Salary Guide · India 2026
Sarvam AI (formerly Sarvam) is India's leading vernacular AI company, building Indic language models (BharatGPT), voice AI, and the Sarvam-2B open-source model. Powers government-scale AI deployments. Every band below is total CTC (base + variable + equity), drawn from the 25th–90th percentile of reported offers at Sarvam AI in India and verified against AmbitionBox and Glassdoor.
AI Engineer / Researcher · Senior / 6–9 yrs
₹90L – ₹150Ltotal CTC
Salary bands for 2 roles at Sarvam AI, from AI Engineer / Researcher to Software Engineer — see all below.
Working at Sarvam AI
~200 employees. Series B ($234M+ raised, targeting $300M round). Backed by Lightspeed, Peak XV, Khosla Ventures, HCLTech, Bessemer. Valuation ~$1.5B (unicorn, June 2026). Deployed by Indian government at national scale.
What the interview actually tests
Sarvam is mission-driven: expects candidates motivated by India's AI/language problem, not just compensation. Interview rounds include ML systems + Indic NLP knowledge + research orientation. Strong preference for candidates with published work or open-source contributions. ESOP grants predate the Series B; credibility has grown with government contracts and unicorn status.
Role
Total CTC ranges for AI Engineer / Researchers at Sarvam AI India, from fresher to senior level.
| Experience Level | Total CTC (LPA) | Equity |
|---|---|---|
| Mid-level / 3–5 yrs | ₹50L – ₹80L | ESOP₹8L – ₹22L/yr |
| Senior / 6–9 yrs | ₹90L – ₹150L | ESOP₹22L – ₹50L/yr |
Sarvam AI pays AI-research-premium 1.5-2x SE. ₹50-80L mid; ₹100L+ senior.
Role
Total CTC ranges for Software Engineers at Sarvam AI India, from fresher to senior level.
| Experience Level | Total CTC (LPA) | Equity |
|---|---|---|
| Fresher / 0–2 yrs | ₹16L – ₹28L | ESOP₹0.3L – ₹1L/yr |
| Mid-level / 3–5 yrs | ₹28L – ₹50L | ESOP₹1L – ₹3L/yr |
| Senior / 6–9 yrs | ₹50L – ₹90L | ESOP₹3L – ₹8L/yr |
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