UPSC Salary 2026: Starting Salary of Every Civil Service

UPSC salary is the pay of the service you join through the Civil Services Examination (CSE), which the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) conducts to fill 23 services. The IAS, the IFS, the IPS and every Group A service, from the Indian Revenue Service to the Indian Railway Management Service, start at Level 10 of the pay matrix: ₹56,100 a month in basic pay. The five Group B services, for the Armed Forces Headquarters, Delhi and the Union Territories, and Puducherry, start at Level 8: ₹47,600. At the top, the Cabinet Secretary, an IAS post, is paid a fixed ₹2,50,000 a month (Level 18).

Dearness allowance is paid on top: 60% of basic pay from 1 January 2026 for Central Government employees. IAS and IPS officers get the same rate under the All India Services (Dearness Allowance) Rules, 1972. The Pondicherry Civil Service Rules leave that service's DA to the rates the President sets, which the Department of Expenditure's memo of 22 April 2026 put at 60%, and the Government of Puducherry, the cadre controlling authority of the Pondicherry Police Service, applied the 60% rate by an order of 3 May 2026. So basic pay plus DA starts at ₹89,760 a month in the IAS, IFS, IPS and Group A services, and at ₹76,160 in the Group B services.

Starting salary of every service

Every service, its starting pay level and basic pay, the salary per month with DA, and the highest grade in the service, as the Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026 print them.

How the salary grows after joining

• Increments. Each increment moves an officer one cell down the same level of the pay matrix, so basic pay rises without a change of grade.
• Promotions. Each promotion moves an officer across to a higher level. The top grade differs by service, as the last column of the table shows.
• The single highest post. The Cabinet Secretary, an IAS post, is at Level 18 under the IAS (Pay) Rules: a fixed ₹2,50,000 a month in basic pay.

Grade-by-grade salary tables: IAS salary, IPS salary, IRS salary and IFS salary. What each service does is in all services through UPSC CSE.

Be wary of any single "in-hand salary" figure for a service. In-hand pay also depends on house rent allowance or government housing, allowances tied to particular posts or places, and income tax and other deductions, and no official document publishes one. Basic pay plus DA, in the table above, is the part fixed by the rules and the Government's DA orders.

UPSC salary and the 8th Pay Commission

The Government announced the 8th Central Pay Commission in January 2025. The Union Cabinet approved its terms of reference on 28 October 2025, and the Commission was constituted by a notification of 3 November 2025, with 18 months to submit its report. Because pay commission recommendations have usually been implemented every ten years, the Government's release says the effect of the 8th Pay Commission's recommendations "would normally be expected from 01.01.2026".

Until the Commission reports and the Government decides on its recommendations, every service stays on the current pay matrix, with dearness allowance revised by Government orders. No official figure for pay under the 8th Pay Commission exists yet, so treat any such number you see as a guess.