Psychiatrist salary

How much does a psychiatrist make?

A psychiatrist makes $281,870 a year at the U.S. median, and the published range runs from $84,060 at the 10th percentile to $446,520 at the 90th.^[onet_psych] The mean, $269,940, sits below the median, so a longer tail of lower-paid jobs pulls the average down.^[oews_api]

*Single filer, 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (with the 0.9% surtax over $200,000); before state tax.

A psychiatrist at the 90th percentile earns about 5.3 times one at the 10th, so where and how you work matters as much as the specialty. BLS counts 27,980 employed psychiatrists; owners of a private practice paid from its profits are outside the survey.^{[oews_api][oews_tec]}

Psychiatrist salary per hour

Psychiatrists earn $135.51 an hour at the median on BLS's 2,080-hour work year, $74.11 at the 25th percentile and $174.39 at the 75th.^[oews_faq] BLS gathers annual salaries for physicians and divides by 2,080, so this is a conversion, not a quoted session rate. A psychiatrist working fewer clinical hours, as many do, earns more per hour actually worked than these figures show.

Psychiatrist salary by state

Missouri pays psychiatrists the highest published average at $345,860, followed by Minnesota ($333,320) and Florida ($328,060); the lowest exact average is in Idaho at $159,470.^[oews_api] BLS released no May 2025 psychiatrist estimate for Alabama, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming.

Jobs: BLS OEWS employment estimate, May 2025. “—”: not released. No May 2025 wage estimate for Alabama, Massachusetts, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming.

Download all psychiatrist wages as CSV (nation, 51 states and every published metro area: mean, 10th–90th percentiles, jobs)

Metro medians can beat the best state, because a single hospital system or state facility can dominate a small labor market.^[onet_psych]

Psychiatrist salary in California and Texas

California psychiatrists earn a mean of $315,380 and a median of $353,500, against $221,100 and $228,460 in Texas, BLS estimates for May 2025.^{[oews_api][onet_psych]} California is also the largest psychiatry labor market, with 5,420 jobs, about 19% of the national total; Texas has 1,690. In California the median is above the mean, so a group of lower-paid jobs pulls the average down while the typical psychiatrist earns more.

*Single filer, 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (with the 0.9% surtax over $200,000); before state tax.

*Single filer, 2026 federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare (with the 0.9% surtax over $200,000); before state tax.

Texas has no state income tax on wages, so the take-home column there is close to the real figure; in California, add the state rate in the calculator above to see what is left.^[irs]

Psychiatrist pay compared with other doctors

Psychiatrists out-earn primary care doctors at the median but trail the procedure-heavy specialties: the psychiatry median is $37,690 above family medicine and $109,620 below anesthesiology.^[oews_api] The figure below compares the full pay band of psychiatry with the other office-based specialties that treat the brain and the whole patient.

Line up psychiatry against any other career in your state with the comparison tool, or see every specialty on doctor salary by specialty. For the training-heavy end of the scale, see radiologist salary; for the lowest-paid physician specialty, pediatrician salary.

Child psychiatrist salary

There is no separate official child psychiatrist salary: BLS counts child and adolescent psychiatrists inside the psychiatrist occupation (SOC 29-1223), so the $281,870 median above covers them too.^{[onet_psych][oews_api]} Child and adolescent psychiatry is a 24-month ACGME fellowship; applicants should have finished at least the first year of a psychiatry residency or a residency in another primary care specialty.^[acgme_cap] We do not publish a separate dollar figure for the subspecialty, because no official source reports one.

ACGME allows a fellowship to start before all adult psychiatry years are finished; that choice can affect board eligibility, so check with the program.^[acgme_cap]

How long does it take to become a psychiatrist?

It takes about 12 years after high school to become a psychiatrist: four years of college, four of medical school and a 4-year psychiatry residency.^{[acgme_psych][ooh_phys]} Psychiatry residency is 48 months. Unlike dermatology or radiology, the first clinical year is built into the program, so there is no separate preliminary year to match into.

Residents are paid while they train. At the AAMC's mean stipends for PGY-1 to PGY-4 ($68,166 rising to $77,593), the four residency years add up to about $289,559 before tax, roughly what a psychiatrist at the median earns in 1.0 years of practice.^{[aamc_stipend]} A fellowship after residency typically adds 1 to 3 more years.^[ooh_phys] The full timeline by specialty is on how long does it take to become a doctor, and the cost side on how much medical school costs.

Stipends: AAMC survey, July 1, 2025. Practice pay: BLS OEWS May 2025. A first year at the median leaves about $203,818 after 2026 federal tax and FICA for a single filer.

Psychiatry residency and medical school debt

Four years of psychiatry residency turn the median $215,000 medical school debt into about $284,402 if no payments are made, and a 10-year payoff then costs $3,364 a month, about 20% of a median psychiatrist's take-home pay.^{[aamc_afford][fsa]} Adding a two-year child psychiatry fellowship raises the payment to $3,703. Change the balance, rate and salary below; the presets cover those two paths.

Why psychiatrist salary figures differ between sources

Salary figures for psychiatrists differ between websites mainly because they use different years, different averages and different groups of workers. Check these six things before comparing any number with the BLS figures on this page.^{[oews_tec][oews_faq]}