The Salary "Reality Check"
We track the median salaries, not the "top 1%" outliers. Most "Average Salary" reports are inflated by unicorns and US-remote roles. This is what the actual Indian market pays.
Quick read for this month:
- Median offers are steady in core engineering roles; junior roles remain flat.
- Design and product ranges show the widest gap between hype and reality.
- Data roles remain competitive but are flattening at the entry level.
Updated: February 2026
Why These Numbers Matter
Salary conversations in India are distorted by survivorship bias. LinkedIn posts celebrate outliers -- the friend who joined a unicorn at 40 LPA, the batchmate who cracked FAANG. These stories spread because they're exceptional. What doesn't spread are the thousands of offers at 6 LPA for the same roles, in the same cities, with the same skill sets.
The data below reflects the 80th percentile reality -- what 80% of companies actually pay for these roles. This includes IT services giants (TCS, Infosys, Wipro), mid-sized agencies, and the vast majority of startups that aren't funded by Sequoia or Tiger Global.
The "Hype" column shows what influencers, bootcamps, and edtech platforms promise. These numbers are technically possible -- but only for a small fraction of candidates, usually those with specific pedigrees (IIT/IIM), prior experience at top-tier companies, or rare technical specializations.
Sources & Methodology
Data is aggregated from job postings on LinkedIn, Naukri, and company career pages; verified offer letters shared with Career Reality; industry salary surveys from AmbitionBox and Glassdoor; and direct conversations with hiring managers across 50+ companies. We exclude remote-US roles, contractor positions, and outlier packages from well-funded unicorns.
- AmbitionBox Salary Data (checked February 22, 2026)
- Glassdoor India Salary Reports (checked February 22, 2026)
- LinkedIn Jobs India (checked February 22, 2026)
- Naukri Job Listings (checked February 22, 2026)
Coverage and Limits
- India-only, full-time roles; US-remote and contractor roles are excluded.
- Ranges are median-heavy and calibrated for typical offers, not unicorn outliers.
- Data is refreshed monthly; volatile roles may shift faster than the table.
Have better data or corrections? Use the Salary Drop to improve the ranges.
Submit a Salary Data Point| Role & Context | Exp | Real Range (LPA) | The "Hype" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Junior Dev (Service Co.) TCS, Wipro, Infy, etc. |
0-2y | 3.2 - 4.5 | 10.0 |
|
Junior Dev (Startups) Series A/B funded |
0-2y | 6.0 - 12.0 | 20.0 |
|
Senior Backend Dev Java/Spring/Node |
5-8y | 18.0 - 28.0 | 60.0 |
|
QA / Automation Engineer Selenium/Python |
3-5y | 6.0 - 10.0 | 20.0 |
|
Data Scientist (Junior) Mostly SQL/Cleaning |
0-2y | 5.0 - 9.0 | 18.0 |
|
DevOps / SRE AWS/Terraform/CI-CD |
3-6y | 12.0 - 20.0 | 40.0 |
|
Mobile Dev (Android/iOS) Native or Flutter |
2-4y | 8.0 - 15.0 | 30.0 |
|
Frontend Specialist React/Next.js/Perf |
2-5y | 7.0 - 14.0 | 25.0 |
| Role & Context | Exp | Real Range (LPA) | The "Hype" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
UX Designer (Agency) High volume, low strategy |
1-3y | 3.6 - 6.0 | 15.0 |
|
Product Designer (Tech) Product-led companies |
2-4y | 9.0 - 16.0 | 30.0 |
|
Graphic Designer Social Media/Marketing |
1-3y | 2.4 - 4.5 | 10.0 |
|
Product Manager Generalist / Feature Owner |
3-5y | 15.0 - 25.0 | 50.0 |
| Role & Context | Exp | Real Range (LPA) | The "Hype" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Digital Marketer PPC/SEO Execution |
1-3y | 3.0 - 5.5 | 12.0 |
|
Content Writer Blogs/Social Copy |
1-3y | 2.4 - 4.8 | 10.0 |
|
B2B Sales (SaaS) Base Salary (Excl. Comm) |
2-4y | 6.0 - 10.0 | 25.0 |
|
HR Recruiter Agency or Corporate |
2-4y | 3.5 - 6.0 | 12.0 |
| Role & Context | Exp | Real Range (LPA) | The "Hype" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Data Analyst Excel/SQL/Tableau |
1-3y | 4.5 - 7.5 | 15.0 |
|
Data Engineer Pipelines/Spark/Cloud |
3-5y | 12.0 - 22.0 | 35.0 |
|
ML Engineer Actual deployment, not notebooks |
2-5y | 10.0 - 18.0 | 45.0 |
|
AI/GenAI Dev RAG/LLM Integration |
1-3y | 8.0 - 15.0 | 30.0 |
| Role & Context | Exp | Real Range (LPA) | The "Hype" |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Engineering Manager People + Tech |
10-14y | 28.0 - 45.0 | 80.0 |
|
Project Manager Service Co. / IT Ops |
8-12y | 14.0 - 22.0 | 35.0 |
|
Founder's Office / CoS Generalist / Strategy |
2-5y | 12.0 - 20.0 | 50.0 |
How to read this
The "Hype" number is what influencers, bootcamps, and viral LinkedIn posts tell you to expect.
The "Real Range" is what 80% of companies actually offer. This includes Service-based giants
(TCS, Infosys) and mid-sized agencies, which make up 90% of the hiring volume in India.
Verdict: Plan your life based on the reality, not the lottery.
What Changed In This Update
- February 22, 2026: Refreshed market notes, validated role bands, and rechecked methodology sources.
- January 2026: Expanded management and strategy salary coverage.
- December 2025: Added explicit hype-vs-reality comparisons by role cluster.
Update cadence: monthly scheduled review, plus ad-hoc corrections when major salary shifts occur.