Best boba tea franchises 2026: Item 7 costs, fees, royalties and unit counts for Gong cha, Kung Fu Tea, Ding Tea, Chatime, Boba Time and more, from current FDDs.
Quick answer A boba franchise costs $140,500 to $1,108,000 across the fourteen US bubble tea brands with a current FDD, with most single-store builds landing between $200,000 and $500,000. Gong cha runs $207,450 to $648,460 with a 6% royalty, Kung Fu Tea $169,000 to $378,000 with a 4% royalty, Ding Tea $265,270 to $405,000, and Chicha San Chen $155,500 to $249,460. Of the ten brands with a franchised system large enough to evaluate, only Gong cha and Chatime disclose an Item 19 covering franchised stores. Gong cha reports a $363,373 median across 222 established US locations.
Every number below comes from the brand’s current Franchise Disclosure Document, read directly rather than taken from a franchise portal. That distinction matters more in this category than in most, because the structured data circulating about boba brands is unusually bad. Several widely quoted “franchise fees” turn out to be area development fees, and several quoted low-end investment figures turn out to be the amount payable to the franchisor rather than the total.
Four criteria decided the order.
The first filter is whether the FDD discloses what a franchised store earns, and it eliminates most of the field. Of the 605 Food & Beverage systems in our database with a recorded Item 19 status, 62% disclose one. Among these ten boba brands, two disclose figures for franchised stores. That is the single most important fact about the category, and it gets its own section below.
Second, the franchised system has to be large enough for Item 20 to mean something. A brand with one franchised outlet has an outlet table, but it has no evidence. Every brand ranked here has at least seven franchised units open.
Third, direction. The Item 20 tables show whether a system is growing, and in this category the answer is not uniformly yes. Two of the largest systems contracted during their most recent disclosed year.
Fourth, the real fee stack rather than the headline royalty, which understates the number at several brands. CoCo charges a 2% royalty and a separate 4% administration fee. Kung Fu Tea charges 4% plus 2% marketing plus a 7.25% promotions fee on every purchase made through its app. Read Item 6 line by line instead of reading the first row.
One methodological note on Item 7 that most comparisons miss. The additional funds line covers a different period at different brands. Gong cha, Ding Tea, Boba Time and Chicha San Chen all budget three months. Kung Fu Tea budgets one. Comparing those totals without adjusting makes Kung Fu Tea look $20,000 to $40,000 cheaper than it is.
| Brand | FDD | Item 7 (single unit) | Initial fee | Royalty | Ad fund | Franchised units | Item 19 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kung Fu Tea | 2026 | $169,000 to $378,000 | $37,000 | 4% of gross sales | 2%, plus 7.25% on app orders | 342 | None |
| Ding Tea | 2025 | $265,270 to $405,000 | $30,000 | none in Item 6 | ~3% estimated, not established | 120 | None |
| Boba Time | 2025 | $465,600 to $596,800 | $45,000 | 5% of gross sales | 2%, administered | 86 | None |
| Teaspoon | 2026 | $250,500 to $548,000 | $45,000 | 5% of gross revenues | up to 3%, currently 2% | 46 | Company-owned only |
| Gong cha | 2026 | $207,450 to $648,460 | $37,000 | 6% of weekly net sales | 1%, may rise to 2% | 36 direct, 239 US stores | 222 stores |
| TPTEA | 2026 | $424,800 to $446,900 | $50,000 | 6% of gross monthly sales | up to 3%, not charged | 22 | None |
| Chatime | 2026 | $291,100 to $499,900 | $54,900 | 5% of gross sales | 2%, administered | 16 | 13 stores |
| CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice | 2025 | $221,300 to $454,000 | $40,000 | 2%, plus 4% administration fee | up to 2%, not administered | 13 | None |
| TEATOP | 2026 | $140,500 to $297,500 | $40,000 | greater of 5% or $400/month | none | 11 | None |
| Chicha San Chen | 2025 | $155,500 to $249,460 | $30,000 | 6% of gross revenues | none | 7 | None |
Three notes on that table. Teaspoon’s Item 7 low end is printed twice in its 2026 filing, as $244,500 and $250,500, an artifact of a revision that survived into the final document; the higher figure is used here. Gong cha’s 36 is the count of stores franchised directly by the franchisor, while 239 is the total US Gong cha count including stores held by master franchisees and their subfranchisees, and both figures come from the same 2026 document. Chicha San Chen files a second FDD for master franchises at $359,000 to $537,000 with a $250,000 to $350,000 master fee, covered in our Chicha San Chen franchise cost breakdown.
Four brands with a current FDD are excluded from the ranking because their franchised systems are too small to evaluate: Molly Tea ($527,500 to $1,108,000, an 8% royalty, one franchised unit), Boba Nation ($350,000 to $495,000, one franchised unit), Boba Pub ($213,500 to $451,000, one franchised unit) and Bubble N Tea ($275,750 to $426,000, zero franchised units ever opened). They are real offerings and they are not yet evidence of anything.
Under $250,000, TEATOP is the cheapest disclosed entry at $140,500 to $297,500 with no advertising fee of any kind, though its franchisor was organized on January 1, 2024 and cannot yet file three years of financial statements. Chicha San Chen opens at $155,500 to $249,460 with no marketing fund at all, on a franchise agreement whose initial term runs 3.5 years rather than the usual ten. Kung Fu Tea’s $169,000 low end is the most achievable of the three because the brand has 342 franchised stores of build history behind the estimate, but adjust it upward for the one-month working capital assumption.
In the $250,000 to $500,000 bracket, Chatime at $291,100 to $499,900 is the pick, for one reason: it is the only brand at this price that publishes store-level revenue. Ding Tea at $265,270 to $405,000 discloses no continuing percentage royalty in Item 6, which sounds like a gift and is not, because the model runs on a $65,000 mandatory opening inventory purchase and ongoing required product buying. TPTEA has the cleanest growth curve in the category, moving from 9 to 22 franchised units across three years with zero terminations, non-renewals or closures, and it requires all disputes to be resolved in Taiwan.
Above $500,000 the field thins fast. Boba Time at $465,600 to $596,800 is the largest system anywhere near this price at 86 franchised units, up from 47 at the start of 2022. Watch its working capital line: the Item 7 table budgets $10,000 to $20,000 for three months on a build that starts at $465,600, thin enough that a slow ramp turns into a cash call.
The brand that wins on disclosure across every tier is Gong cha, and it is worth stretching the budget for. Its $207,450 low end puts it in the first bracket and its $648,460 high end puts it in the third, and either way it is the only brand here that will show you a revenue distribution before you sign.
Considering a boba franchise? The full 12-section FDD analysis covers Item 19 earnings, litigation history, fee footnotes, and a buyer verdict personalized to your capital and market: $49 per brand, or three brands for $99 if you’re comparing finalists.
Start with what is knowable. Gong cha’s 2026 FDD reports 2025 net sales for the 222 US stores open before or at the start of that year and reporting all twelve months:
| Group | Average | Median | High | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile (56 stores) | $649,521 | $629,137 | $992,695 | $504,719 |
| Second quartile (55 stores) | $420,446 | $419,089 | $491,141 | $364,163 |
| Third quartile (55 stores) | $319,306 | $327,213 | $362,583 | $261,350 |
| Bottom quartile (56 stores) | $199,208 | $205,748 | $260,657 | $74,712 |
| All 222 stores | $396,887 | $363,373 | $992,695 | $74,712 |
That is a 13x gap between the best store and the worst, and the bottom quarter of the system averaged under $200,000 of annual sales. On a $207,450 to $648,460 build, a store at $199,208 is not a business, it is a lease you are servicing. The 2026 filing also records 15 US Gong cha stores terminated or closed during 2025, and notes that none of them had been open less than twelve months.
Chatime’s disclosure is smaller and structurally better. It lists all 13 qualifying franchised stores individually rather than in bands: $977,385, $419,389, $381,399, $342,474, $268,328, $260,760, $181,697, $172,668, $155,438, $148,173, $121,524, $100,400 and $93,939. The median is $181,697 and one store carries the top of the range on its own. A prospective franchisee reading a $977,385 headline and modeling against it would be modeling against the single best outcome in a thirteen-store sample.
Now the part nobody else will tell you. Neither figure is profit. Both are net sales, and the operator still pays rent, labor, product, the royalty and the marketing fee out of that number. The only store-level profit disclosures in the entire category come from Boba Nation and Bubble N Tea, and both need caveats large enough to disqualify them. Boba Nation’s Item 19 describes a sample of two affiliate-owned outlets and then prints three tables, the third of which is a franchised store in Pleasanton. Bubble N Tea’s Item 19 covers exactly one company-owned store in Beaverton, Oregon that the FDD acknowledges operates under a different brand name, and reports a food, beverage and packaging cost of 0.95% of gross sales, a figure no beverage café produces.
The practical consequence: in a category where a mature Gong cha store medians at $363,373, and where nobody discloses a cost structure you can trust, the entire margin side of your model has to be built from your own lease, your own labor market and your own supplier quotes. Our guide on median versus average and survivorship bias covers how to read the sales side without inheriting the franchisor’s framing.
The independent path is genuinely viable in this category, more so than in most food segments, and the FDDs themselves explain why.
Boba is not a protected process. The equipment is commercially available, the supply chain for tapioca pearls, tea leaves, powders and sealing film is open, and no proprietary ingredient is required to make a competitive drink. An independent operator can build a comparable shop for the leasehold and equipment cost alone, skipping the $30,000 to $54,900 franchise fee and the 4% to 8% ongoing royalty entirely. On $363,373 of sales, a 6% royalty plus a 2% marketing fee is $29,070 a year, which is meaningful money against a store that may be netting $50,000 to $90,000.
What the franchise buys is supply, training and a name that already means something in a mall food court. Read Item 8 before deciding whether that trade is fair, because in this category the supplier relationship is often the real product. Chicha San Chen discloses that required purchases run 28% to 36% of a franchisee’s initial investment and 23% to 27% of monthly expenses, and that its Taiwanese affiliate earned 63% of its 2024 revenue from franchisee purchases. Ding Tea requires a $65,000 opening inventory buy. Those obligations are the pricing mechanism, and an independent operator sourcing on the open market may beat them.
The honest split: franchise if you are entering a market where the brand has recognition and you want the supply chain solved, or if you plan to build three or more stores and need a system. Open independently if you have a specific site, a local following, and the operating experience to run a beverage counter without a manual.
Six things showed up repeatedly in these filings and each is worth checking directly.
Going concern language is the first. CoCo’s franchisor, Infinilush Company Limited, carries a risk factor stating that the auditor’s report expresses substantial doubt about the franchisor’s ability to remain in business, and that factor appears in both its 2025 and 2026 filings. Two other brands in the category carry the softer financial-condition risk factor. Read Item 21 before Item 19.
Contraction dressed up as scale is the second. Kung Fu Tea has the largest system here and it shrank from 387 franchised units to 342 during 2025, with royalty income falling from $4,712,285 in 2023 to $3,610,681 in 2025. Ding Tea went from 137 franchised units to 120 during 2024. A big unit count tells you the brand was once easy to sell, not that it is currently working.
Third, regulatory findings on franchise sales, which are common enough here to be a pattern rather than a footnote. Ding Tea signed a consent order with California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in October 2021 carrying $397,500 in penalties, offer cancellation and refunds to franchisees in that state, and a separate Washington order the same year. TPTEA settled with Washington’s Securities Division in July 2025 over selling unregistered franchises, a matter that referenced an underlying California violation. Chicha San Chen resolved its own California order in January 2022 over Item 20 omissions. Gong cha paid Virginia a $3,000 penalty in March 2025.
Fourth, franchisee litigation. Boba Time’s Item 3 discloses a franchisee judgment of $1,320,288 plus $369,933.82 of prejudgment interest, satisfied in August 2022, and a separate suit alleging California Franchise Investment Law violations that settled in March 2023. Kung Fu Tea’s 2026 filing discloses that an unofficial association of its franchisees sent a letter on March 24, 2025 enumerating claims it intended to assert. Organized franchisee discontent is the loudest signal available to an outsider.
Fifth, fee stacks that hide below the first row of Item 6. CoCo’s 4% administration fee sits under a 2% royalty. Kung Fu Tea’s 7.25% app promotions charge sits under a 4% royalty and a 2% marketing fee. TEATOP and Bubble N Tea both charge the greater of a percentage or a monthly minimum, which converts a variable cost into a fixed one at exactly the moment a slow store can least afford it.
Sixth, dormant marketing funds. Ding Tea, TPTEA and CoCo each disclose a fund of up to 2% or 3% that is not currently being collected, and two more brands disclose headroom above what they charge today: Gong cha may raise its 1% brand marketing fee to 2% on 90 days’ notice, and Teaspoon collects 2% against a disclosed 3% cap. Those are fee increases the franchisor can switch on unilaterally, and buyers routinely model the current rate rather than the disclosed ceiling. Our guide to emerging franchise risk below 50 units covers why franchisors under 100 units reach for exactly these levers.
Call every franchisee in Item 20, not a sample. In a category where the largest system here is 342 units and most are under 50, the full contact list is a short afternoon. Ask for annual gross sales, rent as a dollar figure, and what they pay per case for pearls and tea. Our validation call guide covers how to get past courtesy answers.
Price the build yourself before trusting Item 7. Get a contractor to walk your actual space and quote the actual scope, then compare that to the leasehold improvement line. Item 7 estimates a basic build of the standard design and explicitly does not account for the condition of the space you found.
Then run the arithmetic at the bottom quartile rather than the median. If Gong cha’s bottom 56 stores average $199,208 and that is the only quartile data published in the category, assume your first-year store lands there and check whether you can service the debt. A concept that only works at the median is a concept you cannot underwrite.
For a category with better disclosure and a similar capital profile, compare against the best juice and smoothie franchises, where most brands publish an Item 19 covering franchised units. For the deepest single-brand breakdown in boba, see our Chicha San Chen franchise cost analysis.
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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.
Between $140,500 and $1,108,000 across the fourteen US bubble tea brands with a current FDD, with most single-store builds falling between $200,000 and $500,000. The cheapest disclosed entry is TEATOP at $140,500 to $297,500, followed by Chicha San Chen at $155,500 to $249,460 and Kung Fu Tea at $169,000 to $378,000. Molly Tea sits at the top at $527,500 to $1,108,000. Compare the low ends carefully, because they assume different store formats and different working capital windows.
No one can answer that from the filings, which is the honest answer and the important one. Only Gong cha and Chatime disclose revenue for franchised stores, and neither discloses profit. Gong cha's 2026 Item 19 reports 2025 net sales for 222 established US stores: a $363,373 median, a $396,887 average, a $992,695 high and a $74,712 low, with the bottom quartile of 56 stores averaging $199,208. Boba Nation and Bubble N Tea publish store-level profit figures, but both cover affiliate or company outlets rather than franchisees, and Bubble N Tea's single store trades under a different brand name.
It is the most transparent brand in the category and the one with the most US scale, which are two real advantages. The 2026 FDD discloses 239 Gong cha stores operating in the US at the end of 2025 and publishes net sales quartiles for 222 of them. The caution is the spread: the top quartile averaged $649,521 while the bottom quartile averaged $199,208, and 15 stores were terminated or closed during 2025, none of them open less than a year. Investment runs $207,450 to $648,460 with a $37,000 fee, a 6% royalty and a 1% brand marketing fee the franchisor may raise to 2%.
Yes, at four of the ten brands, if you take the low end of the range and it holds. TEATOP discloses $140,500, Chicha San Chen $155,500, Kung Fu Tea $169,000 and Gong cha $207,450 at the bottom of their Item 7 tables. Those low ends assume a small footprint, a second-generation space needing limited build-out, and a modest landlord contribution. Kung Fu Tea's figure also budgets only the first month of additional funds where most peers budget three, so add $20,000 to $40,000 before comparing it to the others.
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