Side-by-side distribution
Research Scientist
$219,375
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.1%
- Live roles
- 382
Web3
$250,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 5%
- Live roles
- 60
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personality and Model Behavior
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment
[Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 8 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 7 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
|
OpenAI
|
$425,000 | 5 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
World Labs
|
$300,000 | 4 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Robinhood
|
$201,752 | 2 |
DriveWealth
|
$295,000 | 1 |
Mesh
|
$175,000 | 1 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | $275,000 | 8 |
| San Francisco | $262,500 | 67 |
| Seattle | $252,725 | 10 |
| New York | $243,000 | 37 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| London | $206,683 | 9 |
| Los Angeles | $125,000 | 4 |
Web3 salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $250,000 | 3 |
Research Scientist vs Web3: which pays more?
The median for Research Scientist is $219,375 per year (typically $177,088–$275,000), versus $250,000 for Web3 ($201,752–$272,500). That puts Web3 about 14% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Research Scientist and Web3 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.