What people are paid
Reported current salary
£43,000
Earlier survey · 2025
Median from 43 responses in 2025. Too few fresh 2026 answers yet, so this shows the latest earlier year.
Salary survey · running since 2020
What does
architecture
really pay?
Choose a role and location. See what people report, what they would ask for next and our recruitment estimate, each with its own source and date.
- 1,205 earlier responses
- Fresh since Oct 2026
- Groups of 5+
Add your salary ↓About a minute
Check a role
Annual salary before tax · GBP
Showing Architect, London, 2026.
What people would ask for
Expected salary for their next role
Our recruitment estimate
Architecture Social, dated
Depends on experience
Architect pay varies widely with experience, so our guide gives bands.
See the Architect bands →Groups below five responses are never shown. Our estimate is a separate judgement, not survey pay.
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Add yours and see where your role sits
It takes about a minute. Every answer helps us publish more roles and locations.
- No name, email or employer
- Only groups of five or more are shown
- Joins 1,205 earlier responses since 2020
- UK salaries in pounds
After you add yours
The role checker above switches to your role and location, so you can see how your pay compares.
Earlier surveys
What people reported, 2020 to 2026
1,205 responses. Snapshot captured 5 August 2026. These figures stay separate from fresh answers.
- London · Part II£30,000Median · 188 responses
- London · ARB Architect£39,000Median · 220 responses
- Outside London · BIM Coordinator£45,000Median · 21 responses
Pay over time · ARB Architect · London
Pay rose 19%. Prices rose 27%.
Choose a role and location. Each year shows the median from that year’s answers. Hover over or tapTap a year to see the detail.
- +19.4%Survey median, 2020 to 2025Survey pay
- +27.3%Prices, ONS CPIPrices, ONS CPI
- −£2,800Behind 2020 pay after inflationBehind prices
£30k£35k£40k£45k£50k202040 answers202132 answers202246 answers202322 answers202421 answers202543 answers£36,000£45,800 if 2020 pay had kept pace with prices
2025 · ARB Architect · London
£43,000
Median from 43 answers. Up £3,500 on 2024.
- Kept pace with prices
- £45,800
- Gap
- −£2,800
2025: £43,000. Median from 43 answers. Up £3,500 on 2024.
- Our survey median
- 2020 pay, if it had kept pace with prices
- Gap to prices
- Bigger dot, more answers
Survey: Architecture Social, reported annual salary for ARB Architect · London, 2020 to 2025. Years appear only with five or more answers between £10,000 and £1,000,000. Full calendar years only. Prices: ONS Consumer Prices Index, annual average. Response counts vary by year, so treat movement as indicative.
| Year | Median | Answers | 2020 pay kept in line with prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | £36,000 | 40 | £36,000 |
| 2021 | £37,600 | 32 | £37,000 |
| 2022 | £37,100 | 46 | £40,300 |
| 2023 | £39,800 | 22 | £43,200 |
| 2024 | £39,500 | 21 | £44,300 |
| 2025 | £43,000 | 43 | £45,800 |
What the survey shows · free to read
6 things the published guide cannot tell you.
- 01
Pay is near parity at the same title
At ARB Architect level, the median for women was £38,950 and for men £39,500. A difference of about 1.4%. In this ARB Architect cut, reported pay at the same title was very similar.
Women: 99 responses · Men: 128 responses
- 02
The guide sits above what people report
The published guide puts a London Director midpoint at £105,000. Survey respondents reported a median of £57,500. Some of that is timing, but not all of it.
Survey median: 16 responses
- 03
The London title ladder is still steep
In London, Part I sits at £22,500, Part II at £30,000, ARB Architect at £39,000, Associate at £54,500 and Associate Director at £66,000. Qualification and title still move pay more than location does.
London only · 540 responses across five titles
- 04
London Directors report less than Associate Directors
London Associate Directors reported £66,000. London Directors reported £57,500. The title is senior, but the reported median is not.
Associate Director: 15 responses · Director: 16 responses
- 05
Outside London, BIM Coordinators out-report Architects
Outside London, BIM Coordinators reported £45,000 against £35,000 for ARB Architects. Software delivery is paying more than the protected title in this cut.
BIM Coordinator: 21 responses · ARB Architect: 99 responses
- 06
London Interior Designers sit above Architects
London Interior Designers reported £43,500. London ARB Architects reported £39,000. Interior is not the cheaper neighbour in this snapshot.
Interior Designer: 28 responses · ARB Architect: 220 responses
Every reportable cut
31 groups above the privacy floor.
Medians only. Groups below five responses stay unpublished. Quartiles appear when the published band itself is a plausible annual salary.
Architecture · London
ARB Architect
£39,000220 responses · middle half £35,250 to £45,000
Architecture · London
Part II
£30,000188 responses · middle half £28,000 to £32,000
Architecture · Outside London
Part II
£27,500133 responses · middle half £25,000 to £30,000
Architecture · Outside London
Part I
£20,946102 responses · middle half £16,500 to £24,570
Architecture · Outside London
ARB Architect
£35,00099 responses · middle half £30,000 to £39,000
Architecture · London
Part I
£22,50062 responses · middle half £20,000 to £25,000
Architecture · London
Associate
£54,50055 responses · middle half £45,000 to £59,000
Architecture · Outside London
Architectural Technologist
£29,80032 responses · middle half £25,500 to £36,900
Interior Design · London
Interior Designer
£43,50028 responses · middle half £28,000 to £50,000
Architecture · Outside London
Associate
£51,64626 responses · middle half £46,000 to £56,000
BIM · Outside London
BIM Coordinator
£45,00021 responses · middle half £35,000 to £55,000
Architecture · Outside London
Associate Director
£62,00017 responses · middle half £53,500 to £97,000
Architecture · Outside London
Director
£50,00016 responses · middle half £34,000 to £74,000
Architecture · London
Director
£57,50016 responses · middle half £40,000 to £75,000
Architecture · London
Architectural Technologist
£35,00015 responses · middle half £29,000 to £37,500
Architecture · Outside London
Architectural Technician
£28,00015 responses · middle half £24,000 to £31,000
Architecture · London
Associate Director
£66,00015 responses · middle half £60,000 to £70,000
BIM · London
BIM Manager
£53,75012 responses · middle half £46,000 to £60,000
Interior Design · London
Interior Architect
£36,00012 responses · middle half £25,000 to £42,000
BIM · London
BIM Coordinator
£45,00011 responses · middle half £35,000 to £48,900
BIM · London
BIM Consultant
£55,50010 responses · middle half £51,000 to £60,000
Interior Design · Outside London
Interior Designer
£35,0009 responses · middle half £24,000 to £46,000
Urban Design · London
Urban Designer
£27,0009 responses
Architecture · London
Architectural Technician
£44,0008 responses · middle half £24,000 to £52,000
BIM · Outside London
BIM Consultant
£42,0007 responses · middle half £40,000 to £49,500
BIM · Outside London
BIM Manager
£52,5007 responses · middle half £49,500 to £55,000
Creative Support & Admin · London
Office/Practice Manager
£40,0007 responses · middle half £40,000 to £42,000
Interior Design · Outside London
Interior Architect
£30,0007 responses · middle half £25,000 to £45,000
Urban Design · Outside London
Urban Designer
£32,0007 responses · middle half £26,000 to £35,000
Creative Support & Admin · London
Business Dev. Manager
£47,0005 responses · middle half £40,000 to £47,000
Landscape Architecture · London
Director
£90,0005 responses · middle half £90,000 to £100,000
The question nobody else asks
Revit users vs everyone else
London ARB Architects only, so role and location are held constant.
Reported gap
£2,350Revit users sit higher in this cut£30,000Shared scale£50,000
- Uses Revit£40,600
120 responses
- Did not list Revit£38,250
46 responses
Software is self-reported free text, so "did not list Revit" means it was not named, not that it is never used.
Looking for a number to negotiate with?
The survey shows what people report. Our salary guide shows what a role should pay.
94 benchmark roles across seven industries, by location and experience.
Why we run this
Pay in architecture should be easier to talk about.
Almost every conversation I have with someone in architecture reaches the same question: what should I be paid? Published guides tend to run high, and practices rarely share their numbers.
So we ask the profession directly, publish what people tell us and show our own estimate separately, with its date, so you can judge it for yourself. The more people take part, the more roles we can show.
Stephen DrewFounder, Architecture Social
For candidates
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- Benchmarks for 94 roles, by location and experience
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- Ten years of pay, and what people tell us they earn
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Hiring? Request the full 2026 salary report.
The detail behind this page, prepared for practices planning hires and pay reviews.
- Benchmarks for 94 roles across seven industries, by location and experience
- Ten years of pay, and how our estimates compare with other recruitment agencies
- What candidates tell us they want from their next move
- Sent to you personally. The full report is not published online.
Methodology and limits
How to read these figures
Who answered
People who chose to answer an open survey promoted by Architecture Social. It is not a random sample of the profession.
What is shown
Medians and the middle 50% for groups of five or more. Never an individual answer, employer or personal detail.
Fresh and earlier answers
Fresh answers since October 2026 stay separate from the 1,205 earlier responses captured on 5 August 2026. When a fresh group is too small, we show the latest earlier year with five or more and label it.
Our estimate
A separate, dated judgement from our recruitment work. It is never mixed into survey pay.
Annual base salary before tax, excluding bonuses. Reported medians, not guaranteed offers.