Ever since Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy started swinging their "chainsaw for bureaucracy" at the start of 2025, everyone has been asking the same question: how many employees does DOGE have? You’d think a department tasked with auditing the entire federal government would be a massive operation. A skyscraper full of accountants, maybe. Or a sprawling campus of tech bros in hoodies.
Actually, it’s nothing like that.
If you’re looking for a traditional headcount, you’re going to be disappointed. DOGE isn't even a "department" in the way the Department of Education or the DoD is. It’s more of a lean, mean, advisory strike team that operates within the White House’s executive orbit.
The Real Numbers: How Many Employees Does DOGE Have?
The short answer? About 150 people.
That’s it. For a group trying to slash trillions in spending, their own footprint is surprisingly tiny.
But there is a catch. You have to look at how that number is broken down to understand how they actually function. According to recent reports and organizational data from the US DOGE Service (which replaced the old US Digital Service), the core staff consists of roughly 89 to 150 employees depending on the specific month and project load.
It’s a mix of full-time government staffers and what are called Special Government Employees (SGEs). These SGEs are the high-level advisors Musk brought in from places like SpaceX, Tesla, and Palantir. They aren't permanent bureaucrats; they’re often there for 130 days or less to do a specific job and then get out.
Honestly, the "how many employees does DOGE have" question gets even weirder when you look at the wider network. Beyond that core group of 150, the Trump administration directed every single federal agency to create a "DOGE Team" within their own walls. These teams usually have at least four people who report back to the central DOGE leadership. If you count those, the number jumps, but those people are technically employees of their respective agencies, not DOGE itself.
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Why the Workforce Size is So Small
Musk has been very vocal about his philosophy: small teams move fast. He did it at X (formerly Twitter), where he cut about 80% of the staff almost overnight. He’s applying that same logic here.
The strategy isn't to build a massive new agency to monitor the old ones. That would just be adding more bureaucracy to the pile. Instead, they’ve used a few key "operatives"—sometimes as few as 30 senior-level advisors—to take over floors at agencies like the GSA (General Services Administration) or the Social Security Administration.
They aren't there to process paperwork. They’re there to identify which programs can be deleted.
In late 2025, reports indicated that the US DOGE Service was looking to expand slightly to that 150-person cap for the 2026 fiscal year, requesting a budget increase to $45 million to handle the workload. Compared to the $7 trillion the government spends, that's basically a rounding error.
The "Shadow" Workforce and Volunteers
One thing that confuses people is the "high-IQ, small-government revolutionaries" Musk famously called for on social media.
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Thousands of people applied to work for DOGE for free. While it’s unclear exactly how many "volunteers" are actually doing work, the legal structure of a "Temporary Organization" (which DOGE is officially categorized as until July 4, 2026) allows them to accept volunteer services and "detailees" from other departments.
This means that on any given day, the number of people working on DOGE projects might be higher than the official payroll. But the official answer to how many employees does DOGE have remains focused on that core group of about 150 people.
Impact of the "Lean" Staffing Model
Does a small team actually work? It depends on who you ask.
- The Pro-DOGE View: A small team is harder to corrupt and faster to act. They’ve already helped drive a 9.9% reduction in the total federal workforce as of January 2026.
- The Critics' View: A small, outside group doesn't have the expertise to understand complex agency missions. They’ve faced lawsuits claiming they lack the legal authority to access sensitive data or fire people without due process.
Key Facts About DOGE's Structure in 2026
To keep things simple, here is the breakdown of the organization as it stands now:
- Official Name: United States DOGE Service (reorganized from USDS).
- Sunset Date: July 4, 2026. This is a temporary gig.
- Leadership: Musk and Ramaswamy (though Musk’s official SGE status has fluctuated).
- Core Staff Size: ~150 people.
- Budget: Roughly $20M initially, rising toward $45M.
- Key Ties: Heavy influence from Silicon Valley, specifically firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Palantir.
What's fascinating is that while the headcount is low, the access is high. DOGE members have been granted administrator access to systems at the GSA and the Treasury that usually take years of security clearances to touch. This "small but powerful" approach is exactly how they managed to push through 154,000 voluntary buyouts in late 2025.
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Actionable Insights for 2026
If you are tracking the Department of Government Efficiency, whether for business or because you're a federal employee, here is what you need to keep in mind:
First, don't expect DOGE to grow. The goal of the organization is to eventually not exist. Their charter ends in July 2026, and they are intentionally keeping their own headcount low to set an example for the rest of the government.
Second, if you're looking for work there, it's not a standard "apply on USAJobs" situation. Most of the staff are hand-picked allies or tech-heavy engineers.
Lastly, the real power isn't in the number of employees DOGE has, but in the executive orders they draft. A team of 10 people can write a memo that eliminates 10,000 jobs. That is the "force multiplier" effect Musk is betting on. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, watch the "DOGE teams" at the agency level—that's where the actual implementation of these cuts happens on the ground.