The filing-verified answer is a median, not an invented average
Search queries like “how much does a CEO make” and “ceo of a company salary” often get a single made-up average. This page answers from the same warehouse ranking as highest-paid CEOs 2026: 919 fiscal-2025 principal-executive packages, with a median reported total of $9,566,821. The highest row in this cut is Kaz Nejatian of Opendoor Technologies Inc. (OPEN) at $741,137,105.
| Stat | Filing-verified value |
|---|---|
| Companies in this ranking cut | 919 |
| Median reported CEO total | $9,566,821 |
| Highest package (OPEN) | $741,137,105 |
What “CEO pay” means here
The figure is the board’s grant-date package from the company’s SEC pay table — salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, cash incentive plans, pension changes, and other compensation. It is not cash the CEO necessarily took home.
Pay by company size is a different question
Mega-cap packages are not typical small-company packages. Those brackets live on CEO salary by company size, not on this page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a CEO make?
In this filing-verified cut of 919 fiscal-2025 CEO packages as of August 4, 2026, median reported total pay is $9,566,821. That is the SCT grant-date total, not cash taken home, and it is not an invented market-wide average.
Is this every U.S. public-company CEO?
No. The count is 919 companies in the rentseek.ing warehouse with a positive fiscal-2025 principal-executive grant-date total. Companies that have not filed, or whose name fails the quality gate, are omitted.
Where should I look for pay by company size?
This page answers how much a CEO makes from the warehouse ranking. Size-bracket medians live on /ceo-salary-by-company-size, not here.
Where do the numbers come from?
Median and count come from the same warehouse ranking query as /rankings/highest-paid-ceos-2026: one principal-executive SCT total per company for fiscal 2025.