Posting actual numbers since the threads on this are mostly from 2023-2024 and things shifted.
My offer (SF, L4 equivalent, accepted March 2026): Base: $215k Equity: $800k over 4 years, cliff at 1 year, monthly vest after. RSUs, not options. Bonus: none. Stripe doesn't do target bonuses for ICs. Occasional spot bonuses but don't count on them. Signing: $50k, repayable if you leave before 12 months.
Two friends, same timeframe:
Person 1, L5 equivalent (they call it "higher end of L4" in their internal leveling which doesn't map cleanly to TC sites). NYC. Base $230k, equity $1.1M over 4. Signing $75k.
Person 2, senior SWE, remote approved (they were already remote and got it grandfathered in). Seattle TC came to about $390k annualized in year 1 with signing.
Few things worth noting: Stripe equity is private company stock, not publicly traded RSUs. Valuation is currently around $70B but liquidity is not guaranteed. There are secondary markets but with restrictions. Factor this into total comp vs. public-co offers. They refreshes equity annually but at what cadence and value varies by performance rating. Don't assume the refresh is guaranteed. No 401k match historically. Worth asking in the offer call if that changed. Comp is higher than it was pre-2022 layoffs. They recalibrated bands after losing people to Meta and Google.
For negotiation: they moved base for me by $15k after I came back with a competing FAANG offer. Equity was harder to move but they added $100k to the signing instead. The recruiter said bands are set, but that's always what they say.