Planet Fitness franchise cost: $1,282,500-$5,386,000 per the 2026 FDD. All 17 Item 7 lines, Item 19 revenue by third, and the 262-club EBITDA statement.
Quick answer One Planet Fitness club costs $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 per Item 7 of the 2026 FDD, or $1,282,500 to $3,769,000 if you finance the equipment instead of buying it. The initial franchise fee is $40,000, the royalty is 7% of EFT membership dues, and the national ad fund is 2%. Item 19 splits 2,291 franchised clubs into thirds rather than quoting one system average: median 2025 revenue was $1,311,575, $1,863,300 and $2,595,549 by third. The $40,000 fee is currently waived on clubs opened under an Area Development Agreement.
A Planet Fitness franchise costs $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 to open one location, per Item 7 of the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (issuance date May 22, 2026) parsed in VetMyFranchise’s database of 2,000+ FDDs. A $4.1 million spread on a single-club build looks like sloppy disclosure until you read the cover page, which explains exactly where it comes from: financing the fitness equipment holds the build to $1,282,500 to $3,769,000, and buying that equipment outright moves it to $2,385,000 to $5,386,000.
The second disclosure worth more than the headline is Item 19, which reports franchised clubs in three performance thirds rather than one system average. The gap between the bottom and upper third is larger than most people’s entire equity check. This guide works through both, plus the club-level operating cost statement that answers what it actually costs to run a Planet Fitness once it is open.
Item 7 of the 2026 FDD prices a single location and explicitly excludes the cost of purchasing or leasing real estate beyond the initial deposit.
| Expenditure | Low | High |
|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $0 | $40,000 |
| Site selection costs | $0 | $10,000 |
| Construction development plan review fee | $0 | $5,000 |
| Design resubmission fee | $0 | $5,000 |
| Leasehold improvements | $1,000,000 | $2,167,000 |
| Fitness equipment | $33,300 | $995,000 |
| Non-fitness equipment | $89,200 | $1,315,000 |
| Pre-sale and grand opening marketing | $40,000 | $120,000 |
| Exterior signs | $12,000 | $40,000 |
| Computer system, POS, and other supplies | $1,000 | $7,000 |
| Insurance (first-year premium) | $25,000 | $45,000 |
| Real estate lease deposits | $0 | $95,000 |
| Other deposits | $0 | $23,000 |
| Professional fees | $2,000 | $25,000 |
| Out-of-pocket initial training expenses | $2,000 | $10,000 |
| Licenses and bonds | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| Additional funds, three months | $68,000 | $459,000 |
| Total | $1,282,500 | $5,386,000 |
Source: Planet Fitness Franchising LLC 2026 FDD, Item 7. Excludes the cost of purchasing or leasing real estate.
Leasehold improvements are the story. At $1,000,000 to $2,167,000 they are the largest line by a wide margin, and Item 7 Note 3 says you will typically lease a building of approximately 15,000 to 25,000 square feet. Note 3 also warns that costs may significantly exceed the range in dense urban areas or if you build your own building. That puts Planet Fitness at the top end of what it costs to open a franchise, where entry ranges from five figures for a home-based service brand to several million for large-format retail.
Fitness equipment must be purchased from franchisor affiliate PF Equipment before opening. Item 5 and Item 7 Note 4 give both paths:
| Equipment | Finance (down payment) | Purchase outright |
|---|---|---|
| Fitness equipment | $33,300 to $298,500 | $333,000 to $995,000 |
| Non-fitness equipment | $89,200 to $394,500 | $892,000 to $1,315,000 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 5 and Item 7 Note 4. Down payments are typically 10% to 30% of the amount financed.
Financing moves roughly $1.1M of the high-end build off the opening check and onto a payment schedule. That is why the same FDD quotes a $1,282,500 floor and a $5,386,000 ceiling: they are not the same club at different sizes, they are largely the same club under different capital structures. Any pro forma that uses the low end of Item 7 while assuming no equipment debt service is double-counting the benefit.
The 2026 FDD does not disclose a minimum net worth or liquid capital requirement. Item 17 references the franchisor’s “capital and liquidity requirements” for transferees without publishing a number. If a broker or a franchise portal quotes you a specific liquid capital threshold, that figure did not come from the disclosure document, and you should ask them to source it in writing.
What the FDD does document is the working capital assumption: additional funds of $68,000 to $459,000 for the first three months, covering payroll, debt service, ongoing pre-sale marketing, and day-to-day expenses. Item 7 Note 10 adds that you will incur additional expenses after that initial period and may need capital for longer.
Planet Fitness is not a first-time franchisee brand. A seven-figure build with a disclosed three-month capital window rewards operators who have done this before, and the multi-unit incentives below reinforce that.
| Fee | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 7% of gross monthly and annual membership fees via EFT Dues Draft | Not 7% of total revenue |
| National Advertising Fund | 2% of monthly membership fees and certain annual fees, capped at 3% of EFT Dues Draft | During 2026 only: 2% of EFT Dues Draft plus 1% of Monthly EFT |
| Local Advertising Funds | Greater of $60,000 or 7% of cumulative Monthly EFT per year | During 2026 only: greater of $50,000 or 6% |
| Join Fee | 20% of the regular monthly membership fee, or 5% of a prepaid membership | Charged once per new membership, paid to the franchisor |
| Re-equip costs | Currently $333,000 to $995,000 | As the franchisor specifies |
| Remodel costs | Currently $250,000 to $1,200,000 | May be required as frequently as every 12 years |
| Transfer fee | $10,000 plus expenses capped at $10,000 per club | Waived for certain intra-owner transfers |
| Interest on late payments | 10% annualized, or the highest lawful rate if lower | |
| Special marketing programs | Up to 7% of Monthly EFT for a single month |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 6.
Three things here are worth more than the headline 7%.
The royalty base is narrower than “gross revenue.” Royalty is calculated on EFT Dues Draft, which Item 19 defines as recurring monthly and annual membership fees billed to members. Paid-in-full memberships, retail sales, and other revenue sit outside it. Guides that describe this as “7% of gross revenue” are overstating the royalty and understating your take on ancillary sales. For the full schedule pulled straight from the disclosure document, see the Planet Fitness fee breakdown.
Local advertising has a hard dollar floor. The greater of $60,000 or 7% of cumulative Monthly EFT means a slow club does not get to spend less. At the disclosed bottom-third revenue level the percentage governs, but the $60,000 floor binds any club that opens weak. Our Anytime Fitness vs Planet Fitness franchise comparison puts both fee structures side by side.
The Join Fee is a per-transaction charge to the franchisor. Twenty percent of the first month’s dues on every new member is not a line most cost guides carry, and in a business that churns members it recurs indefinitely.
Item 19 of the 2026 FDD reports 2025 EFT revenue for 2,291 franchised clubs that were open and operating the entire 12 months ended December 31, 2025, out of 2,432 franchised clubs in the United States including Puerto Rico. Clubs are sorted into thirds by annual EFT revenue.
| 2025 EFT revenue, franchised clubs only | Bottom third | Middle third | Upper third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clubs | 764 | 764 | 763 |
| Average annual EFT revenue | $1,260,539 | $1,873,231 | $2,705,811 |
| Median annual EFT revenue | $1,311,575 | $1,863,300 | $2,595,549 |
| High | $1,596,261 | $2,170,135 | $5,271,381 |
| Low | $429,581 | $1,597,497 | $2,171,673 |
| Share that met or beat their third’s average | 57% | 48% | 39% |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 19. EFT revenue excludes paid-in-full memberships, retail sales, other revenue, returns, and taxes.
Read the last row carefully. Within the upper third, only 39% of clubs met or exceeded their own group’s average, which means a handful of very strong clubs pull that $2,705,811 average above where most upper-third clubs actually sit. The median of $2,595,549 is the more honest center. The same skew shows in the high value: one club in the sample drew $5,271,381, roughly double the upper-third median.
The bottom-third low of $429,581 is the number to sit with. That is a real club, open the full year, carrying a build that started at $1,282,500. This is exactly the reconciliation that Item 19 analysis exists to force, and it is the one an averaged headline number erases.
Item 7 covers what it costs to open. For what it costs to run, the 2026 FDD includes a Revenue and Operations Statement for 262 corporate-owned clubs for fiscal 2025, split into thirds by net revenue (88 bottom, 87 middle, 87 upper). Item 19 states plainly why franchisee expense data is absent: the franchisor does not receive complete expense information from franchisees.
| Annual, per club (average) | Bottom third | Middle third | Upper third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Membership sales, EFT | $1,345,489 | $1,996,352 | $2,684,521 |
| Other membership sales | ($22,589) | ($15,010) | ($25,831) |
| Net revenue | $1,322,899 | $1,981,342 | $2,658,690 |
| Payroll related | $309,345 | $346,644 | $381,069 |
| Local marketing | $83,446 | $122,983 | $168,418 |
| National advertising fund | $26,306 | $37,966 | $50,998 |
| Royalties | $95,680 | $140,450 | $189,608 |
| Utilities | $68,432 | $76,602 | $91,936 |
| Supplies and maintenance | $63,157 | $79,884 | $97,154 |
| Miscellaneous | $91,914 | $104,665 | $133,023 |
| Operating costs excluding rent | $738,299 | $909,213 | $1,112,232 |
| EBITDAR | $584,600 | $1,072,129 | $1,546,458 |
| Rent expense | $303,761 | $363,277 | $441,654 |
| Total operating costs | $1,042,060 | $1,272,490 | $1,553,886 |
| EBITDA | $280,839 | $708,853 | $1,104,804 |
| EBITDA % of net revenue | 21% | 36% | 42% |
| Average square feet | 19,760 | 19,619 | 21,472 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 19, 2025 Revenue and Operations Statement, corporate-owned clubs. Franchised-club expense data is not disclosed.
Four observations a generic cost estimate will not give you.
Marketing outspends royalty. Item 19 reports a combined marketing expense line of $160,967 for the middle third against $140,450 in royalties. Buyers who budget “7% plus 2%” and stop there are missing the larger of the two obligations, because the local advertising requirement is a floor-and-percentage rule rather than a flat 2%.
Payroll barely scales. From bottom third to upper third, net revenue rises from $1,322,899 to $2,658,690 while payroll rises only from $309,345 to $381,069. That is the operating leverage in this model, and it is the reason the EBITDA margin climbs from 21% to 42% across the thirds rather than staying flat.
“Other membership sales” is negative in every third. Item 19 attributes that to returned checks, uncollected revenue, and refunds, and discloses that monthly declines and returns at corporate clubs ranged from 2.3% to 38.1% of gross membership EFT in 2025. Signed members and collected dues are different numbers, and the spread between them is wide enough to move a club between thirds.
These are corporate clubs, not franchised clubs. They may carry different lease terms, different insurance pricing (Item 19 Note 8 says insurance reflects bulk-buy pricing across multiple clubs), and a cost of capital you will not have.
The 2026 FDD does not disclose franchisee profit. EBITDA from the corporate statement is the closest disclosed proxy, and Item 19 Note 10 is explicit about what it leaves out: income taxes, depreciation, amortization, debt service, any expense related to the capital structure of the business, and any reserve for future capital expenditures. It also excludes the initial franchise fee and other initial investment costs, because these clubs had been open more than a year.
Note 3 adds one more exclusion that matters over a full term: costs to replace equipment and remodel the premises are not expensed in the statement at all. They are accounted for as depreciating assets. So the disclosed re-equip range of $333,000 to $995,000 and remodel range of $250,000 to $1,200,000 sit entirely outside every EBITDA figure above.
Stack the disclosures against each other and the owner-economics question answers itself:
That last line is the deal. You can model your own numbers against these ranges, adjusting revenue, financing structure, and build-out assumptions, but the honest version of the exercise starts from bottom-third performance and asks whether the loan still services.
Considering Planet Fitness? 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.
Planet Fitness sells recurring dues rather than transactions. Item 19 defines EFT revenue as revenue on recurring monthly and annual membership fees billed to members, which is also the base the 7% royalty is calculated on. The 2026 FDD confirms that a Classic membership and a Black Card membership must be offered by a club at all times, and that the Black Card may require a 12-month commitment. Black Card benefits disclosed in Item 19 include tanning, half-priced beverages, massage chair and hydromassage use, access to any other Planet Fitness club, free guest privileges at the member’s home club, digital fitness content, and affinity program discounts.
The FDD does not disclose membership prices or member counts per club. Widely cited figures of roughly $10 per month for Classic and roughly $24.99 for Black Card come from consumer-facing sources, not the disclosure document, and should be treated accordingly.
What the disclosed cost structure shows is why the model works at all: a middle-third corporate club generated $1,981,342 of net revenue from a roughly 19,619 square foot box staffed at $346,644 of annual payroll. Item 19 puts that at $100.99 of net revenue per square foot, against a payroll line that a full-service gym with trainers and class programming could not match. Restaurant franchises, where food and labor routinely consume the majority of revenue, do not produce 36% EBITDA at the unit level.
Item 20 of the 2026 FDD reports the system-wide outlet summary through December 31, 2025:
| Outlet type | End of 2023 | End of 2024 | End of 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Franchised | 2,201 | 2,298 | 2,432 |
| Company-owned | 254 | 270 | 277 |
| Total | 2,455 | 2,568 | 2,709 |
Source: 2026 FDD Item 20, Table No. 1.
In 2025, franchisees opened 141 clubs and 7 franchised outlets were terminated. There were no non-renewals, no outlets reacquired by the franchisor, and no clubs that ceased operations for other reasons. Item 20 Table No. 5 reports 86 franchise agreements signed but not yet opened as of December 31, 2025, with 53 projected new franchised outlets in the next fiscal year based on signed leases.
That is a net gain of 134 franchised clubs in 2025 with almost no attrition, a materially different risk profile from a brand where terminations and non-renewals run in the dozens.
The 2026 FDD offers a single-unit Franchise Agreement and Item 7 prices one location. But two Item 5 and Item 6 disclosures make development agreements considerably cheaper per club:
The cost of those incentives is an Area Development Fee of $10,000 per location committed, and a schedule you are obligated to complete. That obligation is the real risk of the structure: you commit to the full schedule before you know which third your first club lands in. The reality of multi-unit ownership is that the incentives are priced for operators who already know their answer to that question.
Existing multi-unit operators expanding a franchise portfolio are the natural buyer here. First-time buyers pay the full fee, start royalties on day one, and carry the same $1,282,500 floor.
Item 7 Note 3 says Planet Fitness businesses are typically located in strip centers, malls, and freestanding locations, and that you will typically lease approximately 15,000 to 25,000 square feet. The corporate clubs in the Item 19 operations statement averaged between 19,619 and 21,472 square feet, which is a useful reality check on the low end of that range.
The FDD does not publish a build-out timeline, but it does define the marketing window around opening. Per Item 7 Note 5, the pre-sale and grand opening marketing period begins no less than 60 days before you intend to commence regular operations and may run as long as 180 days after opening. You must spend $20,000 to $30,000 per 30-day period, capped at $120,000 absent a material delay.
Rent is not in Item 7 beyond the $0 to $95,000 lease deposit. The disclosed corporate rent expense gives you a benchmark instead: $303,761 to $441,654 per year on average across the thirds, which on a roughly 20,000 square foot box is a meaningful anchor for lease negotiation.
The disclosed numbers point at one buyer profile. Operating leverage is real and shows up as a 21% to 42% EBITDA spread across performance thirds, but the leverage only pays if your site lands above the bottom third. A bottom-third club produced $280,839 of average EBITDA before debt service on a build that started at $1,282,500, and the franchise term of 12 years leaves room for a $250,000 to $1,200,000 remodel inside it.
If you have the capital depth to fund a development schedule and the site-selection discipline to avoid bottom-third real estate, the recurring-dues model produces margins that transaction-based franchises do not. If either of those is missing, the same disclosures show exactly how the downside looks.
If the seven-figure entry cost is the sticking point, weigh Planet Fitness against the fitness franchises you can open for under $200K, which trade this scale and margin structure for a dramatically lower cost of entry, or run a broader fitness franchise cost comparison before you commit.
All figures above come from the Planet Fitness Franchising LLC Franchise Disclosure Document with an issuance date of May 22, 2026, reporting results for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025. Verify current terms directly with the franchisor, and read the full document, which the FTC Franchise Rule requires you receive at least 14 calendar days before you sign or pay. Our Planet Fitness FDD analysis runs the Item 7 against Item 19 comparison straight from the source document.
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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.
The total initial investment is $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 per the 2026 FDD Item 7, excluding the cost of purchasing or leasing real estate. The single biggest line is leasehold improvements at $1,000,000 to $2,167,000. The FDD cover page splits the total by how you pay for equipment: $1,282,500 to $3,769,000 if you finance it, and $2,385,000 to $5,386,000 if you purchase it outright.
One club is $1,282,500 to $5,386,000 per the 2026 FDD Item 7. That figure covers a single location and excludes real estate purchase or lease costs beyond the deposit. If you sign an Area Development Agreement you also pay an Area Development Fee of $10,000 per location committed, and $30,000 per location if you are replacing a territory covered by an earlier development agreement that was terminated before completion.
Per the 2026 FDD Item 7: franchise fee $0 to $40,000, site selection costs $0 to $10,000, construction plan review $0 to $5,000, design resubmission $0 to $5,000, leasehold improvements $1,000,000 to $2,167,000, fitness equipment $33,300 to $995,000, non-fitness equipment $89,200 to $1,315,000, pre-sale and grand opening marketing $40,000 to $120,000, exterior signs $12,000 to $40,000, POS and computer systems $1,000 to $7,000, insurance $25,000 to $45,000, lease deposits $0 to $95,000, other deposits $0 to $23,000, professional fees $2,000 to $25,000, out-of-pocket training expenses $2,000 to $10,000, licenses and bonds $10,000 to $25,000, and three months of additional funds at $68,000 to $459,000.
The 2026 FDD does not disclose franchisee profit. It discloses franchised club revenue and corporate-owned club profitability separately. For fiscal 2025, franchised clubs in the middle third averaged $1,873,231 in annual EFT revenue. The closest disclosed earnings figure is the corporate-owned operations statement: average EBITDA of $280,839 in the bottom third, $708,853 in the middle third and $1,104,804 in the upper third. Those are company clubs, not franchised clubs, and Item 19 Note 10 states EBITDA excludes income taxes, depreciation, amortization, debt service, and any reserve for future capital expenditures. Subtract your own loan payments and equipment reserve from those numbers before treating them as owner income.
Per the 2026 FDD Item 19 operations statement for 262 corporate-owned clubs in fiscal 2025, a middle-third club averaged $1,272,490 in total annual operating costs including rent. The lines were payroll $346,644, local marketing $122,983, national ad fund $37,966, royalties $140,450, utilities $76,602, supplies and maintenance $79,884, miscellaneous $104,665 and rent $363,277. Bottom-third clubs averaged $1,042,060 and upper-third clubs $1,553,886. Costs to replace equipment and remodel are not in these totals; Item 19 Note 3 accounts for them as depreciating assets instead.
The royalty is 7% of total gross monthly and annual membership fees payable to you via EFT Dues Draft, per the 2026 FDD Item 6. That base matters: EFT Dues Draft is recurring membership dues only, so paid-in-full memberships, retail sales, and other revenue sit outside the royalty calculation. The national advertising fund is 2% of monthly membership fees and certain annual fees, capped at 3% of EFT Dues Draft, and during 2026 only it runs at 2% of EFT Dues Draft plus 1% of Monthly EFT.
Per the 2026 FDD Item 19, across 2,291 franchised clubs open the entire 12 months ended December 31, 2025, average annual EFT revenue was $1,260,539 in the bottom third, $1,873,231 in the middle third and $2,705,811 in the upper third. Medians were $1,311,575, $1,863,300 and $2,595,549. The lowest club in the sample drew $429,581 and the highest $5,271,381. EFT revenue counts recurring membership dues only and excludes retail sales, paid-in-full memberships, returns and taxes.
The 2026 FDD does not disclose membership counts per club. It discloses revenue. What it does disclose about billing is worth more: at corporate-owned clubs in 2025, monthly declines and returns ranged from 2.3% to 38.1% of gross membership EFT, and the resulting Other Membership Sales line was negative in all three performance thirds. Signed members and collected dues are not the same number, and any membership figure a broker quotes you should be tested against that spread.
The 2026 FDD offers a single-unit Franchise Agreement, and Item 7 prices one location. But Item 5 shows where the incentives point: the $40,000 initial franchise fee is currently waived for franchise agreements issued under an Area Development Agreement, and under a development agreement Item 6 grants a Royalty Incentive Period that suspends royalties until the earlier of the required opening date or 180 days after the club opens. A single-unit buyer pays the full fee and starts paying royalties immediately.
Per the 2026 FDD Item 6: a national ad fund fee of 2% of monthly membership fees capped at 3% of EFT Dues Draft, local advertising of the greater of $60,000 or 7% of cumulative Monthly EFT per year, a Join Fee of 20% of the regular monthly membership fee or 5% of a prepaid membership on every new membership, re-equip costs currently $333,000 to $995,000, remodel costs currently $250,000 to $1,200,000 which may be required as frequently as every 12 years, 10% annualized interest on late payments, and a $10,000 transfer fee. During 2026 only, the local advertising floor drops to the greater of $50,000 or 6% of cumulative Monthly EFT.
The disclosed numbers reward scale and punish a weak site. A middle-third corporate club produced $708,853 of average EBITDA on $1,981,342 of net revenue, a 36% margin. A bottom-third club produced $280,839 on $1,322,899, a 21% margin, and that is before debt service on a build that started at $1,282,500. The franchise term is 12 years from the date you begin operations, and a remodel of $250,000 to $1,200,000 can land inside it. If your capital plan only works at middle-third performance, you do not have a capital plan.
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