI’s median new offer to senior US software engineers at $730,000, 2.6 times Microsoft’s $280,000 by our arithmetic, with stock making up 60% of the OpenAI figure. The ratio falls to about 1.4 times at the principal level, where Microsoft’s median offer reaches $884,000.
A note on sourcing. Pay figures are medians of new offers submitted to Levels.fyi, as shown in the graphic Levels.fyi co-founder Zuhayeer Musa posted on X on 6 November 2026; they are not company disclosures. Ratios and dollar gaps are our arithmetic.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
