You keep people alive and unaware while someone else operates. Twelve years of training, and a median of $391,490 a year.
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The median pay is about $391,490 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $101,460 at the lower end to about $557,130 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
12 to 13 years after high school, on the usual route.
$190,000 to $345,000 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a license or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$391,490
Bottom tenth
$101,460
Top tenth
$557,130
The median is $391,490 a year. The bottom tenth earn $101,460 or less and the top tenth $557,130 or more, in 2025 figures. This survey counts anesthesiologists who are employees. Many work as partners in private anesthesia groups and are not counted at all.
$78,949 a year
First-year resident pay at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, 2026 to 2027
It rises each year, to $88,367 in the fourth. Each hospital sets its own scale. That covers the intern year and 3 years of anesthesiology residency, while your medical school loans keep growing. Nationally, the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) survey of 345 teaching hospitals puts the average first-year stipend at $68,166 as of July 1, 2025, and about $81,807 in the fifth year. Read from the AAMC's data, downloaded in a browser with Claude in Chrome on 6 November 2026, because aamc.org refuses our checker.
$499,990 a year
The median for employed anesthesiologists in Washington State, the highest of the 25 states with a published figure
Minnesota ($496,510) and Ohio ($490,530) come next. Texas is among the lowest, at $215,230. Many groups also pay extra for covering nights, trauma and obstetrics.
Roughly, all in
$190,000 to $345,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the cheap undergraduate route, community college credits then an in-state public university, followed by an in-state public medical school. The high end is a private medical school at around $65,000 a year in tuition, plus the three board exams the American Board of Anesthesiology runs in sequence. Residency is a paid job, not tuition, so the four years after medical school cost you time rather than money. Most graduates borrow, and the debt is large, though at this salary it is cleared quickly, or canceled through Public Service Loan Forgiveness after ten years at a nonprofit hospital.
Most graduates borrow, and the debt is large. At this salary you can clear it fast, or use Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) if you work for a nonprofit hospital for 10 years.
Malpractice insurance paid
Always covered by the employer or the group, and it is expensive coverage.
Shift-shaped work
When your cases are done, you go home. There is no clinic full of messages waiting.
Signing bonuses and loan repayment
Common outside big cities.
Locum work
Short-term contract shifts let experienced anesthesiologists set their own schedule.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Twelve years after high school before you practice independently.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Biology, chemistry, physics and math, with the grades to get into a competitive college program.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Any major, but you must complete the pre-medical science courses and take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
Medical school
4 years
Classroom science then hospital rotations. You graduate as a Doctor of Medicine (MD) or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO).
Intern year
1 year
A general clinical year, usually in medicine or surgery, before anesthesia training proper.
Anesthesiology residency
3 years
Operating rooms, intensive care, obstetrics and pain. Paid, supervised, with increasing independence.
Board certification
During and after residency
Three exams from the American Board of Anesthesiology, taken in order across residency and after it.
Chemistry
Drug behavior in the body is chemistry, and this specialty is drugs.
Biology
Heart, lungs and nervous system are what you manage minute by minute.
Physics
Gas laws, pressures and flow show up in real equipment, not just on tests.
Math and statistics
Dosing is arithmetic under time pressure, and you never get to be sloppy.
Every state licenses physicians through its own medical board, and you hold a license in each state where you practice. The exams are national: the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) sequence in medical school and residency, then certification by the American Board of Anesthesiology. That board has set the standards for the specialty since 1938 and runs three initial exams, called Basic, Advanced and Applied, the last of which includes seven recorded clinical scenario stations of eight minutes each.
Public medical schools
Far cheaper for residents of that state, and many favor in-state applicants heavily.
Private medical schools
No state preference, much higher tuition.
Osteopathic schools
Award a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree and train in the same residency programs.
Residency matching
Anesthesiology spots are assigned by a national computer match. You rank programs, they rank you.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Pain medicine
One extra year. Clinic-based, chronic pain, injections and nerve blocks, with normal hours.
Critical care medicine
Running intensive care units. Intense, respected, and in demand.
Cardiac anesthesiology
Heart surgery. Technically the hardest anesthesia there is.
Pediatric anesthesiology
Children and infants, where doses and airways leave no margin.
Steady hands and calm under pressure
This is the one specialty where the emergency is happening in front of you with no time to consult anyone.
Comfort with machines
Ventilators, monitors and pumps are your instruments.
Research during medical school
Helps for competitive residency and fellowship programs.
Shift-work tolerance
Nights and weekends are part of almost every job in this field.
In much of the country an anesthesiologist supervises several operating rooms at once, working with Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) or anesthesiologist assistants who stay in the room. In other places the physician does every case personally. Which model your state and hospital use affects your day, your pay and a long-running political argument inside the profession about who may give anesthesia without physician supervision.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In by 6:30am to check machines and meet your first patient. You review their history, explain the plan, and answer the one question everyone asks: will I wake up. Then induction, airway, and a case where your job is to keep blood pressure, oxygen and depth exactly where they should be while surgery happens. Wake the patient, hand over in recovery, next case. Some days are four short cases, some are one that takes eight hours.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
O*NET OnLine (the Department of Labor's occupation database) counted about 41,500 employed anesthesiologists in 2025, with about 1,100 openings a year projected to 2035. Many more work as partners in private groups.
The final certifying exam includes seven eight-minute clinical stations, recorded for grading, plus two 35-minute oral sessions. Knowing the medicine is not enough. You have to show it under observation.
General anesthesia has been used for well over a century, but scientists still cannot fully explain how these drugs switch off consciousness. It is one of the open questions in neuroscience.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Doctors first, then the rest of the field. See every career in health.
Last checked November 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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