AI Engineer
Builds and ships AI-powered features and products. The title is used loosely, so ranges are wide and depend on whether the job is application work or core ML.
SALARY GUIDE · UPDATED OCTOBER 2026
AI Engineer Salary in India: Freshers, Per Month and by City
Across all experience levels, Glassdoor India's typical range for an AI Engineer is 6.8 to 19 LPA. Entry-level Junior AI Engineers are listed at 3.6 to 8.3 LPA. Pick your role, experience and city below to see sourced figures, per year or per month.
Indicative public ranges, not a salary or placement guarantee. Where no reliable figure exists, we say so.
AI ENGINEER, GLASSDOOR INDIA (25TH TO 75TH PERCENTILE)
- Fresher (Junior title)
- 3.6 to 8.3 LPA
- Senior title
- 11.2 to 29 LPA
- All levels
- 6.8 to 19 LPA
Annual, before tax. Junior figure is a small sample (21 salaries).
Salary Explorer
AI Engineer Salary by Experience, Role and City
Choose a role, experience level and city. Every figure is a published India range with a named source. If a combination has no reliable public data, the explorer tells you and points to the nearest sourced figure.
ROLE
EXPERIENCE
CITY
Dashed options have no reliable public figure for your current selection.
AI ENGINEER · ALL LEVELS · ALL INDIA
Typical range (25th to 75th percentile)
₹6.8 to 19 LPA
Midpoint of the range: ₹12.9 LPA (a midpoint, not the median)
Scale: lakh per year (LPA), 0 to 40
Basis: All reported salaries for the title, across every experience level (Glassdoor India). Source: Glassdoor India, 1,098 salaries, as of Apr 2026. Reviewed October 2026.
Role comparison: All levels, All India
Tap a role to select it. Ranges are 25th to 75th percentile unless marked average.
Entry Level
AI Engineer Salary for Freshers in India, Per Month
Glassdoor India's typical ranges for Junior-titled roles, shown per year and as an approximate monthly figure (annual divided by 12, before tax).
| Role (Junior title) | Per year | Per month, approx. |
|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | 3.6 to 8.3 LPA | ₹30,000 to ₹69,000 |
| ML Engineer | 5.9 to 12.1 LPA | ₹49,000 to ₹1,01,000 |
| Generative AI Developer | 5.5 to 16.6 LPA | ₹46,000 to ₹1,38,000 |
| Data Scientist | 4.5 to 9.1 LPA | ₹38,000 to ₹76,000 |
Junior Generative AI Developer is a very wide range (5.5 to 16.6 LPA) and its sample size is not verified, so treat it with caution. Junior AI Engineer is based on a small sample of 21 salaries. Source: Glassdoor India, retrieved 2026-10-02.
New to the field? The AI engineer roadmap shows what to learn first.
By Experience
AI Engineer Salary by Experience in India
Public sites do not publish a clean range for every year-of-experience band. This table shows only what is sourced, and marks the rest.
| Experience | AI Engineer | ML Engineer | Generative AI Developer | Data Scientist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresher (Junior titles) | 3.6 to 8.3 LPA | 5.9 to 12.1 LPA | 5.5 to 16.6 LPA | 4.5 to 9.1 LPA |
| 1-3 years (Payscale 1-4y band) | No reliable public data | avg 8.4 LPA | No reliable public data | avg 10.1 LPA |
| 3-5 years | No reliable public data | No reliable public data | No reliable public data | No reliable public data |
| 5y+ (Senior titles) | 11.2 to 29 LPA | 15.5 to 29.9 LPA | No reliable public data | 19.3 to 37.6 LPA |
| All levels | 6.8 to 19 LPA | 5.8 to 13.9 LPA | 4.3 to 15.5 LPA | 9 to 23.3 LPA |
Fresher and 5y+ rows use Glassdoor Junior and Senior job titles, which are a proxy for years of experience. The 1-3 years row is Payscale's early-career band (1 to 4 years), an average only. LPA = lakh rupees per year, before tax.
By City
AI Engineer Salary in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi NCR and Kolkata
Glassdoor India typical ranges (25th to 75th percentile) for each job title in that city, across all experience levels.
| City | AI Engineer | ML Engineer | Generative AI Developer | Data Scientist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bangalore | 7.9 to 22.6 LPA | 8 to 16.6 LPA | 9.3 to 28 LPA | 9 to 22.3 LPA |
| Hyderabad | 7.7 to 18.2 LPA | No reliable public data | No reliable public data | 7.4 to 21 LPA |
| Pune | 6 to 13.5 LPA | 5.3 to 13.9 LPA | 10 to 40 LPA | 7.5 to 20.8 LPA |
| Chennai | 4.5 to 10.5 LPA | No reliable public data | 6.2 to 15.7 LPA | 7.8 to 16.7 LPA |
| Mumbai | 6.6 to 18.6 LPA | 8.5 to 14 LPA | No reliable public data | 7.3 to 17.5 LPA |
| Delhi NCR | 7 to 16.6 LPA | 7 to 19 LPA | No reliable public data | No reliable public data |
| Kolkata | 7 to 12.9 LPA | No reliable public data | No reliable public data | No reliable public data |
City samples are smaller than the national one, some city pages are dated 2025, and Glassdoor pools every company type. Pune's Generative AI range is extremely wide and its sample size is not verified. A higher number in a metro usually comes with a higher cost of living.
Roles Compared
AI Engineer vs ML Engineer vs Data Scientist vs GenAI Developer
Four titles that overlap heavily. The explorer above compares them side by side for any experience level and city.
ML Engineer
Trains, evaluates and deploys machine learning models. At entry level, Glassdoor's junior range is higher than the junior AI Engineer range.
Generative AI Developer
Builds with LLMs, RAG and agents. A newer title with very wide published ranges, so a single number would mislead.
Data Scientist
Analyses data and builds predictive models. The largest public sample of the four, so its ranges are the most stable.
How to Earn More
What Moves an AI Engineer's Pay
Public data shows the spread, not the cause of it, so we list the levers without attaching made-up percentages.
Skills employers are hiring for
LLM applications, RAG and AI agents are the skills AI Engineer and Generative AI job descriptions keep asking for, and they are what you can demonstrate in an interview. Public salary data cannot tell us how much each skill adds, so this page does not guess.
PROGRAM MODULES: 06 Generative AI & LLM Engineering, 07 RAG & AI Knowledge Systems, 08 AI Workflows & Agents
Projects you can show and explain
For freshers, shipped projects are the clearest proof that you can do the job. They help you get shortlisted and negotiate from evidence instead of a certificate.
PROGRAM MODULES: 09 AI Application & Product Development
Taking models into production
Deployment, APIs and monitoring separate someone who can run a notebook from someone who can run a product, which is the kind of ownership more senior roles expect.
PROGRAM MODULES: 10 MLOps & Deployment
City
The explorer above shows the real spread: for the same title, Glassdoor ranges differ by city. A higher figure usually comes with a higher cost of living.
Company type
Product companies, GCCs, funded startups and IT services firms pay differently, and bands inside one company vary by level. Public data pools them together, so check the specific company before you anchor on a number.
Title and level
Moving from a Junior to a Senior title is the single biggest step change visible in the data. Explorer: switch between Fresher and 5y+ to see it.
Build the skills that matter
These skills are taught in the AI Engineer Program
- Module 06: Generative AI & LLM Engineering. Build applications powered by modern LLMs.
- Module 07: RAG & AI Knowledge Systems. Build AI apps that answer questions from private, domain-specific documents.
- Module 08: AI Workflows & Agents. Build AI agents that use tools and complete multi-step tasks.
- Module 09: AI Application & Product Development. Go from an idea to a working AI-powered product.
- Module 10: MLOps & Deployment. Ship an AI application from your laptop to a live deployment.
16–18 weeks of live classes, live online or at our Kolkata centre. Placement assistance means preparation and referrals, not a job or salary guarantee.
Career Switchers
Switching to AI Engineering From Another Career
Many AI engineers start in software or in a non-technical job. Here are entry-level reference ranges from the same public sources, for context.
| Role | Typical range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Service Representative, entry level | 1.9 to 6 LPA | Payscale India |
| Junior Software Developer | 2.7 to 6.8 LPA | Glassdoor India |
| Junior AI Engineer | 3.6 to 8.3 LPA | Glassdoor India |
Different jobs, different samples, so this is a reference, not a promised raise. Pay at your first AI job depends on your skills, projects and the company. See the step-by-step AI engineer roadmap or the AI Engineer Program built for beginners and career switchers.
Methodology and disclaimer
- All figures are indicative public salary ranges in INR, last reviewed October 2026. They can change month to month.
- Ranges are the 25th to 75th percentile of self-reported salaries (Glassdoor India), or a reported average where stated (Payscale India). They are not medians, offers or ceilings, and the top 10 percent can earn far more.
- Per-month figures are the annual figure divided by 12, before tax, and approximate. In-hand pay is lower.
- Pay varies by company, city, skills, role definition and negotiation. Self-reported data can include errors and small samples.
- Where we found no reliable public figure for a combination, we say so instead of estimating.
- This page is not a placement or salary guarantee from Skilluron.
SOURCES
- Glassdoor India: salary pages by job title and city
Typical pay range (25th to 75th percentile) of anonymously submitted salaries. Page 'as of' dates are shown on Glassdoor and range from Feb to Aug 2026 for the pages used here; some city pages are dated 2025. Retrieved 2026-10-02. - Payscale India: Machine Learning Engineer and Data Scientist salary pages
Average base salary by experience band from self-reported profiles. Payscale's 1-4 year early-career band is used only for the 1-3 years option. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
Fresher figures reuse the Glassdoor India Junior-title ranges and Payscale entry-level data already shown on our AI Engineer Program page.
FAQ
AI Engineer Salary in India: Frequently Asked Questions
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