Software Engineer Salary by City and State 2026
Across the highest-paying US markets for software engineers, average pay runs from $165K to $195K from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026. San Francisco leads at $195K/year, with San Francisco at $195K and New York at $179K. The median across US software engineer postings with a salary in the $50K to $300K band is approximately $125K. Based on Canaria's analysis of 1B+ job postings.
Average Software Engineer Salary by City
Top 15 cities by average annual salary (March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026, salaries $30K to $500K, minimum 250 salary observations per city)
| City | Avg Annual Salary | Sample Size |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $194,793 | 1,595 |
| San Francisco Bay Area | $194,196 | 509 |
| Mountain View | $192,248 | 495 |
| Santa Clara | $191,213 | 312 |
| Palo Alto | $189,979 | 257 |
| San Jose | $181,444 | 596 |
| Seattle | $180,199 | 990 |
| Sunnyvale | $179,400 | 539 |
| New York | $178,564 | 1,831 |
| Annapolis Junction | $178,005 | 1,559 |
| Bellevue | $171,715 | 367 |
| Redmond | $167,923 | 909 |
| Chantilly | $167,701 | 480 |
| Fort Meade | $166,334 | 570 |
| Herndon | $164,939 | 349 |
Software Engineer Salary by State
Top 15 states by average posted or predicted software engineer salary, March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026, salaries $30K to $500K.
| Rank | State | Avg Annual Salary |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CA | $176,314 |
| 2 | WA | $170,595 |
| 3 | NY | $164,230 |
| 4 | MD | $158,540 |
| 5 | MA | $146,732 |
| 6 | VA | $146,284 |
| 7 | DC | $146,100 |
| 8 | TX | $137,581 |
| 9 | CO | $137,181 |
| 10 | HI | $135,939 |
| 11 | OR | $135,470 |
| 12 | NJ | $133,879 |
| 13 | GA | $132,818 |
| 14 | CT | $132,563 |
| 15 | IL | $131,595 |
Software Engineer Salary Distribution
Annual salaries across US software engineer postings with a salary in the $50K to $300K band, from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026
| Salary Range | Number of Postings |
|---|---|
| $50K | 1,507 |
| $75K | 6,885 |
| $100K | 14,410 |
| $125K | 15,478 |
| $150K | 17,225 |
| $200K | 5,430 |
| $250K | 796 |
Which US cities pay software engineers the most?
Software engineer compensation varies widely across US metros. In the latest data the highest average salaries are in San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, Mountain View, where large technology employers and venture-backed startups compete for the same candidates. The ranking only covers cities with at least 250 salary observations from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026, so thin markets are left out rather than ranked on a handful of postings.
What does the software engineer salary distribution look like?
The salary distribution is right-skewed, the pattern typical of technical roles: most postings sit in the middle of the range, with a thinner tail at the top end for senior and staff-level positions. Among US software engineer postings with a salary in the $50K to $300K band, about 76% fall between $100K and $200K and roughly 10% sit above $200K.
How does Canaria predict software engineer salaries?
These salary figures combine both explicitly posted compensation and Canaria's AI-predicted salaries, marked by a salarySource column on every row. Salary benchmarks fuse posted ranges, employee-reported pay, and BLS OES benchmarks, reporting 95% confidence intervals across 42K+ benchmark cells by occupation and state. This extends salary coverage from roughly 50% to over 85% of postings.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the average software engineer salary in 2026?
- The median software engineer salary across US software engineer postings with a salary in the $50K to $300K band is approximately $125K/year from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026. Compensation varies significantly by city: across the highest-paying markets, averages run from $165K to $195K.
- Which city pays software engineers the most?
- San Francisco has the highest average software engineer salary at $195K/year, based on job postings from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026 with a salary in the $30K to $500K band and at least 250 salary observations per city. San Francisco averages $195K.
- Which state pays software engineers the most?
- CA has the highest average software engineer salary at $176K/year, based on postings from March 26, 2026 to September 26, 2026 with a salary in the $30K to $500K band and at least 100 salary observations per state.
- How does Canaria calculate salary data?
- Canaria extracts salary information from job postings using a combination of structured salary fields and NLP parsing. For postings without explicit salary, Canaria estimates salary with a prediction model, and a salarySource column marks every estimated row. Separately, Salary Benchmark Data fuses posted ranges, employee-reported pay and BLS OES into 42K+ benchmark cells by occupation, state and nationally, with 95% confidence intervals.
- Does this include base salary only or total compensation?
- These figures represent the annual average salary as posted or predicted for the role. They primarily reflect base salary. Total compensation including equity, bonuses, and benefits would be higher, particularly at major tech companies.
Data sourced from publicly available job postings. Updated October 2026. Analysis by Canaria Inc.
How to cite this data
Source: Canaria Inc., Job Market Data Analysis, October 7, 2026, https://decanaria.com/data/software-engineer-salaries
Canaria Inc. (2026). Software Engineer Salary by City and State 2026. Canaria Job Market Data Analysis. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://decanaria.com/data/software-engineer-salaries