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The headline is shocking: OpenAI’s base pay for UK employees averaged £794,000 per employee last year. Including share awards, the average OpenAI UK salary package jumps to almost £2.3m per person. In comparison, Google pays its UK staff on average about half that amount. However, before this figure can change the pay landscape of any UK-based AI industry professional, it is important to appreciate what is fueling the growth and what it’s missing.
Quick Facts: OpenAI UK Salary Breakdown
| Detail | Figure |
| Average basic wage (UK) | £794,000 |
| The total pay is calculated with the provision of share payments. | ~£2.3m per person |
| Total staff compensation (2025) | £258m |
| Base pay total | £87.3m |
| Average UK headcount (2025) | ~110 employees |
| UK revenue (2025) | £292.9m |
Small Team, Biased Average Salary
The average salary of OpenAI employees in the UK is roughly £794,000 per person, while in terms of revenues, it stands at £293m and comprises 110 employees only! In the face of such a low headcount, a few high-paid individuals with tens of millions of dollars in their stock options can make a big difference in the average.
That’s where OpenAI’s salary breakdown comes into play. The base pay of £87.3m for 110 people is the average figure, which works out to be approximately £794,000, but average salary figures at these levels are highly misleading. Ten researchers making £5m a pop and 100 support staff making £100,000 a pop would generate the same number. The number indicates overall compensation paid, not the typical compensation for an OpenAI worker.
Shares Are Doing Most of the Work
This £2.3m in total packages, minus base pay of £794,000, is telling: The compensation for OpenAI executives and researchers is skewed toward equity. The company’s market capitalisation has surged from about $150bn to $500bn in 2025, providing direct benefits to its staff. Some 600 people around the world cashed out a total of $6.6bn in shares in one funding round, with the average person receiving a payout of approximately $11m.
In the UK, this has implications for how much working there is worth to OpenAI staff beyond wages: it’s about the upside of the pay. This is quite a different idea from a secured, lucrative job, and may be even more risky in the event there is a delay in the offering or expectations for the value of the offering change.
What This Means for AI Workers
The OpenAI compensation report is but a sample of the battle for talent being waged at the other companies in the AI space. In a race to get the top talent, rival labs are bidding tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for top researchers. Even non-technical jobs are getting the benefit: A personal assistant role at another competing lab was recently advertised for £145,000.
There’s an interesting lesson for those who are thinking of applying for a job in the AI industry in the UK. There are some top-of-the-market, truly outstanding salaries, but it’s in a few highly specialised jobs. The £794,000 headline is more about the competitive market for AI talent than about the amount of money it’s worth getting.
FAQs
What is the average salary of someone who works at OpenAI in the UK?
The average basic OpenAI UK salary was £794,000 in 2025, increasing to ~£2.3m upon the addition of share awards – in total, across about 110 employees in the UK.
How can OpenAI’s compensation be so good on average?
The average OpenAI employee salary is well above the norm due to having very few people on staff, paying a lot of their employees with stock options, and paying a lot of their researchers.
Are all the employees at OpenAI UK paid £794,000?
No. The average salary figure is inflated by some large salaries and by equity awards. That’s probably not the number that most employees will be at or near in terms of base pay.
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