Software Developers salary in San Francisco, California

About 76,900 Software Developers work in the San Francisco metro, making it one of the largest concentrations of the role in the country. The median annual wage for the occupation here was $174,910 in 2024, about 2% above the California median of $170,910 and 26% above the national median of $138,520.

The average wage of $187,840 runs roughly $13,000 above that median. When the average pulls noticeably higher than the median, it usually means a smaller group of senior or staff-level engineers is earning well above what most of their peers take home. The gap between the two figures is wider in San Francisco than it is nationally, where the average sits only about $6,000 above the median.

The spread within the metro tells a similar story. The 10th-percentile wage was $128,140 and the 75th percentile reached $213,420. That $85,000 range between early-career and established professionals reflects how much variation exists by experience level and sub-specialty in a metro where both early-stage startups and large public companies compete for the same talent pool.

Compared to the rest of California, San Francisco holds only a modest edge at the median level. The state as a whole skews high because the Bay Area and a few other coastal metros anchor the California figures upward. Readers comparing San Francisco to a lower-cost California metro will find a bigger gap at the senior end than at the median.