Key facts at a glance
Bengaluru premium vs Pune
+18%
average across 5 tracked roles
Bengaluru premium vs Hyderabad
+5%
average across 5 tracked roles
Hyderabad 1BHK rent vs Bengaluru
~30% lower
2026 cost-of-living data
Bengaluru's headline tech salaries run 18% above Pune's and 5% above Hyderabad's on average, based on PayMetric's own tracked median salaries across five tech roles (Cloud Architect, Cybersecurity Specialist, Data Engineer, DevOps Engineer, and Full-Stack Engineer). That gap is real, and it's the number most "best city for tech jobs" comparisons stop at.
What most of those comparisons skip is the cost side. Hyderabad's 1BHK rents run roughly 30% below Bengaluru's, and Pune's overall cost of living sits 30-35% below Bengaluru's, according to 2026 cost-of-living data. Once rent is factored into take-home pay, most (not all) of Bengaluru's salary premium quietly disappears. This article shows the real numbers on both sides: PayMetric's own tracked salary data by city and role, and cost-of-living figures cited from independent 2026 sources.
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Open the India calculatorMedian tracked salary by city and role (2026)
Mid-level, annual, from PayMetric's own India salary data. Mumbai and Delhi NCR are included alongside Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune since they carry the same full city-level coverage.
Swipe across to compare all five cities. Role names stay visible as you scroll.
| Role | Bengaluru | Hyderabad | Pune | Mumbai | Delhi NCR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Architect (AWS / Azure / GCP) | ₹22L | ₹21.1L | ₹18.5L | ₹20.2L | ₹19.6L |
| Cybersecurity Specialist / Architect | ₹28.7L | ₹26.9L | ₹24.6L | ₹28.1L | ₹26.1L |
| Data Engineer | ₹22.5L | ₹21.1L | ₹19.4L | ₹21.3L | ₹20.5L |
| DevOps & CI/CD Engineer | ₹14L | ₹13.4L | ₹11.8L | ₹12.9L | ₹12.5L |
| Full-Stack Engineer (React / Next.js / TypeScript) | ₹14.5L | ₹13.9L | ₹12.2L | ₹13.3L | ₹12.9L |
Figures are PayMetric's own tracked mid-level median compensation by city, not government or third-party benchmarks. See each role's full page for salary ranges, seniority bands, and confidence rating.
Why Bengaluru still pays more
Bengaluru's tech market is India's oldest and deepest, home to the largest concentration of GCCs (Global Capability Centres) like Walmart Global Tech, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, alongside product companies including Razorpay, Freshworks-adjacent SaaS players, and the country's densest cluster of tech unicorns and scale-ups. That density creates real competition for talent, especially at senior and specialist levels, and it shows up directly in the premium: the gap is widest for Cloud Architect and DevOps roles (around 19% over Pune), where specialist supply is tighter, and narrower for Cybersecurity (around 17%), where demand is spread more evenly across cities.
Hyderabad has closed much of the distance without matching Bengaluru's scale. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and a large base of Indian IT services and GCC operations run substantial engineering operations from Hitech City and Gachibowli, and for the roles in this article, Hyderabad's medians sit only 4-7% behind Bengaluru's, the smallest gap of any city compared here. Pune's tech market leans more toward enterprise IT, automotive-adjacent engineering, and a growing product and SaaS base; its salaries trail Bengaluru's by more (16-19%), but so does its cost of living.
What the headline gap misses: cost of living
2026 cost-of-living comparisons put Hyderabad's average 1BHK rent at roughly Rs 17,500/month against Bengaluru's roughly Rs 25,000/month, close to a 30% discount. Pune's overall living costs (rent, food, transport, utilities combined) run an estimated 30-35% below Bengaluru's in the same comparisons, with 1BHK rents starting meaningfully lower in most neighbourhoods outside the most premium IT-corridor pockets. Delhi NCR and Mumbai, by contrast, carry their own high housing costs that offset much of their salary gap with Bengaluru in the other direction.
At a Rs 20,00,000/year package, one widely cited 2026 comparison estimates Bengaluru tech workers retaining Rs 20,000-30,000/month in savings after expenses, against Rs 45,000-60,000/month for the same package in Hyderabad, a difference of roughly Rs 2-3.5 lakh a year, driven almost entirely by the rent gap, not the salary itself.
Data Engineer, worked example: how much of the salary gap survives rent?
Using this article's actual tracked Data Engineer medians as gross annual pay, income tax computed via the New Regime (FY 2026-27) income tax engine, and the rent estimates above (illustrative, not from PayMetric's salary data) plus a flat Rs 25,000/month for other core living costs, held constant across cities to isolate the rent effect:
| Bengaluru | Hyderabad | Pune | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracked median salary (gross) | ₹22,46,000 | ₹21,12,000 | ₹19,38,000 |
| Income tax (New Regime) | -₹2,52,460 | -₹2,17,620 | -₹1,79,504 |
| Net monthly take-home | ₹1,66,128 | ₹1,57,865 | ₹1,46,541 |
| Est. rent (1BHK) | -₹25,000 | -₹17,500 | -₹20,000 |
| Est. other core costs | -₹25,000 | -₹25,000 | -₹25,000 |
| Monthly headroom | ₹1,16,128 | ₹1,15,365 | ₹1,01,541 |
Bengaluru's net monthly pay beats Hyderabad's by about ₹8,263, but its monthly headroom lead over Hyderabad shrinks to just ₹763 once rent is priced in, cost of living erases nearly the entire salary advantage. Against Pune, Bengaluru keeps a real headroom lead of about ₹14,587/month, smaller than the raw salary gap but still a genuine advantage. This uses a flat other-costs figure for all three cities as a simplification, food and transport also run cheaper outside Bengaluru, so the real gap is likely even narrower than shown here.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Bengaluru or Hyderabad better for tech salaries in 2026?
Bengaluru pays more on paper, roughly 5% more on average across five tracked tech roles (Cloud Architect, Cybersecurity Specialist, Data Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Full-Stack Engineer), based on PayMetric's own median salary data. But Hyderabad's 1BHK rents run around 30% below Bengaluru's, and once that's factored into take-home pay, most of the headline gap narrows sharply. Whether Bengaluru still wins depends on your exact role, rent situation, and how much you value Bengaluru's larger and denser tech employer base.
How much cheaper is Pune than Bengaluru for tech workers?
Pune's overall cost of living runs roughly 30-35% below Bengaluru's according to 2026 cost-of-living comparisons, driven mainly by cheaper housing. On the salary side, Pune's tracked tech salaries run about 16-19% below Bengaluru's across the five roles in this article. The cost gap is wider than the salary gap, which is why Pune tech workers often end up with comparable or better monthly headroom despite the lower gross number.
Which city pays the most for Data Engineers in India?
Among the five cities with full city-level coverage in PayMetric's India data, Bengaluru has the highest tracked Data Engineer median at ₹22.5L, followed by Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, and Pune at ₹19.4L. The gap between the top and bottom of that range is around 16%, all before adjusting for each city's very different cost of living.
Do Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune pay the same at the same company?
Often close, but not identical. Many large tech employers and GCCs run city-adjusted pay bands rather than a single national number, and Bengaluru's deeper concentration of competing employers (both product companies and GCCs) tends to push its bands higher than Hyderabad's or Pune's for equivalent roles and levels, even within the same company. The tracked medians in this article reflect the market overall, not any single employer's internal bands, so always check your specific offer letter's numbers against the city you'll actually work in.
Why does Hyderabad have lower rent than Bengaluru despite similar tech salaries?
Bengaluru's tech hiring has been running for longer and at greater scale, which has pushed housing demand (and therefore rent) up faster in areas near major tech corridors like Whitefield, Outer Ring Road, and Koramangala. Hyderabad's tech real estate, concentrated around Hitech City and Gachibowli, has expanded more recently and with more available land, keeping supply closer to demand. The result is a city where headline salaries sit only modestly behind Bengaluru's but the cost of living sits well behind it too.
Should I move from Bengaluru to Hyderabad or Pune for a lower cost of living?
It depends on what you're optimizing for. If your priority is maximizing monthly disposable income and you can find an equivalent role, Hyderabad and Pune both offer a real cost-of-living advantage that often outweighs their lower headline salary, this article's Data Engineer example shows the gap narrowing from thousands of rupees a month to a few hundred once rent is accounted for. If your priority is career optionality, Bengaluru's much larger and denser employer base (more GCCs, more product companies, more openings at any given time) is a real advantage that a purely financial comparison doesn't capture.
Does this comparison include CTC components like EPF and gratuity?
No. The salary figures in this article are PayMetric's own tracked median compensation figures by city and role, not a full CTC breakdown. For how CTC (Cost to Company) itself splits into cash salary, employer EPF, and gratuity, and why that materially reduces what any of these headline numbers actually pays out monthly, see our companion article on EPF and gratuity in India CTC.
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