Side-by-side distribution
Full-Stack
$175,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.4%
- Live roles
- 2,796
Software Engineer
$191,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 15,578
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Senior AI Fullstack Engineer
Fullstack Software Engineer, Agent Platform
Founding Engineer - Full Stack
Staff Full Stack Engineer ($400k - $500k salary)
Full Stack Engineer, Fleet Scheduling
Full-Stack Engineer, ChatGPT Education & Learning
Staff+ Software Engineer, Full-stack
Full Stack Software Engineer, Cybersecurity Products
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer, ML Networking
Lead Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI
|
$330,000 | 20 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$131,425 | 18 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 12 |
Databricks
|
$195,500 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 9 |
Affirm
|
$194,766 | 9 |
| GR GRVTY | $200,000 | 8 |
Sift Stack, Inc.
|
$192,500 | 8 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 292 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 141 |
|
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 123 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 102 |
Elastic
|
$109,437 | 100 |
Roblox
|
$267,950 | 99 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 98 |
|
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 95 |
Full-Stack salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $215,000 | 159 |
| Seattle | $210,000 | 32 |
| New York | $200,000 | 163 |
| Boston | $195,000 | 16 |
| Denver | $188,000 | 9 |
| Chicago | $185,000 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 21 |
| London | $154,508 | 12 |
| Austin | $147,500 | 10 |
| Toronto | $137,065 | 41 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $431,406 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $226,350 | 1,438 |
| New York | $215,000 | 1,237 |
| Seattle | $210,000 | 379 |
| London | $205,210 | 116 |
| Austin | $187,500 | 106 |
| Boston | $187,250 | 190 |
| Los Angeles | $183,150 | 166 |
| Denver | $177,500 | 103 |
| Atlanta | $175,000 | 65 |
Full-Stack vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Full-Stack is $175,000 per year (typically $140,000–$207,500), versus $191,500 for Software Engineer ($150,000–$226,000). That puts Software Engineer about 9% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Full-Stack and Software Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.