How Much Can I Make as a UX Designer? 2025 Salary Guide

作者：Coursera Staff • 更新于 Oct 6, 2025

Learn more about a UX designer salary with this 2025 salary guide.

[Featured image] A UX designer sketches on a tablet while drinking a cup of coffee.

Over the past decade, user experience (UX) design has become a popular career path in technology companies. UX designers leverage various technical and workplace skills to design products and services that delight consumers. Because this is an in-demand field, this role tends to be compensated with an above-average salary.

In this article, we’ll discuss how much UX designers and other UX professionals can earn in the US and the factors that influence these salaries.

If you’re ready to start preparing for a UX designer role, enroll in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate. You’ll have the opportunity to learn core UX design skills like user-centered design, wireframes, and prototypes in as little as six months. Upon completion, you’ll have earned a career certificate to add to your resume.

What is a UX designer salary?

According to Glassdoor, the median total salary for UX designers in the US is $109,000 annually, which includes base pay and additional compensation [1]. This is compared to $49,500, the annual median salary across all occupations in the United States in 2024 [2].

Do UX designers get paid well? Factors that impact UX salary

How much you make as a UX professional will vary depending on where you work, your experience, and your specific job title. Businesses in nearly every industry utilize websites and applications for daily operations, ranging from digital marketing efforts to inventory management. As a result, UX designer jobs are not limited to tech companies. The next few sections take a closer look at the factors that can influence your salary.

Job function: UX designer salary by role

As technology becomes more user-centric, UX design teams expand to include more specialized roles. These job titles often require different skill sets and have different compensation amounts.

Job title	Glassdoor*
UX designer	$109,000 [1]
UI designer	$114,000 [3]
UX researcher	$119,000 [4]
Information architect	$160,000 [5]
UX writer	$85,000 [6]
UX engineer	$142,000 [7]

*All salary information from Glassdoor represents the median total pay as of September 2025. These figures include base salary and additional pay, which may represent profit-sharing, commissions, bonuses, or other compensation.

Experience level: Entry-level UX designer salary to UX design director salary

Generally, the longer you’ve been working as a UX designer, the more you can expect to earn. Moving into a management position can often lead to an even bigger salary increase. Here are some UX designer salaries by experience level to give you a better idea:

UX designer (2–4 years): $109,000 [1]
Senior UX designer (5–7 years): $180,000 [8]
Principal or staff UX designer (5–7 years): $253,000 [9]
Director of UX design (8 or more years): $241,000 [10]

Did you know that nearly every US industry has seen an increase in AI-related job postings?

Learn to apply AI in your field productively and responsibly by enrolling in Google’s UX Design Professional Certificate.

If you're a recent graduate or someone transitioning into UX design from a related role, you may not have much experience. Consider enhancing your portfolio to demonstrate your abilities to potential employers. For example, you can enroll in an online guided project to learn how to work with popular industry tools like GitHub and Miro. Here are a couple of options to get you started:

Location: Highest-paying cities for UX designers

Another significant factor that influences salaries across many jobs and industries is location. UX professionals working in major cities like Washington, DC, Boston, and New York City tend to see the highest salaries [11].

San Bruno, CA: $118,550
Seattle, WA: $117,198
Washington, DC: $98,115
Boston, MA: $95,691
New York, NY: $93,734
Jersey City, NJ: $92,959
Arlington, VA: $91,560

Other benefits and compensation that affect a user experience designer salary

Salary may be the primary form of compensation in the field of UX, but it’s not the only one. The most common benefits tend to include:

Health, dental, and vision insurance
Paid time off
Stock options
Retirement savings plan
Cash bonus
Technology or wi-fi stipend

Are UX designers in demand?

UX professionals typically earn significantly more than the national average. The good news is that skilled UX professionals are also in demand. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, web developers and digital designers, a category in which UX designers fall, will experience 7 percent growth in the decade leading up to 2034 [12]. With user experience set to become a factor in which sites rank well on Google, the demand for UX designers could very well continue to grow.

Explore our free resources for UX designers

If you’re considering a career as a UX designer, subscribe to our LinkedIn newsletter, Career Chat, to learn about industry trends and career tips. Or, continue learning more about UX design with our free resources:

Take the Quiz: UX Career Quiz: Is It Right for You?

Watch on YouTube: Exploring In-Demand UX Designer Skills

Bookmark for later: Glossary of UX Terms and Definitions

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