Anytime Fitness franchise cost 2026: $539,329-$905,482 investment, $42,500 fee, flat $842/month royalty, $398,982 median revenue across 1,683 centers.
Quick answer An Anytime Fitness franchise costs $539,329 to $905,482 to open, per Item 7 of the 2026 FDD, including a $42,500 franchise fee. The ongoing fees are flat dollars rather than percentages: $842 a month royalty, $900 brand fund, $799 technology, or $30,492 a year in total. Item 19 reports $398,982 median revenue across 1,683 franchised centers for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026, so the fee load is about 7.6% of a median center's top line. Item 6 reserves the franchisor's right to swap the flat royalty for up to 8% of gross revenue, which would take the same center from $10,104 to $31,919.
The 2026 Anytime Fitness FDD prices a new center at $539,329 to $905,482 and sets the royalty at a flat $842 a month rather than a percentage of sales. At the $398,982 median center Item 19 discloses, that royalty works out to 2.5% of revenue, which is why the brand pencils at volumes where a percentage-royalty concept would not.
The flat structure is also the single most misreported fact about the brand. Item 6 does mention 8%, in a sentence reserving the franchisor’s right to replace the fixed fee with a percentage royalty of up to 8% of gross revenue at some future point. That sentence describes an option the franchisor holds. The gap between it and the rate franchisees pay today is roughly $21,800 a year at a median center.
| 2026 FDD data point | Figure |
|---|---|
| Total initial investment (Item 7) | $539,329 to $905,482 |
| Initial franchise fee (Item 5) | $42,500 standard; $22,500 to $42,500 actually charged in FY2025 |
| Monthly Fee (royalty) | $842 per month, CPI-adjusted each January |
| General advertising and marketing fee | $900 per month |
| Base Technology Fee | $799 per month, escalating 10% annually, compounded |
| Item 19 median total revenue | $398,982 across 1,683 centers |
| Item 19 average total revenue | $446,814 |
| Reporting period | 12 months ended February 28, 2026 |
| US franchised centers | 2,271 at December 31, 2025 |
| Franchise term (Item 17) | 6 years, one 5 year renewal |
Everything below comes out of the current Franchise Disclosure Document rather than a franchise portal summary. Where the FDD’s own numbers describe a hand-picked group of centers, that is stated.
Item 7 assumes a 4,000 to 7,000 square foot center built into a vanilla shell or as-is space. Here is the disclosed table in full.
| Item 7 line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise or development fee | $42,500 | $42,500 |
| Travel and training expenses | $1,500 | $2,425 |
| Leasehold improvements | $170,280 | $417,300 |
| 3 months rent plus security deposit | $33,500 | $58,700 |
| Construction management fees | $0 | $12,500 |
| Architect and design fees | $12,825 | $26,075 |
| Fitness equipment | $139,873 | $157,936 |
| Technology equipment package | $37,857 | $45,462 |
| Supplies | $3,500 | $3,800 |
| Interior and exterior signs | $14,250 | $36,900 |
| Miscellaneous opening costs | $6,750 | $7,910 |
| Pre-sale and grand opening advertising | $11,000 | $23,000 |
| Insurance and bond | $2,900 | $3,450 |
| Furniture and fixtures | $15,200 | $18,330 |
| Additional funds, 3 months | $47,394 | $49,194 |
| Total | $539,329 | $905,482 |
Leasehold improvements account for $247,020 of the $366,153 gap between the low and high totals. Everything else is comparatively tight. Fitness equipment moves only $18,063 across the whole range, because the figures reflect one ProVision basic package with an estimated 38% loaded on for taxes, shipping, and installation.
Two notes buried under the table matter more than the table itself. The rent estimate assumes $19.08 per square foot base rent plus $6.05 per square foot CAM, which are the 2025 system averages, and it assumes a one month security deposit. Push either assumption and the low end stops being achievable. Second, most franchisees get a tenant improvement allowance from the landlord; the 2025 system average was $27.23 per square foot, but the disclosed range was $0 to $75. A buyer signing a lease at the bottom of that range is carrying six figures of build-out the Item 7 low end quietly assumes someone else pays.
The additional funds line is the one to argue with. Anytime Fitness budgets $47,394 to $49,194 for the first three months, covering uniforms, payroll for a full-time personal trainer and two full-time employees, utilities, key fobs, three months of Monthly Fees, advertising minimums, and technology fees. It explicitly excludes owner draw and, per Note 13, excludes all finance charges, interest, and debt service. A center financed with a $500,000 SBA note starts paying that note before it has members.
Three fees run every month regardless of what the center sells.
| Recurring fee | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee (royalty) | $842 | $10,104 |
| General advertising and marketing fee | $900 | $10,800 |
| Base Technology Fee | $799 | $9,588 |
| Total | $2,541 | $30,492 |
Because none of it scales with revenue, the burden is entirely a function of where the center lands in the distribution.
| Center revenue | Fixed franchisor fees | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| $233,169 (first-quartile average) | $30,492 | 13.1% |
| $398,982 (median) | $30,492 | 7.6% |
| $746,996 (fourth-quartile average) | $30,492 | 4.1% |
| $1,000,000 | $30,492 | 3.0% |
A median Anytime Fitness center pays a smaller share of revenue to its franchisor than an Orangetheory studio paying 8% or a Planet Fitness gym paying 7%. That is a genuine structural advantage, and it is the reason the brand pencils at revenue levels where a percentage-royalty concept would not. It is also why the bottom quartile hurts so much: a center at $233,169 hands over 13.1% of its top line before it pays a single trainer.
Now the clause. Item 6 states the franchisor reserves the right to replace the fixed Monthly Fee with a percentage-based royalty of up to 8% of gross revenue. Eight percent of $126,300 equals $10,104, which means every center in the reported sample above roughly $126,300 in revenue would pay more after a conversion. The lowest reporting center did $90,337. The median did $398,982.
| Center revenue | Royalty today | Royalty at 8% | Annual change |
|---|---|---|---|
| $233,169 | $10,104 | $18,653 | +$8,549 |
| $398,982 | $10,104 | $31,919 | +$21,815 |
| $746,996 | $10,104 | $59,760 | +$49,656 |
| $1,000,000 | $10,104 | $80,000 | +$69,896 |
Nothing in the FDD says a conversion is planned. But a franchise agreement runs six years, the right is disclosed in plain language, and a buyer projecting today’s $842 across a six-year term plus a five-year renewal is pricing an option the franchisor holds and they do not. Ask the franchise development rep directly whether any conversion is contemplated, get the answer in writing, and have your attorney read Item 6 Note 4 alongside the corresponding franchise agreement section.
Two smaller escalators compound the same way. The Monthly Fee carries an annual CPI increase every January, effective in February. The Base Technology Fee increases 10% a year, compounded and cumulative, so the $9,588 you pay in year one becomes $15,442 in year six and totals about $73,977 over the initial term. The advertising fee is capped at the greater of $900 a month or 3% of gross revenue, which at the median center would be $11,969 rather than $10,800.
Item 19 Section I covers 1,683 franchised centers that were open the full 12 months ended February 28, 2026, ran AF Coaching, and reported coaching revenue. There were 2,269 franchised centers at that date, a count that already excludes 66 centers which permanently closed during the period, so 586 open centers sit outside the sample.
| Metric | Fourth quartile | Third quartile | Second quartile | First quartile | All 1,683 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue, average | $746,996 | $461,057 | $346,746 | $233,169 | $446,814 |
| Total revenue, median | $674,846 | $456,382 | $346,167 | $241,939 | $398,982 |
| Membership revenue, average | $553,738 | $350,472 | $270,153 | $192,155 | $341,503 |
| Coaching revenue, average | $146,601 | $76,773 | $50,351 | $21,288 | $73,710 |
| Average monthly members | 995 | 683 | 550 | 411 | 660 |
Correct the labels before you model anything. The $746,996 and $233,169 figures that circulate as a 75th and 25th percentile are the fourth-quartile and first-quartile averages, meaning the mean of roughly 420 centers each. They are not percentile cut points. The 3.2x gap between them is a real and useful spread. Call it a quartile spread, because treating it as a 25th-to-75th percentile band overstates how many centers actually sit near either end. The true quartile medians, $674,846 against $241,939, are 2.8x apart.
The other thing the quartile table shows is that coaching revenue does most of the sorting. Fourth-quartile centers average $146,601 in coaching against $21,288 in the first quartile, a 6.9x gap, versus 2.9x on membership revenue. Membership scale follows a fairly gentle curve. Personal training attach rate does not. If you are modeling this brand, the coaching line is the variable that decides which quartile you land in, and it is the one that depends most on hiring and retaining trainers.
Section II reports 215 of those 1,683 centers that also ran the Coaching Dashboard for at least nine months. Those centers averaged $561,291 in total revenue against $446,814 systemwide. Read that as a correlation in a self-selected group of 215 operators, not as proof the tool adds $114,477. On why the median deserves your underwriting weight over any average, see our Item 19 median versus average guide.
Section III is the only place in this FDD where expenses appear, and it covers 11 company-owned centers for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026, with expenses adjusted to what the franchisor believes a franchisee would incur.
| Line | Average of 11 centers | Top third (4) | Bottom third (4) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $521,854 | $721,044 | $373,727 |
| Rent and CAM | $111,977 | $142,238 | $91,051 |
| Payroll for personal training | $103,639 | $139,825 | $51,640 |
| Royalties | $10,104 | $10,104 | $10,104 |
| Advertising fund plus local | $20,836 | $21,000 | $20,400 |
| Technology fee | $9,588 | $9,588 | $9,588 |
| Total operating expenses | $325,670 | $407,305 | $249,568 |
| Net operating income before manager salary | $196,183 | $313,739 | $124,159 |
| Manager salary | $46,563 | $50,480 | $43,499 |
| EBITDA | $149,620 | $263,259 | $80,660 |
| EBITDA margin | 28.67% | 36.51% | 21.58% |
Three caveats travel with every number in that table, and they are the reason a 28.67% margin should not go straight into your pro forma. These are company-operated centers, not franchised ones. Nine of the 11 are in Illinois and two in Minnesota, so the rent line reflects two Midwestern markets rather than a national average. And at $521,854 average revenue they run 31% above the $398,982 franchised median, which means the margin is measured on a revenue base most franchisees will not reach in year one.
The footnotes also confirm what the table excludes: interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, owner draw, 401(k) contributions, and grand opening costs. Apply the 28.67% margin to the franchised median and you get roughly $114,000 of EBITDA. Service a $500,000 SBA note at current rates and a meaningful share of that is gone before the owner is paid.
The saturation story here is not a guess, it is a table.
| Year | Franchised at start | Opened | Terminations | Non-renewals | Ceased, other | Franchised at end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 2,318 | 47 | 42 | 25 | 0 | 2,298 |
| 2024 | 2,298 | 46 | 33 | 21 | 0 | 2,290 |
| 2025 | 2,290 | 53 | 39 | 30 | 3 | 2,271 |
Three consecutive years of net contraction in the US. 2025 posted the most openings of the three at 53 and still shed 19 units, because 72 centers left the system: 39 terminations, 30 non-renewals, and 3 that ceased operating. Item 19 separately discloses 66 centers that permanently closed during the 12 months ended February 28, 2026. Exhibit C-3, the list of franchisees who had an outlet terminated, cancelled, not renewed, or voluntarily closed during 2025 or who have gone silent, runs to 239 franchisees representing 319 franchises.
Anytime Fitness is not collapsing. Losing 19 net units out of 2,290 is a 0.8% contraction, and the brand still has more than 5,000 locations worldwide. But this is a mature system redistributing units rather than adding them, and the practical consequence for a buyer is that resales and re-territorialized markets are the more common path in than a greenfield build in an attractive suburb. Item 20 also projects 38 new franchised outlets against 154 franchise agreements signed but unopened at December 31, 2025, which tells you how long the pipeline is taking to convert. Our guide to calculating a true closure rate from Item 20 walks through how to read these tables against the territory you are considering.
One disclosure deserves its own sentence. Item 20 states that during the last three years, current and former franchisees have signed provisions restricting their ability to speak openly about their experience with the franchisor or its predecessor. Plan your validation calls around that, and read our note on gag clauses and validation calls before you start dialing. There is also an independent franchisee association, AFFA, listed in Item 20 with contact details, and that is the call to make first.
Work through these against the disclosure document the franchisor actually hands you, not against this post.
The $49 VetMyFranchise Research Report works through all 23 items of the current Anytime Fitness disclosure, including the Item 19 quartile math, the Item 20 termination trend by state, and the specific clauses worth flagging for your franchise attorney. Get the Anytime Fitness diligence report
| Brand | 2026 Item 7 investment | Item 19 median revenue | Ongoing franchisor fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anytime Fitness | $539,329 to $905,482 | $398,982 (1,683 centers running AF Coaching) | $842 + $900 + $799 per month |
| Orangetheory | $764,577 to $1,104,920 | $750,643 (1,189 units, all franchised) | 8% of gross sales |
| F45 Training | $362,300 to $857,700 | $429,222 (676 units, all franchised) | 7% |
| Club Pilates | $403,289 to $1,029,811 | $978,300 (1,005 “Qualified Studios”) | 8% |
| Planet Fitness | $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 | $1,863,300 middle-third median (2,291 franchised clubs) | 7% of EFT dues |
Three of those rows carry segment labels that change what the number means. Club Pilates reports on “Qualified Studios” rather than all franchised units, Anytime Fitness reports only on centers running AF Coaching, and Planet Fitness publishes three separate performance thirds instead of one system median, so the figure above is the middle third only. Orangetheory and F45 both disclose across all franchised units, which is the cleaner comparison and one reason their medians are worth more weight per dollar of revenue they describe.
On capital efficiency Anytime Fitness wins this table outright: the lowest entry cost of the staffed-format brands and the only flat fee structure in the group. On revenue per unit it trails every brand in the table that discloses a median. Which of those facts matters more depends entirely on whether you are financing one center or five. The head-to-head detail lives in Anytime Fitness vs Planet Fitness and, for the boutique studio comparison, in Anytime Fitness vs Orangetheory.
If you are down to three finalist brands, the $99 3-Pack Comparison runs the full 12-section report on all three at $33 per brand, built so the same items line up side by side.
For the category view and the brands that clear a lower capital bar, see Best Fitness Franchises Under $200K and our Planet Fitness franchise cost guide.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
Anytime Fitness discloses a total initial investment of $539,329 to $905,482 in its 2026 FDD Item 7, for a 4,000 to 7,000 square foot center built into a vanilla shell space. The franchise fee is $42,500. Leasehold improvements are the swing factor at $170,280 to $417,300, and the estimate assumes $19.08 per square foot in base rent plus $6.05 in CAM, based on what the system actually paid in 2025.
The current royalty, which Anytime Fitness calls the Monthly Fee, is a flat $842 per month per center, subject to an annual CPI increase each January. It is not a percentage of sales. Item 6 also discloses that the franchisor reserves the right to replace the fixed fee with a percentage-based royalty of up to 8% of gross revenue. At the $398,982 median center, that conversion would take the royalty from $10,104 a year to $31,919.
Item 19 of the 2026 FDD reports $446,814 average and $398,982 median total revenue across 1,683 franchised centers using AF Coaching for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026. By quartile, the averages run $746,996, $461,057, $346,746, and $233,169. The highest reporting center did $2,048,737 and the lowest did $90,337. Every one of these centers ran AF Coaching and reported coaching revenue, so the sample excludes roughly 586 franchised centers that did not.
The FDD's only expense disclosure covers 11 company-owned centers, which averaged $521,854 revenue, $325,670 in adjusted operating expenses, and $149,620 EBITDA after a $46,563 manager salary. That is a 28.67% EBITDA margin, but those centers ran 31% above the franchised median and 9 of the 11 are in Illinois. Franchised centers disclose revenue only. Applying the company-owned margin to the $398,982 franchised median implies roughly $114,000 before debt service, and a $500,000 SBA note absorbs a large share of that.
There were 2,271 US franchised centers and 11 company-owned centers at December 31, 2025, plus more than 5,000 locations worldwide. The US system has contracted three years running: net franchised change was minus 20 in 2023, minus 8 in 2024, and minus 19 in 2025. Item 20 shows 53 openings against 39 terminations, 30 non-renewals, and 3 ceased operations in 2025.
They are different capital classes. Anytime Fitness runs a 4,000 to 7,000 square foot staffed neighborhood center at $539,329 to $905,482 with a $398,982 median revenue and flat monthly fees. Planet Fitness is a large-format retail box whose 2026 Item 7 runs $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 and charges a 7% royalty on EFT membership dues across 2,432 franchised clubs. Anytime Fitness fits an operator financing one unit; Planet Fitness is a multi-unit real estate play.
Item 17 discloses a 6 year initial term with one 5 year renewal for franchisees in good standing. Renewal requires a new franchise agreement that may carry materially different terms, a signed general release, a renewal fee, proof you can hold the location, and updating or relocating the center to then-current standards. Area Development Agreements run 1 to 4 years and cannot be renewed.
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