Go (Golang) vs Java

Put two roles head to head — any role, in any location or worldwide-remote.

Side A

Side B

Go (Golang) pays about 30% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

Go (Golang) Java
$168.7k
$129.3k
$65.3k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $217.7k

Go Go (Golang)

$168,650

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -11.5%
$190,500 $168,650
$116.8k 25th
$168.7k Median
$195.6k 75th
$75.9k
$207.2k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $8.5k – $416k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
14.5%
Live roles
330
Browse roles Set alert

Java

$129,250

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -29.4%
$183,201 $129,250
$104.8k 25th
$129.3k Median
$175k 75th
$81.6k
$200k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5k – $416k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
20.4%
Live roles
1,405
Browse roles Set alert

Highest-paying jobs

G2i Inc.

Go Senior Software Engineer, AI Training

G2i Inc. · Worldwide

$208,000 – $416,000 Block

Staff Software Engineer, Go-to-Market Systems & AI

Block · Bay Area, CA, United States of Ame…

$263,600 – $395,400 Block

Staff Software Engineer, Go-to-Market Systems & AI

Block · New York, NY, United States of Ame…

$263,600 – $395,400 Reflexivity

Backend Software Engineer, Golang - New York

Reflexivity · New York

$180,000 – $280,000 Cisco

Technical Leader, SRE/Go development

Cisco · San Francisco, California, US

$186,900 – $267,700 Legion Health

Go-to-Market (GTM) Engineer (backed by Y Combinator, $5M+ ARR, $23M+ raised)

Legion Health · San Francisco

$140,000 – $260,000 GitLab

Staff Backend Engineer, Database Automation (Go)

GitLab · Remote, Canada +1

$152,800 – $259,200 GitLab

Staff Fullstack Engineer, Data Products (Golang / Node)

GitLab · Remote, Canada +1

$152,800 – $259,200 Block

Staff Software Engineer, Go-to-Market Systems & AI

Block · Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CA$222,900 – CA$334,300 RingCentral

Go-to-Market Engineer

RingCentral · Belmont

$175,000 – $230,000

Highest-paying jobs

G2i Inc.

Java of Senior Software Engineer, AI Training

G2i Inc. · Worldwide

$208,000 – $416,000
BW

Senior Java Data Platform Engineer - Clearance Required

BTI360 Website · Herndon, VA

$146,000 – $319,300 CLEAR - Corporate

Senior Software Engineer, Java

CLEAR - Corporate · New York, New York, United States

$225,000 – $300,000
BO

Lead Java Software Engineer - Developer

Boeing · USA - Herndon, VA

$211,650 – $286,350 CLEAR - Corporate

Senior Software Engineer, Java

CLEAR - Corporate · Austin, Texas, United States

$210,000 – $280,000 Leidos

Java Developer (SME)

Leidos · Bethesda, MD

$154,050 – $278,475 Leidos

ETL Java Developer (SME)

Leidos · Bethesda, MD

$154,050 – $278,475 Early Warning Services

Upcoming Opportunity – Principal Engineer – Java/AWS

Early Warning Services · San Francisco

$207,000 – $276,000
DR

Senior Software Engineer, Treasury and Reference Data (Java/Ruby/Python)

DRW · Chicago

$200,000 – $275,000 Early Warning Services

Distinguished Engineer - Java / AWS - Zelle

Early Warning Services · Scottsdale

$206,000 – $275,000

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Block $329,500 3
Zscaler $171,000 3
RH RVO Health $111,250 3
Cloudflare $88,336 3
GitLab $206,000 2
Reflexivity $195,676 2
Quicknode $192,500 2
SentinelOne $185,500 2

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Elastic $104,155 30
Captivation Software $200,000 27
Leidos $151,475 11
Referral Board $117,865 11
Bank of America $141,400 10
GDIT $185,000 9
State Street $115,750 7
Accenture $101,920 7

Go (Golang) salary by location

Location Median Roles
New York $168,650 7
Denver $111,250 4
Austin $88,336 4

Java salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $200,000 5
New York $162,250 26
Denver $151,450 4
Chicago $146,100 10
Atlanta $134,000 4
Boston $133,500 5
Toronto $84,774 18

Go (Golang) vs Java: which pays more?

The median for Go (Golang) is $168,650 per year (typically $116,800–$195,632), versus $129,250 for Java ($104,783–$175,000). That puts Go (Golang) about 30% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Go (Golang) and Java 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.

See full salary data

Go (Golang) salary Java salary

More comparisons

Go (Golang) vs Python Go (Golang) vs TypeScript Go (Golang) vs Kotlin Go (Golang) vs Scala

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