Medium demand
Manual QA Engineer
₹3 LPA – ₹8 LPA
Median: ₹5 LPA
Functional, exploratory, and regression testing across web and mobile.
1970 guide
QA Salary Guide 1970
Compare salary ranges for software testing roles and learn which skills can help you move from manual testing to automation, SDET, and QA leadership positions.
Last updated: June 2026
India ranges are blended estimates from AmbitionBox, Naukri, and live Jobs Radar listings (June 2026). US figures cite Glassdoor and Levels.fyi. Treat individual offers as the source of truth.
Salary Overview by Role
Annual CTC ranges for the eight QA roles companies hire most in 2026.
High demand
Automation QA Engineer
₹5 LPA – ₹15 LPA
Median: ₹9 LPA
Builds reliable UI and API automation suites that run in CI.
High demand
SDET
₹8 LPA – ₹28 LPA
Median: ₹16 LPA
Designs test frameworks, infra, and tooling alongside developers.
High demand
Selenium Tester
₹5 LPA – ₹14 LPA
Median: ₹8.5 LPA
Selenium WebDriver, Grid, and TestNG for enterprise web automation.
Growing demand
Playwright Automation Engineer
₹7 LPA – ₹20 LPA
Median: ₹12 LPA
Modern end-to-end automation with tracing, parallelism, and TypeScript.
High demand
API Tester
₹5 LPA – ₹16 LPA
Median: ₹9 LPA
Contract, schema, and behavior testing for REST and GraphQL APIs.
Medium demand
Performance Tester
₹6 LPA – ₹18 LPA
Median: ₹11 LPA
Load, stress, and soak testing with JMeter, k6, and APM-driven analysis.
Medium demand
QA Lead
₹12 LPA – ₹30 LPA
Median: ₹18 LPA
Owns test strategy, release readiness, mentoring, and quality KPIs.
Salary by Experience
QA pay bands by experience in India, with the highest-leverage next step at each stage.
| Experience | Range | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Fresher / 0–1 yrs | ₹3 LPA – ₹5.5 LPA | Add Postman + SQL basics and one automation mini-project. Start now |
| 1–3 yrs | ₹5 LPA – ₹9 LPA | Pick Playwright or Selenium and ship a real suite into CI. Start now |
| 3–5 yrs | ₹9 LPA – ₹16 LPA | Own framework design and add API + DB layer coverage. Start now |
| 5–8 yrs | ₹16 LPA – ₹26 LPA | Add system design for test infra and mentor juniors. Start now |
| 8+ yrs | ₹26 LPA – ₹45 LPA+ | Lead test strategy, observability, and quality KPIs. Start now |
Salary by Skill
The skills that move QA salaries the most in 2026, with the roles that reward them.
Selenium
High impactRelated roles
Selenium Tester, Automation QA, SDET
Playwright
Growing impactRelated roles
Playwright Engineer, Automation QA, SDET
API Testing
High impactRelated roles
API Tester, Automation QA, SDET
SQL
High impactRelated roles
All QA roles
Java
High impactRelated roles
Selenium Tester, Automation QA, SDET
Python
High impactRelated roles
SDET, Automation QA, Performance
CI/CD
High impactRelated roles
Automation QA, SDET, DevOps QA
JMeter
Medium impactRelated roles
Performance Tester, SDET
Appium
Medium impactRelated roles
Mobile QA, Automation QA
Salary by City
How QA pay shifts across India's biggest hiring hubs — plus a fast-growing remote band.
Bengaluru
₹4 LPA – ₹32 LPA
Median: ₹11 LPA
India's biggest QA hub — product, services, and unicorns.
Hyderabad
₹4 LPA – ₹28 LPA
Median: ₹10 LPA
Strong SDET and automation demand from large product firms.
Pune
₹3.5 LPA – ₹24 LPA
Median: ₹9 LPA
Mature services and product market with heavy Selenium use.
Chennai
₹3.5 LPA – ₹22 LPA
Median: ₹8 LPA
Solid services market with growing automation and API roles.
Noida
₹4 LPA – ₹26 LPA
Median: ₹9.5 LPA
Mix of product and services hiring automation and API testers.
Gurugram
₹4.5 LPA – ₹30 LPA
Median: ₹11 LPA
Strong fintech and product hiring for SDETs and Playwright engineers.
Mumbai
₹4 LPA – ₹26 LPA
Median: ₹9 LPA
BFSI-heavy — Selenium, SQL, and compliance-aware QA roles.
Remote
₹5 LPA – ₹35 LPA+
Median: ₹12 LPA
Premium for SDETs and Playwright engineers with strong English communication.
How to Increase Your QA Salary
Eight practical moves QA engineers use to grow their salary in 2026 — ordered roughly by ROI for early- and mid-career testers.
- 01
Move from manual to automation
Pick one framework (Playwright or Selenium), build a real project, and add it to your resume with measurable impact.
Start Playwright practice - 02
Add API testing
Postman, REST Assured, or Playwright APIRequest — API coverage is now expected in nearly every automation role.
API testing practice - 03
Learn SQL deeply
Joins, aggregations, and window functions show up in nearly every QA interview loop.
SQL for QA - 04
Build one real automation framework
End-to-end project with page objects, fixtures, CI runs, and reporting beats five tutorial repos on your resume.
Get framework-design practice - 05
Learn CI/CD basics
Wire your suite into GitHub Actions or Jenkins with sharding, retries, and artifact reporting.
Practice CI/CD interview - 06
Prepare for scenario-based interviews
Senior loops favor 'how would you test this' over trivia. Practice out loud with a structured framework.
Try an AI mock interview - 07
Improve resume keywords
Mirror language from the job description — frameworks, tools, and impact metrics — so the ATS doesn't filter you out.
Run an ATS review - 08
Practice mock interviews
Pressure-test answers about flake, framework decisions, and ownership before recruiters do.
Open AI Mock Interview
US salary snapshot (verified)
Total-comp medians for testing roles in the United States, sourced from Glassdoor and Levels.fyi (April–June 2026 datasets).
| Role | Total pay range | Median | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software QA Engineer | $82K – $138K | $106K | Glassdoor (Apr 2025, 10.4K samples) |
| Software Test Engineer | $91K – $155K | $118K | Glassdoor (Apr 2025, 9.6K samples) |
| SDET / QA Automation | $107K – $165K | $132K | Glassdoor (Apr 2025) |
| QA SWE (Total Comp) | $104K (p25) – $200K (p75), $260K (p90) | $140K | Levels.fyi (Jun 2026) |
Total pay includes base, bonus, and equity. Bay Area, Seattle, and NYC typically command a 15–35% premium over national medians.
Want to know if your resume matches higher-paying QA roles?
Run a quick ATS review to fix keyword gaps, then pressure-test your answers with an AI mock interview.
QA salary FAQs
The salary questions software testers and SDETs ask us most often.
Related QA career guides
Pair the salary guide with these to plan your next QA move.
QA Job Market Report 2026
Demand, skills, and hiring trends across India and the US.
Jobs Radar
Curated QA roles refreshed daily from top companies.
AI Mock Interview
Live role-specific QA interview practice, scored in real time.
Resume ATS Review
Instant ATS score and QA-specific bullet rewrites.
All QA roles
Compare Manual, Automation, SDET, Performance, and Lead tracks.
Skills in demand
Selenium, Playwright, API, SQL, CI/CD and more.
Selenium Interview Questions
300+ real Selenium interview questions and answers.
Playwright Interview Questions
Locator strategy, tracing, fixtures, and CI integration.
API Testing Interview Questions
REST, Postman, schema, and contract testing depth.