Here’s How Much It Pays Workers

Meta paid some of the highest salaries in tech last year, especially for software engineers and AI-focused roles. A recent Business Insider review of Meta’s more than 5,000 work-visa salary records found that most employees earned between $150,000 and $250,000 in base pay.

These work-visa filings span Meta and its subsidiaries, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, offering a rare window into pay practices across the company. The data focuses on base salary only and excludes stock grants, cash bonuses and benefits, which can dramatically increase total compensation. 

Meta showed a willingness to pay at the very top of the market for critical technical positions last year. One software engineer earned a base salary of $450,000 per year, the highest figure reported for that role at the company. In comparison, Microsoft paid software engineers $82,971 to $284,000 in salary while Google paid the same role anywhere from $109,180 to $340,000.

Meanwhile, a research engineer at Meta received a base salary of $400,000, and a product manager’s compensation reached $348,000. At the highest end of the salary spectrum, a vice president of AI took home a salary of $650,000, underscoring how strategically important AI leadership has become to Meta. 

The federal filings result from Meta hiring employees on H-1B visas, or visas for foreign workers with specialized skills. In September, the Trump administration imposed a $100,000 fee for every new H-1B visa application filed in the U.S. In response, Meta’s H-1B application volume nearly halved in the last quarter of 2025 compared to the same quarter a year earlier. 

Here’s how much Meta paid foreign visa workers, according to filings from the 2025 fiscal year:

• AI Research Scientist: $163,800 to $328,000
• Data Engineer: $125,068 to $270,000
• Data Scientist: $122,760 to $295,703
• Machine Learning Engineer: $165,000 to $250,602
• Machine Learning Systems Engineer: $250,000
• Product Manager, Machine Learning: $252,000
• Product Policy Manager, GenAI: $198,000
• Research Engineer Manager: $289,144
• Research Scientist: $135,516 to $302,134
• Software Engineer: $124,000 to $450,000
• Software Engineer, Machine Learning: $144,096 to $293,118
• Software Engineer Manager: $277,837 to $318,000
• User Experience Researcher: $170,000 to $242,050

By the end of 2025, Meta reported a global headcount of 78,865 employees in its annual 10‑K filing. Despite its high salaries and ongoing hiring for AI and other strategic areas, the company continued to execute layoffs this year and is reportedly planning widespread job cuts that could impact at least 20% of its workforce. 

Meta has a market capitalization of $1.44 trillion at the time of writing. In January, the company reported revenue of $200.97 billion for the 2025 fiscal year, a 22% year-over-year increase.