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The biggest packages went to AI researchers, according to the Guardian. The same accounts show turnover more than tripled at the UK business.
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OpenAI UK’s 2025 accounts show that shares made up most of its £255 million staff compensation bill: £168 million in equity versus £87 million in salaries. The London subsidiary also reported £293 million in turnover—more than triple the prior year—and £20.3 million in profit. The figures offer a view of the scale and structure of rewards at OpenAI’s UK operation, but they are not measures of the worldwide business, and the reported average does not reflect what each employee received.
Average compensation rose from £1.1 million per employee in 2024 to £2.318 million in 2025.
The Guardian reported that the largest packages went to AI researchers, but gave neither the size of the pay gap nor individual figures.
The Guardian compared average total compensation with median UK full-time earnings, describing it as 58 times higher; this is not a salary-only comparison.
OpenAI UK’s 110 staff shared £255 million in salaries and company shares in 2025, putting average compensation at £2.318 million per person. The annual accounts, covered by the Guardian on October 14, show a sharp rise in rewards at the company’s London operation: the previous year’s average package was £1.1 million, less than half the latest figure.
The accounts put salaries at £87 million and company shares at £168 million. Shares therefore accounted for almost twice as much compensation as salaries, making equity—the shares employees received in the company—the larger part of the package. The £2.318 million figure should not be read as an average cash salary.
Rewards were not distributed evenly. The Guardian reported a wide gap between the highest and lowest earners, with the biggest compensation packages reserved for AI researchers who help build OpenAI’s models. It did not quantify that gap or give individual researchers’ compensation figures.
The Guardian put the average package at 58 times median UK full-time employee earnings, citing Office for National Statistics data. That is a comparison of OpenAI’s total compensation with national earnings, rather than a salary-only comparison.
The UK company’s annual turnover more than tripled from the previous year.
The same annual accounts recorded a profit for OpenAI UK Ltd.
London is OpenAI’s largest international research hub, but the office is not solely a research operation. It also houses government affairs staff and sales and marketing teams. Those commercial teams are responsible for selling licences to companies and organisations, placing customer-facing work alongside model research in the London office.
The financial results and staff compensation disclosure cover the same completed year, 2025. They are annual figures for OpenAI UK Ltd, rather than revenue, profit or compensation totals for OpenAI’s worldwide business.
OpenAI declined to comment to the Guardian on the compensation figures.
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