Orangetheory franchise cost 2026: $764,577-$1,104,920 per Item 7, $59,950 fee, 8% royalty, 3% brand fund. Item 19 median studio revenue $750,643.
Quick answer An Orangetheory Fitness studio costs $764,577 to $1,104,920 to open, per Item 7 of the 2026 FDD, excluding any real estate purchase. The initial franchise fee is $59,950, the royalty is 8% of gross sales, and the brand fund is currently 3% and can rise to 5%. Item 19 reports median gross sales of $750,643 across 1,189 franchised studios for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026, on a median of 425 monthly members. The same FDD discloses that 95 franchised studios permanently closed during that period, every one of them open at least 12 months first.
An Orangetheory studio costs $764,577 to $1,104,920 to open, per Item 7 of the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, and that figure excludes the cost of buying real estate. Two lines account for most of the spread: leasehold improvements at $245,000 to $418,317, and a three-month working capital reserve the franchisor pins at a flat $171,239 whether you build the smallest studio in the range or the largest.
| Item 7 line | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $59,950 | $59,950 |
| 3 months rent plus security deposit | $21,492 | $57,312 |
| Architect and design fees | $10,000 | $24,000 |
| Furniture, fixtures and equipment | $10,362 | $18,918 |
| Construction management fees | $0 | $12,500 |
| Office and cleaning supplies | $3,000 | $3,800 |
| Leasehold improvements and construction | $245,000 | $418,317 |
| Fitness equipment and OTbeat system | $119,122 | $163,424 |
| Initial retail merchandise inventory | $3,315 | $5,850 |
| Interior and exterior signage | $17,666 | $28,436 |
| Technology system | $46,760 | $62,108 |
| Pre-sale and grand opening advertising | $36,000 | $45,000 |
| Initial training and launch trainings | $5,000 | $8,850 |
| Miscellaneous opening costs | $11,671 | $20,216 |
| Insurance | $4,000 | $5,000 |
| Additional funds, 3 months | $171,239 | $171,239 |
| Total | $764,577 | $1,104,920 |
Source: OTF Franchisor, LLC 2026 FDD, Item 7, single studio franchise. Excludes real estate purchase costs.
Note 2 to the table sets the footprint assumption: the estimates cover 1,750 square feet at the low end and 4,800 at the high end, with 3,100 square feet described as the expected typical studio. The rent line assumes no free-rent period, which the same note says landlords typically do offer, so there is real room to come in under the disclosed range on that one item. Note 3 warns the opposite way on construction: New York, San Francisco and Chicago build costs can run substantially above the top of the range. For context on where this sits against other industries, our guide to how much it costs to open a franchise maps Item 7 ranges across the database.
The equipment and technology lines are the ones that separate Orangetheory from cheaper studio concepts. Fitness equipment plus the OTbeat heart-rate system runs $119,122 to $163,424, and the technology system another $46,760 to $62,108. There is no stripped-down format that skips either.
The single-studio initial franchise fee is $59,950, payable when you sign the franchise agreement. Item 5 also discloses something more useful than the sticker: initial franchise fees actually collected during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 ranged from $0 to $59,950. The franchisor reserves the right to reduce the fee case by case, for marketing promotions, and for buyers signing an area development agreement.
Development pricing is published in full, which is unusual and worth reading before you negotiate:
| Development agreement | New franchisee | New franchisee, veteran | Existing franchisee | Existing franchisee, veteran |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 locations | $150,000 | $135,000 | $135,000 | $121,500 |
| 5 locations | $237,500 | $213,750 | $212,500 | $191,250 |
| Each additional location | $47,500 | $42,750 | $42,500 | $38,250 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 5. The existing-franchisee tier covers open, in-good-standing operators of Orangetheory, Anytime Fitness, Basecamp Fitness, The Bar Method or Waxing the City.
A five-studio agreement prices each studio at $47,500 against $59,950 for a single unit, a 21% discount for committing to a build schedule you have to complete. That is the trade the fee table is designed to make.
If you are seeing fee figures outside this range, you are looking at an old FDD or a non-standard arrangement. Verify against the disclosure date; the FTC Franchise Rule requires the franchisor to deliver the current document at least 14 days before you sign or pay.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 8% of gross sales | Debited weekly |
| Brand fund contribution | Currently 3% of gross sales | Contractual ceiling of 5% |
| Minimum monthly local advertising | Greater of 2% of prior-month gross sales or $2,500 | Shortfall is payable into the brand fund |
| Technology fee | $899 per month plus a $575 setup fee | Begins about five months before opening; subject to annual increase |
| Successor franchise fee | 50% of the then-current initial fee | Payable on renewal |
| Transfer fee | 50% of the then-current initial fee for a control transfer, 25% otherwise | |
| Product and promotional purchases | Typically $5,000 to $11,000 per year | Payable to the franchisor or its affiliate |
Source: 2026 FDD Items 5 and 6.
The headline is 8% plus 3%. The number that actually lands on the P&L is higher, because the local advertising minimum is a dollar floor, not a percentage. Two percent of a median studio’s monthly gross sales is about $1,251, well under the $2,500 floor, so almost every studio in the system pays the floor rather than the percentage. The 2% rule only starts to bite above roughly $125,000 of monthly gross sales, which is an annualized $1.5 million that only a slice of the top quartile reaches.
Run the whole stack against the disclosed Item 19 quartiles and the fee load looks like this:
| Studio gross sales (Item 19) | Royalty 8% | Brand fund 3% | Local ad minimum | Technology fee | Total | Share of gross sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $475,979 (fourth-quartile average) | $38,078 | $14,279 | $30,000 | $10,788 | $93,145 | 19.6% |
| $750,643 (system median) | $60,051 | $22,519 | $30,000 | $10,788 | $123,358 | 16.4% |
| $1,205,826 (top-quartile average) | $96,466 | $36,175 | $30,000 | $10,788 | $173,429 | 14.4% |
Calculated from 2026 FDD Item 6 rates applied to the Item 19 gross sales figures. Assumes the brand fund stays at its current 3% rather than the disclosed 5% ceiling.
Two things fall out of that table. The fee burden is regressive, hitting a weak studio at nearly 20% of the top line while a strong one pays 14%. And the brand fund has a live headroom clause: a move from 3% to 5% adds $15,013 a year at the median studio without any change to your revenue. For how this compares across the category, see our fitness franchise cost comparison.
This is where most Orangetheory cost pages go wrong. Item 19 of the 2026 FDD covers the 1,189 franchised studios open and operating for the full 12 months ended February 28, 2026, sorted into quartiles by gross sales.
| Total gross sales | All studios | Top quarter | Second quarter | Third quarter | Fourth quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | $802,145 | $1,205,826 | $857,849 | $670,024 | $475,979 |
| Median | $750,643 | $1,136,849 | $855,427 | $668,456 | $493,135 |
| Highest | $2,870,191 | $2,870,191 | $975,601 | $750,643 | $592,502 |
| Lowest | $156,118 | $976,652 | $750,932 | $592,602 | $156,118 |
| Met or beat the system average | 518 / 44% | 98 / 33% | 142 / 48% | 143 / 48% | 169 / 57% |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 19, Section A. Gross sales are for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026.
The system median is $750,643, not the $1.0 million to $1.4 million range that franchise portals repeat. Only the top quarter of studios averages above $1.2 million, and even inside that quarter just 33% of studios cleared the system-wide average. The floor is $156,118, a studio that operated the full year on less than a quarter of the median.
Membership tells the same story from the other direction:
| Monthly member count | All studios | Top quarter | Second quarter | Third quarter | Fourth quarter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 444 | 630 | 477 | 386 | 284 |
| Median | 425 | 615 | 476 | 387 | 288 |
| Highest | 1,390 | 1,390 | 640 | 505 | 388 |
| Lowest | 105 | 338 | 287 | 198 | 105 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 19, Section B. A member is someone with a signed membership agreement who attends at least one class a month; fitness-aggregator visitors are excluded.
Divide the median gross sales by the median member count and you get roughly $147 per member per month, which is a useful sanity check on any pro forma someone hands you. That figure is derived arithmetic on two disclosed numbers, not a disclosed figure itself, but it is close enough to price your membership assumptions against. For the full distribution and how to read it against the category, see our Orangetheory Item 19 deep dive.
Item 19 is a revenue disclosure and nothing more. The general notes state plainly that the figures “do not reflect the cost of sales, operating expenses, or other costs or expenses that must be deducted from the Gross Sales information to calculate net income or profit,” and there is no company-owned operating statement anywhere in the document to fill the gap. Orangetheory’s affiliates operate 15 studios and disclose no financials for them.
So any studio-level margin you see quoted for this brand, including on this site’s older comparison tables, is somebody’s model rather than a disclosure. What you can build from the FDD without guessing is the fixed side: a $59,950 fee, a $764,577 floor on the build, a $123,000 annual franchisor take at the median, a 10-year term, and the $2,500 monthly advertising minimum that runs whether the studio is full or empty. Everything else, rent and payroll above all, you have to source from your own market and validate against operators. Our Item 19 median versus average guide covers why the median deserves the weight in that exercise.
Considering Orangetheory? 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.
| Year | Franchised at start | Opened | Non-renewals | Ceased, other reasons | Franchised at end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 1,281 | 53 | 1 | 22 | 1,311 |
| 2024 | 1,311 | 27 | 8 | 47 | 1,283 |
| 2025 | 1,283 | 13 | 26 | 61 | 1,209 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 20, Table No. 3. There were zero terminations and zero studios reacquired by the franchisor in all three years. Affiliate-owned studios held at 15.
Openings fell from 53 to 27 to 13 across three years while exits climbed from 23 to 55 to 87. That is a 5.8% contraction in 2025 on top of a 2.1% contraction in 2024. Item 19 corroborates it from a different angle: 95 franchised studios permanently closed during the 12 months ended February 28, 2026, and the FDD notes that every one of them had been open at least 12 months first, so these are not failed launches.
Read that against the fee table above. A shrinking system with a regressive fee load means the studios leaving are disproportionately the ones that were paying close to 20% of gross sales to the franchisor. Our guide to calculating a true closure rate from Item 20 walks through how to run these tables against the specific territory you are being offered, which is the version of this analysis that matters to you.
Table No. 5 gives the forward view: franchise agreements signed but not yet opened, state by state, against projected 2026 openings. Ask for the numbers in your state specifically before you accept any characterization of the pipeline.
The 2026 FDD does not publish a minimum net worth or liquid capital requirement. If a broker quotes you a specific threshold, that number came from a sales deck rather than the disclosure document, and it is fair to ask them to source it in writing. What the FDD does establish is the capital you have to bring: $764,577 at the absolute floor, of which $171,239 is a working capital reserve the franchisor treats as non-negotiable regardless of studio size.
The initial term is 10 years from the effective date, with one 10-year successor term available if you meet the conditions, including a successor fee of 50% of the then-current initial franchise fee. A studio signed today carries a fee reset in 2036.
Resale deserves more attention than it usually gets in this category. With 87 studios leaving the system in 2025 and transfers running across most states in Item 20 Table No. 2, existing studios are available. A resale brings a proven revenue history you can test against the Item 19 quartiles, an existing member base, and no 12-to-18-month ramp. It also brings whatever caused the seller to leave, so the first document to ask for is the studio’s actual monthly gross sales and member count against the quartile table above.
If you are choosing between Orangetheory’s boutique-studio model and a lower-capital 24-hour gym like Anytime Fitness, read Anytime Fitness vs Orangetheory: different members, different operator profiles, very different unit economics. If your shortlist is another studio concept such as F45 Training, F45 vs Orangetheory compares the two head-to-head. And before you commit capital at this level, weigh whether Orangetheory is a good franchise for your goals, or, if the investment is a stretch, scan the best fitness franchises under $200K. Buyers with deeper capital who want volume over boutique economics should also price the big-box model in our Planet Fitness franchise cost guide.
All figures above come from the OTF Franchisor, LLC 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, reporting gross sales for the 12 months ended February 28, 2026 and outlet counts as of December 31, 2025. Verify current terms with the franchisor and read the full document before you sign.
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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.
Item 7 of the 2026 FDD prices a single Orangetheory studio at $764,577 to $1,104,920, excluding the cost of purchasing real estate. The two largest lines are leasehold improvements and construction at $245,000 to $418,317 and three months of additional funds at a flat $171,239. Fitness equipment including the OTbeat system runs $119,122 to $163,424, and the technology system another $46,760 to $62,108. The estimate assumes 1,750 to 4,800 square feet of interior space, with 3,100 square feet described as the expected typical studio.
The initial franchise fee is $59,950 for a single studio, per Item 5 of the 2026 FDD. The same item discloses that initial franchise fees actually paid during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 ranged from $0 to $59,950. Under an area development agreement the pricing drops on volume: $150,000 for three locations and $237,500 for five, with each additional location at $47,500. Veterans and existing franchisees of Orangetheory, Anytime Fitness, Basecamp Fitness, The Bar Method or Waxing the City pay less on the same schedule.
Item 19 of the 2026 FDD reports average gross sales of $802,145 and median gross sales of $750,643 across the 1,189 franchised studios open for the full 12 months ended February 28, 2026. By quartile the averages run $1,205,826, $857,849, $670,024 and $475,979. The highest studio in the sample did $2,870,191 and the lowest did $156,118. Only 44% of studios met or exceeded the system average, which tells you the average is pulled up by the top of the range.
The 2026 FDD does not disclose profit. Item 19 covers gross sales and monthly member count only, and states explicitly that the figures do not reflect cost of sales, operating expenses, or any other cost you would deduct to reach net income. What you can calculate from the disclosures is the franchisor's share: 8% royalty plus a 3% brand fund plus the $2,500 monthly local advertising minimum plus the $899 monthly technology fee comes to roughly $123,000 a year at a median studio, about 16% of gross sales before rent, payroll or debt service.
Yes. The 2026 FDD offers a single-studio franchise agreement at a $59,950 initial fee, and Item 7 prices one location. Area development agreements require a commitment to at least two studios and price the fee at $47,500 per additional location, so the incentives favor multi-unit buyers. Resale is the other common route in, and with 26 non-renewals and 61 studios ceasing operations in 2025, existing studios do change hands.
Not in the United States. Item 20 of the 2026 FDD shows franchised studios at 1,311 at the end of 2023, 1,283 at the end of 2024 and 1,209 at the end of 2025. In 2025 franchisees opened 13 studios while 26 agreements were not renewed and 61 studios ceased operating for other reasons. Item 19 separately reports 95 franchised studios that permanently closed during the 12 months ended February 28, 2026, all of which had been open at least a year.
Item 19 Section B reports an average monthly member count of 444 and a median of 425 across 1,189 franchised studios. The top quartile averages 630 members and the fourth quartile 284. The highest studio counted 1,390 members and the lowest 105. Orangetheory counts a member as someone with a signed membership agreement who attends at least one class a month, and excludes fitness-aggregator visitors without an agreement.
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