Does OpenAI pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, OpenAI employees rate their compensation and benefits as 4.6 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at OpenAI. This rating has decreased by 7% over the last 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at OpenAI?

74% of OpenAI employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated OpenAI 3.2 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.7 for culture and values and 4.1 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at OpenAI?

Software Engineer (10) , Member Of Technical Staff (9) , Research Scientist (5) , AI Engineer (4) , Data Scientist (4) , Research Engineer (4) , Machine Learning Engineer (3) , Senior Software Engineer (3) , AI Intern (2) , AI Researcher (2) , AI Trainer (2) , GTM (2) , Programmer (2) , Recruiter (2) , Remote AI Trainer (2)

What are the pros of working at OpenAI according to real employee reviews?

"Competitive, good pay, cutting edge" ((in 9 reviews)); "Really smart people" ((in 9 reviews)); "Can be flexible, good team, good culture" ((in 7 reviews)); "Exciting field (sort of cutting edge) and very good compensation." ((in 7 reviews)); "High salary, better than the other" ((in 4 reviews))

What are the cons of working at OpenAI according to real employee reviews?

"Bad work life balance, stress" ((in 8 reviews))

What are employees saying about OpenAI layoffs in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about OpenAI layoffs and their outlook for job security at OpenAI in 2026.

What are the top reviewed OpenAI locations?

San Francisco , New York , Kingman , Rhome , Dayton , California City , Los Angeles , Union City , Palo Alto , San Jose , California , Buford , Alaska , London , Hollywood, Los Angeles

OpenAI reviews

4.1

74% would recommend to a friend

(24 total reviews)

Sam Altman

72% approve of CEO

74% positive business outlook

Company ratings over time

Ratings trend for the last 6 months (24 reviews)

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Reviews by job title

24 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

Return to all reviews

4.0

Dec 5, 2024

AI Intern

Ai intern

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation Interesting, rewarding projects

Cons

Must be in person for the job

3.0

Aug 24, 2024

Great talent and resources, but toxic

Member of technical staff

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

A lot of high-profile talent, compute, good salary. Many of the problems are ambitious. Can move very fast (though quality and long-term planning may be terrible). Good for technical growth.

Cons

Opaque management, constant scandals, high rates of firings. Growth problems, hiring toxic people which take advantage of the opaque structure. Not much expertise outside of the main domains, surprisingly bad in some cases. It looks like the management thinking that they cracked llms so everything else is simple. Cult-like company culture. Some people are even proud of having a poor WLB.

5.0

Aug 7, 2024

A

Computational linguist

Recommend

CEO approval

Business Outlook

Pros

Fair pay, cool team, good purpose

Cons

Stressful sometimes, the nature of the job itself can be fun but also demanding at times

Viewing 13 - 15 of 24 Reviews

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Facilities Operations Manager

Software Engineer, Full Stack (People Innovation)

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Manufacturing Test Engineer, AI Compute Infrastructure - Stargate

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AI Intern

Great talent and resources, but toxic

A

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