IAS Salary: Pay Level, Collector Salary, Exam and Eligibility

The IAS salary starts at Level 10 of the 7th Pay Commission matrix, which is a basic pay of ₹56,100 per month, and it climbs to ₹2,50,000 basic for the Cabinet Secretary, the top post in the service. On top of basic pay, an IAS officer gets DA, HRA or a government house, transport allowance and many other benefits. Many students ask me "IAS ki salary kitni hoti hai" before they ask anything else, so this page starts there and then covers the exam, eligibility, training and promotions.

What does an IAS officer do

IAS means Indian Administrative Service. It is one of the three All India Services, along with the IPS and the Indian Forest Service. IAS officers run the government on the ground and in the ministries. In the first years you work as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) looking after one sub-division. Later you become the District Collector, also called the District Magistrate (DM), who heads the whole district administration: law and order with the police, land records, elections, disaster relief, welfare schemes and revenue collection.

After district work, officers move to state secretariat posts, public sector bodies and central ministries in New Delhi. The day is long. A collector may start with a review meeting at 9 am, hear land cases, visit a hospital or school, attend to a flood alert and end with phone calls from the state capital. The work is hard, but very few jobs let you change so many lives.

IAS salary per month: pay level and breakdown

All IAS posts follow the central pay matrix. The table below shows the main grades, the pay level and the starting basic pay of each level. The exact post at each grade depends on the state cadre and posting.

The IAS salary per month is more than the basic pay. Here is what gets added and cut:

• Basic pay: ₹56,100 at the start, with a yearly increment of about 3 percent inside the level.
• Dearness Allowance (DA): it grows as prices rise, and the Centre changes the rate every six months.
• House Rent Allowance (HRA): paid by city class X, Y or Z. Most IAS officers get a government house instead, and then HRA is not paid.
• Transport Allowance: a fixed monthly amount plus DA on it. Officers in senior posts often get an official vehicle.
• Deductions: NPS contribution (10 percent of basic plus DA), income tax and small deductions such as the group insurance scheme.

For today's numbers with the current DA, look at the salary summary above, or try the calculator below with your own city class.

You can read how each allowance works on our salary and allowances guide.

Collector salary and DM salary per month

District Collector and District Magistrate are the same post in most states. An officer usually gets the first collector posting after about five to nine years of service, when he or she is in the Senior Time Scale or Junior Administrative Grade. Officers of the Selection Grade also serve as collectors of big districts. So the collector salary has a basic pay of about ₹67,700 to ₹1,23,100 plus DA and allowances. The district magistrate salary is the same as the collector salary, and the DM salary per month also comes with a large government bungalow, an official vehicle, office staff and security, which is why the real value of the job is higher than the payslip.

The deputy collector salary is a different matter. A deputy collector is not an IAS officer. This post is filled by the state public service commission through the state civil services exam, and it is paid on the state pay scale, so it differs from state to state. Read more on our state PCS page. Good deputy collectors can later be promoted into the IAS.

One more doubt I hear often: the railway ticket collector salary has nothing to do with a district collector. A ticket collector is a railway job filled through the RRB exams. See our railway jobs page for that.

IAS salary in India after 5 and 10 years

The IAS starting salary is the same for every officer in India: Level 10. Pay then rises with years of service, not with the state. Roughly:

• After about 4 to 5 years: Senior Time Scale, Level 11 (₹67,700 basic plus increments).
• After about 9 to 10 years: Junior Administrative Grade, Level 12 (₹78,800 basic plus increments).
• After about 13 years: Selection Grade, Level 13.
• Later years: Levels 14 to 17 depend on posts available and performance.

The highest salary of an IAS officer is ₹2,50,000 basic for the Cabinet Secretary. Only one officer in the country holds that post at a time. Most officers retire at Level 15, 16 or 17. Compare it with other top government posts on our highest paying govt jobs page.

IAS exam: who conducts it and eligibility

There is no separate "IAS exam". The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) fills the IAS through the Civil Services Examination, the same exam that fills the IPS, the Indian Foreign Service and about 20 other services. Your rank and preference decide which service you get. Full details of the exam are on our UPSC civil services page.

The IAS exam qualification is just a degree. A BA, BCom, BSc, BTech, MBBS or any other graduate can sit. Your marks in graduation do not matter. Use the tool below to see if your age fits the limit.

IAS exam pattern and syllabus in brief

The exam has three stages:

1. Preliminary exam: two objective papers of 200 marks each, 2 hours each. General Studies Paper I decides who goes to the mains. Paper II (CSAT) is only qualifying at 33 percent. One-third of the marks of a question are cut for a wrong answer.
2. Main exam: nine written papers. Two language papers (an Indian language and English, 300 marks each) are qualifying at 25 percent. Seven papers count for merit: Essay, four General Studies papers and two papers of one optional subject, 250 marks each, total 1,750 marks.
3. Interview (personality test): 275 marks. The final merit list is out of 2,025 marks.

The IAS exam syllabus covers Indian history, geography, polity and governance, economy, environment, science and technology, current affairs, ethics and your optional subject. UPSC offers 25 optional subjects plus the literature of one language, so you can pick what you studied or what interests you.

Training and promotions

Selected candidates start with the foundation course at the national academy of administration in Mussoorie (LBSNAA), which officers of many services attend together. IAS officers then do professional training at the academy, a year of district training in their allotted state, and a final phase back at the academy. The probation period is about two years.

Cadre (state) allotment depends on your rank, category and the cadre policy in force. After training, the usual path is SDM, then Chief Development Officer or Additional Collector, then Collector. After district years, officers can serve as secretaries in the state, heads of departments and corporations, and on deputation to central ministries.

How to prepare for the IAS exam

• Time: most serious aspirants study 12 to 24 months before their first real attempt. Many clear it in their second or third attempt, so plan for that.
• Start with NCERT books from the school years (classes 6 to 12) in history, polity, geography, science and economy. They build the base for both prelims and mains.
• Read one good newspaper daily and make short notes. Current affairs touch every paper.
• Pick the optional early. Choose a subject you can score in, not the one your friends picked.
• Practise answer writing from the start. Mains is a writing test of 1,750 marks.
• Solve previous papers from the UPSC website. They show you the exam better than any guide.
• Keep a backup. Prepare for state PCS and other exams side by side. See the government exams list and jobs after graduation.

If you are still in school, a BA with subjects like history, political science or public administration helps a lot. Our BA course page explains the options.

Official website

The notification, online form, admit card and results are all on upsc.gov.in, and applications are made on the UPSC online portal (upsconline.gov.in). Exam dates, vacancies and cut-offs change every cycle, so always read the latest notification there. Do not trust forwarded messages or fee demands from unknown websites.