How Many People Work at Google in 2026: Headcount, Pay and Layoffs

Alphabet, Google’s parent company, had 198,933 employees as of June 30, 2026, up from 187,103 a year earlier, according to its Q2 2026 earnings release. That is 11,830 more people in twelve months. Alphabet reports one consolidated count, so its filings are the closest public answer to how many people work at Google.

In January 2023, Google said it would reduce its workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. The total now sits 8,699 above the 190,234 Alphabet employed at the end of 2022. Most figures below, from headcount by quarter to median pay, come from Alphabet’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q, earnings releases, and proxy statements.

Key Takeaways

• Headcount grew 6.3% in the year to June 30, 2026, while consolidated revenues increased 24% to $119.8 billion in Q2 2026.
• Alphabet added 4,265 employees in the second quarter of 2026 alone.
• The workforce is 67.3% larger than the 118,899 employees Alphabet had at the end of 2019.
• Revenue per employee reached $2.11 million in 2025, up from $1.36 million in 2019.
• According to Alphabet’s proxy statements, median employee pay was $331,894 in 2024 and $310,826 in 2025, a drop of $21,068.
• Google’s January 2023 cut of approximately 12,000 roles equaled about 6.3% of Alphabet’s year-end 2022 workforce.

Editor’s Choice: How Many People Work at Google

• Employees, June 30, 2026: 198,933.
• Employees, December 31, 2025: 190,820.
• Employees, December 31, 2022: 190,234.
• Role cuts announced in January 2023: Approximately 12,000.
• Median employee pay, 2025: $310,826.
• CEO-to-median pay ratio, 2025: 35 to 1.

About This Data

• Compiled from 19 sources: 16 Alphabet earnings releases, earnings-call remarks, SEC filings and proxy statements, 2 Google company pages, and 1 news report on a Washington state layoff filing.
• The sources run from February 2021 to August 2026, and figures are updated when Alphabet publishes new results.

Google Employee Count in 2026

• As of June 30, 2026, Alphabet had 198,933 employees, according to its quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the SEC.
• Alphabet had 190,820 employees as of December 31, 2025, the figure in its fiscal 2025 annual report.
• The twelve-month net gain to June 2026 is 11,830 employees.

Source: Alphabet Q2 2026 and Q1 2026 earnings releases, Alphabet Form 10-K 2025

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Google Number of Employees by Year

• Alphabet ended 2019 with 118,899 employees and 2020 with 135,301.
• The count reached 156,500 at the end of 2021.
• Headcount stood at 190,234 at the end of 2022 and 182,502 at the end of 2023.
• Alphabet closed 2024 with 183,323 employees and 2025 with 190,820.
• From the end of 2019 to the end of 2025, year-end headcount rose 60.5%.

Recent Developments

• July 22, 2026: Alphabet reported Q2 2026 revenues of $119.8 billion, up 24%, with 198,933 employees at quarter-end.
• July 22, 2026: Anat Ashkenazi, SVP and CFO, said Alphabet expects to continue hiring in key investment areas such as AI and cloud.
• July 22, 2026: R&D expenses increased by 32%, driven by compensation from investment in AI talent, as well as depreciation, according to the Q2 2026 earnings call.
• August 5, 2026: A Washington state filing showed Google laying off 52 employees in its Kirkland, Redmond, and Seattle offices as well as remote employees, GeekWire reported.
• September 2026: Google’s layoffs in Washington state were scheduled to take effect in September and early October.

Google Headcount by Quarter

• Alphabet had 180,895 employees at the end of Q1 2024 and 185,719 at the end of Q1 2025.
• The Q2 count was 179,582 in 2024 and 187,103 in 2025.
• Q3 counts were 181,269 in 2024 and 190,167 in 2025.
• Q4 counts were 183,323 in 2024 and 190,820 in 2025.
• Q2 2026 closed at 198,933 employees, after a gain of 4,265 in the quarter.
• Q4 2025 added only 653 employees, before Q1 2026 added 3,848.

Google Net Hiring by Year

• Alphabet added a net 16,402 employees in 2020.
• Net hiring rose to 21,199 in 2021.
• The 2022 net addition was 33,734 employees. That is the biggest single-year gain from 2020 to 2025.
• Headcount fell by 7,732 in 2023.
• 2024 added just 821 employees.
• 2025 added 7,497 employees, an increase of 4.1%.
• Readers comparing hiring cycles across big tech can set these figures against Meta’s employee count.

Google Layoffs: Approximately 12,000 Roles Cut in 2023

• On January 20, 2023, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told Googlers the company would reduce its workforce by approximately 12,000 roles.
• The roles cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels, and regions.
• The reduction equaled about 6.3% of the 190,234 employees Alphabet reported at the end of 2022.
• US employees who were affected were told first, while in other countries the process would take longer due to local laws and practices.
• In August 2026, a Washington state filing showed Google laying off 52 employees, as reported by GeekWire.
• Our Google layoffs and headcount tracker follows the smaller cuts since then.

Source: Google, January 2023

Why did Google cut approximately 12,000 roles?

Pichai wrote that Google had seen periods of dramatic growth over the past two years and had hired for a different economic reality than the one it faced. He said a rigorous review across product areas and functions set out to align people and roles with the company’s highest priorities.

How much severance does Google pay?

In the 2023 layoffs, Google said it would offer US employees a severance package starting at 16 weeks‘ salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google. It also said it would pay employees during the full notification period (minimum 60 days), pay 2022 bonuses, and offer 6 months of healthcare. Outside the US, Google said it would support employees in line with local practices.

Is Google quietly laying off staff?

Google is laying off 52 employees in Washington state, according to a state filing released in August 2026. The cuts include software engineers, engineering and product managers, mechatronics engineers, UX designers, and recruiters. Location-level cuts like this surface through state notices, even as Alphabet’s total headcount kept rising.

Google Revenue per Employee

• Alphabet generated $2.11 million of revenue per year-end employee in 2025, on full-year revenues of $402,836 million.
• The 2024 figure was $1.91 million.
• Revenue per employee was $1.68 million in 2023 and $1.49 million in 2022.
• The 2021 figure was $1.65 million, against $1.35 million in 2020 and $1.36 million in 2019.
• Revenues grew 15.1% in 2025, while year-end headcount grew 4.1%.
• The ratio uses year-end headcount, so hiring within a year is not averaged in; Amazon’s workforce figures allow the same check.

Key finding: Our calculation from Alphabet’s earnings releases shows revenue per employee rising about 55% between 2019 and 2025. Headcount grew over the same stretch, but sales grew faster, so each employee now supports far more revenue than before the 2021 and 2022 hiring wave.

Google Employee Salary and Median Pay

• The 2025 annual total compensation of Alphabet’s median compensated employee was $310,826.
• The 2024 median was $331,894.
• The 2023 median was $315,531, or $304,930 after normalizing a one-time adjustment to annual equity awards.
• The 2025 median was 6.3% lower than in 2024.
• For 2025, Alphabet used base salary and target bonus as the consistently applied compensation measure to determine the median employee, while for 2022 it used base salary and actual bonus.

Worth noting: To find the median, Alphabet analyzed all of its employees except the CEO as of December 31, 2025, and annualized wages and salaries for employees that were not employed for the full year. Because the figure is total compensation, a year with smaller equity grants can pull the median down even when salaries rise.

Sundar Pichai Pay vs the Median Google Employee

• CEO Sundar Pichai’s 2025 annual total compensation was $10,906,079, a CEO-to-median ratio of 35 to 1.
• In 2022, CEO total compensation of $225,985,145 included the triennial equity award, for a ratio of 808 to 1.
• Alphabet’s pay ratio was 27 to 1 in 2020 and 21 to 1 in 2021.
• CEO total compensation rose 1.7% in 2025, while the median fell.

Source: Alphabet proxy statements, 2023 to 2026

Google Employee Compensation in Operating Costs

• Research and development expenses rose from $49,326 million in 2024 to $61,087 million in 2025.
• That $11.8 billion increase was primarily driven by increases in employee compensation expenses of $6.9 billion and depreciation expense of $2.4 billion.
• The compensation increase was primarily driven by an increase in SBC expenses of $4.2 billion, including an increase in a valuation-based compensation charge related to Waymo.
• Sales and marketing expenses rose $885 million to $28,693 million in 2025, as a $1.2 billion increase in advertising and promotional activities was partially offset by a decrease in employee compensation expenses of $214 million.
• General and administrative expenses were $21,482 million in 2025, against $14,188 million in 2024.
• Q2 2026 R&D expenses were $18,219 million, against $13,808 million a year earlier.
• Alphabet notes that fluctuations in employee compensation expenses may not directly correlate with changes in headcount, due to factors such as annual SBC awards that vest over time.

Google Stock-Based Compensation

• Stock-based compensation expense was $22,785 million for full-year 2024 and $24,953 million for full-year 2025.
• That works out to about $130,767 per year-end employee in 2025.
• Year-to-date through June 30, it reached $14,708 million in 2026, against $11,514 million in 2025.
• First-half stock-based compensation grew 27.7%, well ahead of the 6.3% rise in headcount.

Source: Alphabet Q4 2025 and Q2 2026 earnings releases

Why it matters: Alphabet CFO Anat Ashkenazi said Q2 2026 R&D expenses rose 32% year over year, driven by compensation from investment in AI talent as well as depreciation. With stock-based compensation expense growing faster than headcount, stock-based compensation per employee rose, so the headcount figure alone understates how much Google spends on its workforce.

Google Extended Workforce: Contractors Are Not Employees

• Google’s extended workforce is made up of the employees of suppliers and staffing partners, plus independent contractors who are self-employed.
• Google states that “extended workforce members are not, and have never been, Google employees”.
• Vendors and temporary staff are solely employed by Google’s suppliers and staffing partners.
• Alphabet’s annual report counts 190,820 employees as of December 31, 2025, and separately says it partners with outside companies on a contractual basis to provide a specialized service or to temporarily cover a short-term need.
• Alphabet does not report a count of its extended workforce in the filings we reviewed, and its employee totals exclude vendors, temporary staff, and contractors.

Google Workforce Timeline

• Alphabet reported 118,899 employees at the end of 2019.
• Google announced the reduction of approximately 12,000 roles in January 2023.
• Headcount reached 198,933 as of June 30, 2026.
• The company’s longer history is covered in our explainer on how old Google is.

Conclusion

Alphabet’s latest count of 198,933 employees is the closest public answer to how many people work at Google, and it sits 8,699 above the year-end total recorded before the 2023 layoffs. Revenue per employee, median pay, and stock-based compensation moved in different directions in 2025, so the headcount alone tells only part of the workforce story.

Our editorial view: if the pace of the last two quarters holds, the next report would put Alphabet above 200,000 employees, even as location-level cuts continue.