Give a specific number, base it on the role rather than on your current salary, and make it the number you would be happy to sign at rather than the floor you would reluctantly accept. Then stop talking.
That is most of it. The rest of this post is about how to get to that number, and how to hold it when a recruiter on the first call says "and what's your current CTC?" straight after.
Why the first number matters so much
In India the expected CTC question usually comes very early: in a mandatory field on the application form, or in the first five minutes of a recruiter screen. It feels administrative. It isn't.
Whatever number you give becomes the anchor. Offers are usually built at or below what you asked for, rarely above. If you say 14 LPA and the band for the role goes to 20, you have just told them they can save six lakh a year, and most recruiters are measured partly on hiring within budget. Nobody is going to call you back to say you undersold yourself.
How to work out your number
Start from the role, not from your payslip.
Your current CTC reflects what your current company decided to pay you, maybe years ago, maybe at a services firm with a very different pay structure. The new company has a band for this role based on what the market pays people who can do it. The second number is the one that matters.
To estimate it:
- Ask people. Friends at similar companies, seniors from college, ex-colleagues who switched. Ask what offers they or their teammates have seen for the level, not what they earn; people are more willing to share that.
- Check what the posting says. Some listings include a range, especially on Instahyre and Wellfound.
- Look at public salary data with suspicion. Sites that aggregate self-reported salaries are useful for direction, but they mix levels and years, and they lag the market.
Then pick a number near the upper half of what you have found, as long as you can explain why you fit the upper half. Say you are a backend engineer three years into a product company, currently at 16 LPA, and what you hear for comparable roles in Bengaluru runs from roughly 20 to 28. Asking for 25 or 26 is reasonable. Asking for 18 because it is "a good hike on 16" leaves money on the table for no reason.
How to phrase it
On a call, plainly:
Based on the role and what I've seen for similar positions, I'm looking at around 26 LPA fixed.
Notice the word "fixed". CTC in India can include a lot that you never see in your bank account: variable pay that depends on ratings, joining bonuses that come with clawbacks, ESOPs that may never be worth anything, gratuity, insurance premiums. Two offers with the same CTC can differ a lot in take-home. If you care about fixed pay (most people should), say so in the first answer, not at the offer stage.
Don't give a wide range like "20 to 30". They will hear 20. If you want to give a range, make the bottom of it the number you actually want: "26 to 28".
Don't say "as per company standards" or "negotiable". Recruiters mostly read those as "I haven't thought about it", and some forms reject a non-numeric answer anyway.
When the form insists on a number
Workday, Greenhouse and most company forms will have an expected CTC field, sometimes alongside a current CTC field, often mandatory. Put your real expected number in LPA or as an annual figure (check the field's unit; some want rupees, some want lakhs). Don't put 0 or 1 to get past the field. That number may be what the recruiter sees first, and it either looks careless or gets taken literally.
Since you will type this answer many times across applications, it helps to settle on the wording once. OpenRoles keeps saved answers for form questions like this, and the Chrome extension can fill them into the form for you; it never submits the application.
"What is your current CTC?"
This is the harder one. Many Indian recruiters ask for current CTC as a matter of routine, and many companies ask for payslips later to verify it. Some will base the offer on a percentage hike over current, regardless of what you expected.
You have a few honest options:
- Answer it, then redirect. "My current CTC is 16 LPA. My expectation is based on this role, though, and I'm looking at around 26 fixed." This is the most common approach and usually works fine.
- Decline politely. "I'd rather focus on what the role pays; my expectation is 26." Some recruiters accept this. Some won't move forward without the number, and you'll have to decide whether it's worth pushing.
- Give the full picture. If your current fixed is low but you have significant variable pay, RSUs or a retention bonus due soon, give the total and say what it's made of. Those are part of what you'd be giving up, so they belong in the answer.
What you should not do is inflate your current CTC. It is checked against payslips, Form 16 or the offer letter more often than people assume, and an offer withdrawn for misrepresentation is far worse than a lower offer.
If you are coming from a services company
This is where people undersell themselves most. Pay at large IT services firms is often well below product company bands for similar work, so a "big hike" on a services salary can still sit at the bottom of a product company's band.
Base your number on the product company role. If the recruiter pushes back with "that's a very large hike", you can say: "I understand. I'm basing it on what this role pays in the market rather than on my current salary, which reflects a different kind of company." Then let them come back with what they can do. The post on moving from a service company to a product company covers the rest of that switch.
After the number
Once you have said it, don't fill the silence with "but I'm flexible" or "whatever works for you". If they say it's above the band, ask what the band is. That is useful information and a fair question. If the band genuinely tops out below what you need, it is better to learn that on the first call than after four interview rounds.
The notice period question usually comes in the same breath; there's a separate post on answering that one.