CTO Compensation Benchmark
What does a CTO or VP Engineering actually earn at your stage?
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What this measures
Tech-executive compensation moves a lot by stage, headcount, and geography — a Series A CTO in London and a Series D CTO in San Francisco are barely the same role on a comp scale. This benchmark gives you the three-number breakdown (base salary, bonus target, equity grant value) that almost every offer or board pay review hangs on, with a p25-p75 range so you can see the spread. It also annualises a four-year equity grant against base + bonus for a total-comp figure that is comparable across stages.
When to use it
- 1.Comparing your own comp to market when raising the question with the board.
- 2.Hiring a CTO or VP Eng and trying to set a target band that will actually close the candidate.
- 3.Building a comp philosophy: are we targeting p50, p75, or top-of-market?
- 4.Sanity-checking a founder's expectation that they can hire a Series B-quality CTO at seed-stage comp.
How it works
Core benchmarks are stored per role × stage at a baseline of US SF/NYC, 201-500 headcount. Geography multipliers (US-SF/NYC = 1.0, Western Europe = 0.72, APAC/LATAM = 0.55) scale both cash and equity. Headcount multipliers scale base up and equity percentage down as companies grow — a Series B CTO at 50 employees gets less base and more equity than the same CTO at 500. The data is sourced from aggregated public benchmarks (Levels.fyi, Pave, Kruze Consulting, Carta) and refreshed periodically. All figures USD; the full /tools/cto-compensation-benchmark tool offers EUR and GBP conversion.
Source: Aggregated from Levels.fyi, Pave benchmarks, Kruze Consulting startup data, Carta equity reports, and Option Impact.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the typical CTO salary at a Series B startup?+
At Series B-C in the US (SF/NYC baseline, 51-200 headcount), CTO base salaries cluster around $260K-$310K (p25-p75) with a 15% bonus target. Equity grants total $300K-$1.1M over four years, depending on whether the CTO is a founder or external hire. Annualised total comp runs $400K-$575K. Outside the US the numbers compress significantly — see the geography selector.
How much equity does a non-founder CTO get?+
A non-founder CTO joining at Series A typically gets 1-2% equity (or about $150K-$400K in grant value at the time of hire). At Series B-C the band moves to 0.5-1% / $300K-$700K. By Series D+ it drops to 0.2-0.5% / $500K-$1.2M because the company's valuation has grown. The widget shows grant value rather than percentage because percentages are not comparable across stages.
Is the CTO comp data US-only?+
No — the benchmark applies geography multipliers for US (SF/NYC baseline), other US metro, US remote, Western Europe, UK, APAC, and LATAM. The multipliers reflect typical local-market discounts relative to SF/NYC. The full /tools/cto-compensation-benchmark tool also converts the output into EUR and GBP.
How often is the data updated?+
We refresh the underlying benchmarks roughly twice a year as new public datasets ship (Levels.fyi, Pave, Carta). The widget always pulls the latest data; the figures you see here today are current as of the most recent refresh. The /tools/cto-compensation-benchmark companion page shows the data revision history.
Want the full version?
The widget above is the quick check. The full CTO Compensation Benchmark tool has more inputs, richer output (anti-pattern detection, contextual benchmarks, Excel export), and integrates with your Command Center workspace.
Open the full CTO Compensation Benchmark →