Negotiate a job offer with AI

Who is this for?

This page is for someone holding an offer they have not accepted. You might be a new graduate, a career switcher, or a worker moving to a new employer. The offer might be salaried, hourly, or a paid internship. You want a range you checked, a number you would accept, a number you would walk away from, a short note, and one rehearsal. You do not want a chat that invents a "market rate" and sends it to the recruiter.

This is not the raise you ask for in a job you already have. That conversation is Ask for a raise with AI. You paste figures there too, and you still speak for yourself. Practice for the interview that led here is Prep for a job interview with AI. The week of applications is Run a job search with AI. The set lives on Job search and Work.

A pay figure is a number you paste, on Give it the numbers. The spoken pass is Rehearse the hard conversation. The chat plays the other person. You answer. It tells you what landed. It does not compliment you into a script.

Brown CareerLAB's August 14, 2026 post on negotiation and job offers with AI says AI can help you look at the whole package, draft a note, and practice the conversation. The same post says to verify salary information with current trusted sources, and not to assume an AI salary is accurate or current. This page follows that second rule. The chat does not research the wage. You do.

What do you need before you start?

Write this down before you open a chat. If a line is missing, leave it missing.

• The offer, in the form you received it. Role title, city or remote setup, base pay if they stated it, and the date they asked for an answer. If a term was spoken and is not written, mark it SPOKEN, NOT IN WRITING
• What you will not claim. A competing offer you do not have. A metric from a job you did not do
• The pages you will open yourself, listed in Step 1. Do not open the chat hoping it has already read them
• One sentence for what you want from the conversation. A higher base, or a base that stays and one other term. One ask

You do not need a paid plan. You do need the offer and the pages. A chat that "knows salaries" and has not seen a page you opened is guessing.

When should you not use AI for this?

Close the chat if any of these are true.

• You want a number and you have not opened a wage page, the posting, or a band you are allowed to see. Leave the brackets empty.
• The offer is already a fight. A rescinded offer, a contract you do not understand, a non-compete, or a visa term. This page will not tell you your rights. Use a qualified person or your school's career office.
• You were about to paste a coworker's pay, a compensation file that is not yours, or a Social Security number. Keep your data private with AI.
• A teacher assigned the negotiation as work you turn in. You still write it. Follow your teacher's rules.
• You already accepted and the question is a raise later. Use the raise guide.

How do you research a fair range from pages you open?

The range is not a feeling and it is not a sentence the chat is sure about. It is a row you copied, with the job title on that page, the place, the figure, and the date you looked.

Open these yourself. Copy what you see. If the title or the place does not match, do not use the row.

• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The program publishes wage estimates for the nation, for states, and for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. A national figure is not your city's figure unless the page you are reading is your area.
• The OEWS tables. Open the state table and, when you need it, the metro table. Read the reference month printed on the table you opened. This site does not copy a wage from those tables.
• The Occupational Outlook Handbook for what the occupation includes. Pay on that page is still a figure you read there, not a figure to paste into an email without checking the place.
• Your state labor-market site, if you have one. OEWS is a federal-state program. The state page and the BLS table can both be worth opening. This guide does not pick your state.
• The employer posting, the offer letter, and any band an HR tool lets you see. A public website does not replace the number the employer already printed.
• A salary board you choose and then open. Brown's April 15, 2026 salary research post names sites including Glassdoor, Indeed, Payscale, LinkedIn Salary, Salary.com, Levels.fyi, Vault, and Blind as places to start. A crowdsourced range is a lead. Copy the row that matches the title and the place. If it does not match, skip it.

University of Washington's offer guide says to enter the conversation with a target range based on research of the organization or the position, and to compare the offer with industry standards in the area. You do that comparison. The chat files the rows.

Do not invent pay. Do not estimate a typical wage, a cost of living, or a percent. Do not search your memory for a salary.

Kind of offer: [full-time job, paid internship, or hourly job].
Role title on the offer: [title].
Place: [city, or remote, in my words].
Base pay they stated: [amount and whether it is hourly or salary, or UNKNOWN].
Deadline they gave me: [date, or UNKNOWN].

Figures I copied myself. Each line has the source, the job title on that page, the place, the number, and the date I opened it:
[paste only rows you copied, or write NONE YET]

If a row is missing, write BLANK. Do not fill BLANK.
Put the copied figures in a table: source, title, place, number, date.
Do not say which number I deserve.
If I pasted NONE YET, say I am not ready to name a range. Then stop.

Check the table against the pages. If a row does not match what you saw, delete the row. Perplexity can point you at a public page. Open that page before a title or a wage goes in the table. A citation you did not open is not a source.

How do you set a target and a walk-away?

Two numbers. The target is the figure you would be glad to accept. The walk-away is the figure below which you would decline or ask for something else. Both have to come from the table you just checked, or from a limit you are willing to say out loud, such as rent you already pay. The chat does not pick them.

University of Redlands' salary guide tells you to separate an ideal number from a walk-away number after you have done the research. That page also shows sample dollars and a sample role-play. Those dollars illustrate the worksheet. They are not your wage. Do not copy them into your email.

MIT's negotiate-an-offer page says to decide what is a need and what is a want, and to know the minimum you would accept for the thing you are negotiating. Write that minimum down. If you cannot explain it from a page you opened or a bill you already pay, it is not ready.

Using only my approved table, help me write two numbers in my own words.
Do not invent a third number. Do not tell me what I deserve.

Target: the figure I will ask for. I will type it. If I have not decided, write I HAVE NOT SET A TARGET.
Walk-away: the figure below which I will not accept base pay as stated. I will type it. If I have not decided, write I HAVE NOT SET A WALK-AWAY.
For each number I type, name which row in my table it is near, or write NOT IN MY TABLE if I did not connect it to a row.
If I wrote NONE YET in the last step, do not help me pick a number. Tell me to open a page first.
Then stop. Do not draft an email.

If the target is higher than every row you copied, you can still ask. You should know that, and you should not pretend the pages said it.

How do you draft a short counter email and a spoken counter?

The email is short. The spoken version is shorter. Both thank them, restate that you want the job, and ask whether one term can move. Brown's August 2026 post says to personalize the note so it sounds like you, and not to send AI language you have not revised. WayUp's 2026 first-offer guide says not to answer on the spot, to ask for the offer in writing if you do not have it, and not to invent a competing offer. That guide also says a reasonable ask rarely costs you the offer. That is WayUp's claim. It is not a promise that your offer is safe.

Harvard's guide to evaluating and negotiating job and internship offers is the college version of the same decision: which offer, what is negotiable, and how you ask. Open it if you are a student. This page does not replace it.

Draft two things I might use. Do not invent pay, a competing offer, or a compliment I did not earn.
Use only my approved table and the target I set. If the target is I HAVE NOT SET A TARGET, stop and say so.

1. An email under 120 words. Thank them for the offer. Say I want the role. Ask whether there is flexibility on [the one term I am asking about]. Do not apologize for asking. Do not threaten.
2. A spoken version, 4 sentences or fewer, that I can say out loud. Same ask. No new number.

Mark any figure that is not in my table as LOOK UP FIRST.
I will edit it so it sounds like me. I will send it, or I will not.
Then stop.

Read both aloud. Cut any sentence you would not say. If the email names a source, you must be willing to have that page open while you talk.

For a paid internship or a campus offer, use the same shape and say it is an internship. If this note is also an assignment, you write the version you turn in. The chat can show you a draft to react to. It does not submit it.

This is for learning if a teacher assigned it. Do not write the version I will turn in. Follow my teacher's rules.
If this is a real internship offer I will send myself, say so, and draft only from the facts below.

Offer: paid internship, [title], [place].
What they offered: [stipend, hourly pay, or course credit, or UNKNOWN].
Figures I copied: [rows, or NONE YET].
One ask: [pay, start date, or remote days].

Give me an email under 120 words and 4 spoken sentences.
Do not invent a wage. Do not invent a competing offer.
If this is for a class, stop after questions I should answer in my own words. Do not draft the email I would hand in.

For hourly work, a part-time job, or a first job that is not a campus assignment, lead with the spoken counter. Many of these conversations happen on a phone, not in a long email.

Do not invent an hourly rate. Do not tell me what people in my town make.

Offer: [hourly or part-time], [title], [place].
Rate they stated: [amount, or UNKNOWN].
Rate I copied from a page I opened: [source, title, place, number, date, or NONE YET].
My ask, which I will say: [one sentence, or I HAVE NOT SET IT].

Give me 4 sentences I can say on the phone.
Then a text or email under 80 words, only if I decide to write.
If NONE YET, say I am not ready to name a rate. Then stop.

How do you ask about the rest of the offer when base is fixed?

Sometimes the base number will not move. The rest of the offer might. Ask. Do not announce that a perk is "standard" or that they owe it to you.

MIT's page sorts terms into usually negotiable, sometimes negotiable, and usually non-negotiable, from a career-office point of view. On that table, salary, signing bonus, start date, relocation, and the offer deadline are usually negotiable. Title, location, remote work, and review timing are sometimes negotiable. Vacation and health insurance are usually non-negotiable there, because they often apply to everyone. That table is not your employer's policy. Read your offer.

Brown's August 2026 post lists package pieces that include bonus, benefits, relocation, start date, visa support, professional development, remote flexibility, and signing incentives. WayUp's 2026 guide names signing bonus, start date, remote or hybrid work, relocation, a development budget, and title. Redlands includes extra time off and tuition help as things you can ask about when salary is stuck. Ask which of these your offer can move. Time off may be fixed even when a signing bonus is not. MIT alumni notes on negotiation say some fields, including some law, consulting, and government roles, use a set level of pay. If you are in one of those, know that before you treat a no as an insult.

MIT's steps also say to get the final terms in writing before you accept. A spoken yes is not the offer letter.

The base pay will not move, or I have decided not to push base pay.
Do not invent a new salary. Do not say any perk is standard or guaranteed.

Offer terms I already have, in my words:
[paste the terms, with secrets removed].

Build a question list I can ask, one line each, only for items I might care about:
signing bonus, start date, remote or hybrid days, time off, title, date of the first review, relocation, professional development.
If my paste already states an item, quote it and write ALREADY IN THE OFFER. Do not ask me to negotiate it again unless I said I want to.
If an item is not in my paste, write NOT IN THE OFFER, then one question I could ask.
Do not rank the questions. Do not tell me which one they will say yes to.
Then stop.

Pick one or two questions. A list of eight asks is a different conversation than the one you rehearsed.

How do you rehearse the recruiter?

You speak. The chat plays the recruiter. It should push back once. A rehearsal that only praises you will not help when the answer is no.

The move is Rehearse the hard conversation. The number rule is still Give it the numbers. If a figure was BLANK, the recruiter in this practice does not know it, and must not invent it.

Play the recruiter. Be polite and firm. Do not coach me in the same message. Do not praise me.

You have only my approved table, my target, my walk-away, and the one ask I chose.
If a number was BLANK or I HAVE NOT SET A TARGET, you do not know it.

Start with one objection. Use one of these, and tell me which: the base is the band, we can look at a signing bonus, or we need an answer by the deadline.
Wait. I will type what I said out loud.
Then one follow-up a recruiter would actually ask.
After 3 of my answers, stop the roleplay.
Tell me what landed, what I dodged, and any figure I stated that was not in my table.
Do not rewrite my answers into a speech. Do not email anyone.

Say it out loud before you type it. If you can only say it while reading the screen, it is still a script. Prep for a job interview with AI uses that rule before you have an offer. Here the person on the other side is the recruiter who already said yes, with terms you want to change.

For a campus recruiter or a hiring manager at an hourly job, change the first line to name that person. Do not ask the chat to play a cartoon. Ask it to play the person you will actually call.

What mistakes should you avoid?

These are the misses that waste the result. Skip them before you send anything.

Common mistakes

• Asking the chat for a fair salary and pasting no pages.
• Copying a sample dollar amount from a career-office worksheet, including the examples on the Redlands page, into your email.
• Treating a national BLS wage as your city's wage, or a Glassdoor row for a different title as your offer.
• Inventing a competing offer. WayUp says not to bluff one. So does this page.
• Sending the draft before you have read it aloud and cut the lines that are not yours.
• Pushing base pay and six perks in the same note.
• Accepting a spoken change and never seeing it in the offer letter. MIT says to get the terms in writing.
• Letting the chat email the recruiter.

What should you keep private?

Your offer letter can go in a personal chat if you remove what is not needed. Leave out a Social Security number, a bank account, a full home address, a date of birth, and anyone else's pay. The title, the city, the base figure, and the deadline are enough.

Privacy: what not to paste

If the only chat you have is a work or school account, assume an admin can see it. A personal offer is not your current employer's file. Use a personal account if you are allowed to, or keep the notes on paper.

What should you check before you use it?

Answer each line before you send anything.

Director check: look before you use it

• Did every pay figure come from a page you opened? If you cannot name the source, the title, and the place, it is still BLANK.
• Did you set a target and a walk-away without copying a sample dollar from a career page? If a number is not yours, take it out.
• Is there one ask in the email? A second ask can wait until they answer the first.
• Does the spoken version match the email? If they differ, fix them before you practice.
• Did the rehearsal invent a number or a perk? Cut that sentence. Catch facts the AI made up.
• Will a change show up in writing before you accept? If it was only spoken, ask for it in the letter.
• Are you the one who will send the note and say the words? The chat does not negotiate.

What is one extra tip?

Keep the approved table with the final offer letter. Next time you will not have to rebuild the range from memory. If you accept and later want the public profile to match, use only jobs you held on Rewrite your LinkedIn profile without inventing jobs. The resume those facts came from is Update your resume with AI.

One extra tip

After you accept, a thank-you for the interviews that got you here is a different note, on Write an interview thank-you with AI. Do not mix the counter and the thank-you in one email.

The same prompts work in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, or Grok. More job guides are on Job search and Work.

Which sources back this page?

Open the page that matches the decision. A line on this site is not a wage, and it is not legal or financial advice.

• Brown CareerLAB, Negotiation and Job Offers with AI, August 14, 2026. Verify salary with trusted sources. Do not treat an AI wage as current. Personalize the note. Look at the whole package.
• Brown CareerLAB, Salary: Research + Negotiation, April 15, 2026. Names public sites and government data as places to start. You still open them.
• BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics and the OEWS tables. Nation, state, and metro estimates. Read the table you opened.
• BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. What the occupation includes.
• University of Washington, Evaluating Offers and Salary Negotiation. A target range from your research, and a look at benefits, not only base pay.
• MIT CAPD, Negotiate job offers. Needs and wants, a minimum, a career-office table of what is often negotiable, and terms in writing before you accept.
• MIT CAPD, Demystifying the salary negotiation process. Some fields use set pay levels. Total compensation is more than base salary.
• University of Redlands, Salary Negotiation Resource Guide. An ideal number and a walk-away number. Sample dollars on that page are illustrations. Do not copy them.
• Harvard FAS Mignone Center, Evaluating and Negotiating Job and Internship Offers. How to weigh offers and what to negotiate. Open the guide.
• WayUp, How to Negotiate Your First Job Offer in 2026. Ask for time, do not bluff a competing offer, and ask about terms other than base pay. Their note that a reasonable ask rarely costs the offer is their claim, not a guarantee.
• Glassdoor, Payscale, Levels.fyi, and Indeed. Open the row. If the title or the place does not match, skip it.