How Much Does an NP Make in the United States in 2026?

Clinics, hospitals, and physician offices hire nurse practitioners to see patients, diagnose illness, and prescribe treatment. A nurse practitioner typically earns $63.61 per hour, or $132,300 a year, according to the latest government wage data (May 2025). Pay at that level tracks the graduate training the job requires and the responsibility it carries.

Those figures describe the middle of the field. What a nurse practitioner actually earns depends on the state, the work setting, years of experience, and the certifications held. The workforce is large: 323,040 people hold this job nationwide, spread across every state and nearly every kind of care facility.

A typical nurse practitioner earns $63.61 per hour. Over a full year of full-time work, that comes to $132,300. Calculated from the annual figure, monthly pay works out to about $11,025 and weekly pay to roughly $2,544. Those numbers are before taxes and exclude overtime and bonuses.

Entry-level positions typically offer around $48.72 an hour, or $101,340 a year. The top 10% of earners make over $83.86 an hour, or $174,420. Experience, work setting, and state explain most of that difference. The gap between the two ends runs $73,080 a year.

Entry-level positions typically offer around $48.72 an hour, or $101,340 a year. New graduates usually start near that level while they learn an employer's systems and build a patient panel. Within a couple of years, many pass $56.73 an hour, or $117,990 annually, on the way to the typical $63.61 an hour and $132,300 a year.

Experienced nurse practitioners often earn upwards of $75.34 an hour, or $156,700 a year. The top 10% make over $83.86 an hour, or $174,420. Reaching that group usually takes a decade or more of practice, plus some mix of a high-paying state, a demanding specialty, and a setting that pays above the national figure.

In 2015, nurse practitioners typically earned $98,190 a year. By 2025 that figure reached $132,300, a gain of $34,110, or 34.7 percent, over the decade. The most recent year alone added $3,090, a rise of 2.4 percent.

The pace held steady rather than spiking. Pay rose $11,630 between 2015 and 2019, then $11,620 between 2021 and 2025, two nearly identical stretches. Demand climbed through both periods, and employers raised pay to fill the roles. National figures move slowly, and a single state or employer can move faster or slower than the country as a whole.

Where you work is often the single biggest factor in what a nurse practitioner earns. California leads at $168,520, or $81.02 an hour, ahead of New Jersey at $159,310, Washington at $156,100, Oregon at $155,680, and Alaska at $155,170. California metros run higher still, topped by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara at $231,560, or $111.33 an hour. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont follows at $219,080, Vallejo at $182,370, Napa at $176,270, and Eastern Sierra-Mother Lode at $174,670.

Alabama pays the least at $105,750, or $50.84 an hour, with Tennessee at $117,590 and Kentucky at $122,870 also near the bottom. The state-to-state spread runs $62,770. The biggest workforces sit in Texas, with 25,970 jobs at $131,670, California, 25,120 at $168,520, and New York, 22,890 at $153,510. Living costs run high in the top-paying states, so a bigger paycheck does not always stretch further. The table below has every state.

Most nurse practitioners work in offices of physicians, where 148,600 hold jobs and typical pay is $62.11 an hour, or $129,190 a year. General medical and surgical hospitals employ 73,610 and pay more, at $65.50 an hour and $136,230 a year. Setting shapes the caseload and the paycheck together.

Outpatient care centers pay the most among common settings, at $66.98 an hour, or $139,320 a year, about 5 percent above the national figure. Offices of other health practitioners pay $62.25 an hour and $129,490 a year; home health care services pay $62.24 and $129,460; offices of all other health practitioners pay $60.31 and $125,450. The table below shows each setting.

Hospital roles often come with shift differentials and on-call pay. Nights, weekends, and holidays are harder to staff, so employers add to the hourly rate for those hours. Staying available by phone overnight is usually paid as well. The amount varies by employer, and clinic-based roles may offer none of it.

The job requires an active RN license, a graduate nursing degree (MSN or DNP), national board certification in a population focus such as family practice through AANP or ANCC, and state APRN licensure. Employers treat those as the baseline for hire. Additional certifications widen the range of jobs a candidate can apply for.

Specialty matters as well. Acute care, psychiatric-mental health, and anesthesia-adjacent roles commonly pay more than general primary care. State practice authority counts too. Full-practice states let nurse practitioners work independently, while others require a collaborative agreement with a physician, which shapes both the jobs available and what those jobs pay.

Registered nurses typically earn $97,550 a year. Moving up to nurse practitioner at $132,300 adds $34,750 and takes a master's or doctoral program, commonly 2 to 4 years beyond the BSN. Nurse anesthetist pays $236,590, another $104,290 higher, and requires a doctoral program plus ICU experience.

Most people make these moves while still working, studying part time and keeping clinical hours. Some employers offer tuition assistance, though terms vary and are worth confirming before enrolling. Years at the bedside or in a clinic count in the next role, since programs and employers both weigh direct patient experience.

Nurse practitioners typically earn $63.61 an hour, or $132,300 a year, up from $98,190 in 2015, a rise of 34.7 percent over the decade, and BLS projects strong growth through 2035. Two next steps: check your state's salary page for local figures, since pay runs from $105,750 in Alabama to $168,520 in California, and confirm the training and licensing requirements your state board sets for APRN practice.