With over 200 programming languages available, knowing which ones offer the highest salaries in 2025 is essential for developers planning their next career move.
From 01-January-2025 to 31-December-2025, DevJobsScanner analysed nearly 3 million dev job offers from around the world to understand the market and identify the highest-paying languages. For this study, we focused exclusively on jobs from the United States, which guarantees a more coherent and representative result, significantly minimising any potential data deviations.
From a total of 3 million development jobs, 59,447 had salaries from the United States. Out of those, approximately 16,400 could be categorised under a specific programming language.
A note on 2025 data: Salary transparency varies significantly by job board. In 2025, fewer listings carried disclosed salary information compared to previous years, which means some niche languages did not reach the minimum threshold of 100 salary-bearing job listings required for a statistically robust ranking. Where noted, languages with fewer than 100 jobs are included as indicative data points with appropriate caveats.
Let's dive into the top list 👇
10 - Kotlin
Kotlin is Google's preferred language for Android development and has grown steadily in backend server-side applications via the Ktor framework. It is a modern, concise alternative to Java that has been gaining traction in enterprise settings.
⚠️ Low sample size: Kotlin returned only 45 salary-bearing US listings in 2025, below our usual 100-job threshold. The average of $127K should be treated as indicative rather than definitive.
- Salary mean: ~$127K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 45 jobs
- Keywords: Kotlin.
Go to top paid Kotlin jobs.
9 - Rust
Rust continues to attract premium salaries, driven by demand in systems programming, WebAssembly, blockchain infrastructure and safety-critical applications. Consistently ranked among developers' most loved languages, Rust roles are rare but well-compensated.
⚠️ Low sample size: Rust returned only 47 salary-bearing US listings in 2025, below our usual 100-job threshold. The average of $141K should be treated as indicative rather than definitive.
- Salary mean: ~$141K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 47 jobs
- Keywords: Rust.
Go to top paid Rust jobs.
8 - PHP
PHP opens the main ranking as one of the most widely deployed languages on the web. Powering a significant portion of the internet, including WordPress, Laravel applications, and large-scale e-commerce platforms. As a result, PHP developers remain in steady demand. Its sheer volume of available roles and low barrier to entry make it a reliable choice.
Go to top paid PHP jobs.
7 - JavaScript
JavaScript remains the most in-demand language by job volume in 2025, with over 3,000 salary-bearing listings in the US alone. It is the backbone of web development and continues to dominate both frontend and backend ecosystems through frameworks like React, Vue, Node.js and others.
The average JavaScript developer salary in 2025 is $114K, backed by the highest job count of any language in this ranking.
- Salary mean: ~$114K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 3,095 jobs
- Keywords: JavaScript, React, Node.js.
Go to top paid JavaScript jobs.
6 - TypeScript
TypeScript continues its steady rise as the typed superset of JavaScript that teams reach for when building at scale. Its adoption in large codebases, enterprise applications and modern frameworks has made TypeScript developers highly sought after, commanding a slight salary premium over plain JavaScript.
- Salary mean: ~$114K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 1,280 jobs
- Keywords: TypeScript, Angular.
Go to top paid TypeScript jobs.
5 - Python
Python holds firm in the top 5 in 2025, driven by continued demand across AI, machine learning, data science and backend development. It is one of the highest-volume languages in this ranking, with over 2,500 salary-bearing listings, reflecting both its versatility and its central role in the AI boom.
The average Python developer salary in 2025 is $115K across 2,515 jobs — consistent with prior years and underpinned by strong demand from the AI and data science sectors.
Go to top paid Python jobs.
4 - C/C++
C and C++ continue to command strong salaries in 2025, driven by demand in systems programming, embedded systems, game development, and high-performance computing. Despite being decades old, C++ remains indispensable in industries where performance is non-negotiable — from automotive software to financial trading systems.
Go to top paid C/C++ jobs.
3 - C#
C# enters the top 3 in 2025 with the highest job volume of any language in the upper half of this ranking, at 2,344 salary-bearing listings. Backed by Microsoft's .NET ecosystem, C# is the go-to language for enterprise application development, game development with Unity, and cloud-native applications on Azure.
With 2,344 jobs and an average salary of $116K, C# offers one of the strongest combinations of volume and pay in the 2025 ranking.
Go to top paid C# jobs.
2 - Ruby
Ruby holds a strong position in the 2025 ranking, driven primarily by Ruby on Rails which remains a popular choice for startups and scale-ups building web applications rapidly. While the overall Ruby job market has contracted compared to its peak, the roles that remain tend to be senior and well-compensated.
The average Ruby developer salary in 2025 is $121K across 131 jobs — the smaller pool of listings reflects a more senior-skewed market rather than declining value.
- Salary mean: ~$121K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 131 jobs
- Keywords: Ruby, Ruby on Rails.
Go to top paid Ruby jobs.
1 - Go 🏆
Go takes the top spot in 2025 with an average salary of $122K and strong job volume — the best combination of pay and sample size of any language in this ranking. Created by Google and designed for simplicity and performance, Go has become the language of choice for cloud infrastructure, microservices and distributed systems. Its adoption by major cloud providers and companies like Uber, Dropbox and Cloudflare has cemented its premium positioning in the market.
Go developers command an average salary of $122K across 344 jobs in 2025 — the highest statistically robust salary of any language with 100+ qualifying listings.
- Salary mean: ~$122K
- Jobs Found (with salary): 344 jobs
- Keywords: Go.
Go to top paid Go jobs.
Full List of Top-Paid Languages in the US
Below is the complete list of average salaries, in dollars, for each programming language in the United States. This includes all languages regardless of job count.
Important: Programming languages with less than 100 jobs (with salary) are discarded from the top 10 ranking above, but are included in this chart. All jobs are exclusively from the United States.
How has this study been made?
The main objective of this study is to extract as much valuable information as possible from the scraped jobs data. To achieve this, the following conditions were applied to each job in the dataset:
- The job must have a salary.
- The job's salary should be greater than $10,000 and less than $1 million.
- The job should be from the United States.
- The job can be categorised under one or more programming languages.
After applying these conditions, we found that out of nearly 3 million development jobs analysed, 59,447 had salaries from the United States. Out of those, approximately 16,400 could be categorised under a specific programming language based on job title.
How does job categorisation into programming languages work?
To categorise dev jobs into programming languages, only the title has been used. This is because we want just the jobs that explicitly require a programming language.
For example, a job with the title "Backend developer", even if it has a stack defined and a description with job requirements, is discarded and does not count for any language. Otherwise, a job with the title "React Developer" would count as JavaScript, and likewise a job with the title "Laravel Developer" would count as PHP.
It is also important to note that one job offer can count for 2 or more languages. For example a job with the title "Full Stack Developer (Django/Angular)" will count for both Python and JavaScript.
