Salaries · Software developer · India · Updated November 2026
Software developer salary in India
Foreign businesses that hire a software developer in India directly pay $2,083–$8,333 a month full-time, in published job ads and salary guides. Local employers there pay $3.61–$10.62 an hour ($625–$1,841 a month full-time).
The numbers
| What you're looking at | Per hour | Per month, full-time | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiring directly: full-time pay | $12.02–$48.08 | $2,083–$8,333 | 1 published figure |
| Local employers in India | $3.61–$10.62 | $625–$1,841 | 3 published figures |
| For comparison: employees in the US | $50.58–$82.68 | $8,767–$14,331 | Wages only, before benefits and payroll taxes |
For this role, direct-hire pay in India runs about 4.2× local pay, midpoint to midpoint. Budget from the direct-hire figures, not the local ones.
India against other countries
Of the 10 countries with published direct-hire figures for this role, India has the 4th lowest starting figure.
Every figure behind these numbers
Hiring directly (remote work for foreign businesses)
- range · full-time pay$25,000–$100,000/year Himalayas (remote job board), public job search API filtered to jobs open to India (ads posted 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-23, retrieved 2026-10-28). Checked Oct 2026. Remote job ads that state pay, restricted to India (location restriction lists India only unless noted), from employers that hire directly (staffing, outsourcing, recruiter and talent-marketplace ads excluded). Used here: 3 of 4 ads (senior roles, part-time monthly pay and ads also open to high-income countries left out).
Local employers
- average · local employers₹885,348/year Indeed India, 'Software Engineer' salary page (updated 19 October 2026). Checked Oct 2026. Average of 10.6k 'Software Engineer' salaries from Indeed India job postings in the past 36 months; typical range a low of ₹4,42,732 to a high of ₹17,70,464 per year
- average₹712,061/year PayScale India, 'Software Developer' salary page (updated Oct 10 2026). Checked Oct 2026. Average base salary from 1,799 'Software Developer' salary profiles; 10th-90th percentile ₹288k to ₹2m
- median₹3,056,606/year Levels.fyi, 'Software Engineer' salaries in India (updated Oct 25, 2026). Checked Oct 2026. Median total compensation (base salary plus yearly value of stock grants plus bonus) from 21,928 salaries reported to Levels.fyi, all levels; 25th percentile ₹1.76M, 75th ₹4.95M, 90th ₹7.02M Listed for reference, not used in the range: it is a median of total pay including stock grants and bonuses, mostly at large tech employers.
- median$22,086/year Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025, salary by developer type (India) (2025 survey). Checked Oct 2026. Median yearly total compensation (salary, bonuses and perks, before taxes) for India respondents who chose 'Developer, back-end'; shown in USD; 'Developer, full-stack' median $13,949 on the same chart; India had 1,093 salary responses across all developer types
Levels.fyi counts stock and bonus and its top-paying employers in India are global tech firms, so it sits far above the job-ad and PayScale averages; none of the sources isolates mid-level (see PayScale early-career row in extra).
What an agency charges for this role
Published by Outsourcing Insider, a VA MASTERS company. The example below is VA MASTERS' own published rate card, shown because it's public; other agencies' prices vary. About us
| Agency | Per hour | Per month, 160 hours | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| VA MASTERS Parent company | $12.00–$25.00 | $1,920–$4,000 | Recruitment, contract and payments, time tracking, an account manager and replacement at no extra cost. No setup fee. Source: VA MASTERS pricing page, checked Oct 2026. |
Hiring a software developer
- Software developer job description
- Software developer interview questions and a paid test task
- Onboarding checklist for the first 90 days
- Hiring checklist, from defining the job to day one
Cost guides
FAQ
How much does a software developer cost in India?
Hiring directly, foreign businesses pay $2,083–$8,333 a month full-time (Himalayas, checked Oct 2026). Local employers in India pay $3.61–$10.62 an hour ($625–$1,841 a month full-time), which is local pay, not the rate for remote work for a foreign client.
What is the monthly salary of a software developer in India?
Published full-time pay for remote work for foreign businesses is $2,083–$8,333 a month. Local employers pay $625–$1,841 a month. Both use 40 hours a week and are in USD.
Why is hiring directly different from local pay in India?
They measure two different markets. Local pay is what employers in India pay local staff. Direct-hire figures come from job ads, salary guides and surveys for remote work for foreign businesses. For this role the second runs about 4.2× the first, midpoint to midpoint, so local pay isn't a good guide to what a remote hire will cost.
How does India compare with hiring a software developer in the US?
Employees' wages in the US run $50.58–$82.68 an hour for the middle 50% of workers, before benefits and payroll taxes. Hiring directly in India, published figures come to $12.02–$48.08 an hour, with full-time pay converted to an hourly figure. That's pay only: you'd still do the recruiting, contract and payments yourself.
What does an agency charge for a software developer?
Agencies set their own prices, and many don't publish them. As one published example, VA MASTERS (the parent company of this site's publisher) lists $12.00–$25.00 an hour for its Tech / Development category, all-inclusive. Ask any agency what its rate covers: recruiting, replacement, payroll and fees.