Subway franchise cost 2026: Item 7 runs $263K-$630K traditional, $227K-$458K non-traditional, $15,000 fee, 12.5% ongoing, and zero Item 19 disclosure.
Quick answer A traditional Subway costs $263,000 to $630,000 to open per the 2026 FDD, or $227,000 to $458,000 for a non-traditional location, on a $15,000 franchise fee. Ongoing fees are 8% royalty plus a 4.5% ad fund, so 12.5% of gross sales leaves weekly, the highest combined rate of any national sandwich chain in our database. Subway's 2026 FDD makes no Item 19 financial performance representation, so the document discloses no revenue figure of any kind. US franchised units fell from 19,502 to 18,773 during 2025.
A traditional Subway costs $263,000 to $630,000 to open, per the Item 7 table in the 2026 FDD filed by Doctor’s Associates LLC. The $227,000 Subway franchise cost quoted on most portals is the floor for a different build entirely: a non-traditional location inside a convenience store, hospital, campus, or travel plaza, which runs $227,000 to $458,000.
Both ranges are accurate. Neither one tells you what the restaurant earns, because Subway’s 2026 FDD contains no Item 19 financial performance representation at all. The cost side of this deal is fully disclosed and the revenue side is disclosed nowhere in the document, which is the fact that should govern how you evaluate the brand. Everything below comes from that filing, three peer FDDs, and the SBA 7(a) loan record.
How much a Subway franchise costs depends on which of the two builds you are being quoted. Item 7 discloses low, mid, and high estimates for every line, and the traditional-restaurant column is the one to underwrite against for a standalone store.
| Item 7 line | Low | Mid | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee | $15,000 | $15,000 | $15,000 |
| Real property (deposit) | $3,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| Leasehold improvements | $75,000 | $150,000 | $250,000 |
| Equipment, furniture, decor | $110,000 | $160,000 | $210,000 |
| Optional security system | $2,500 | $3,000 | $4,000 |
| Freight | $8,000 | $11,000 | $15,000 |
| Exterior signage | $5,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| Opening inventory | $7,500 | $10,000 | $15,000 |
| Supplies and smallwares | $5,000 | $7,500 | $9,000 |
| Training expenses | $4,500 | $5,500 | $6,500 |
| Insurance, legal, accounting | $2,500 | $7,000 | $13,500 |
| Grand opening advertising | $2,500 | $3,500 | $4,500 |
| Miscellaneous | $8,000 | $16,000 | $20,000 |
| Additional funds (3 months) | $15,000 | $30,000 | $45,000 |
| Total, traditional | $263,000 | $430,000 | $630,000 |
| Total, non-traditional | $227,000 | $325,000 | $458,000 |
Subway’s stated totals sit $500 to $1,500 below the sum of its own disclosed lines, so treat them as rounded rather than exact.
The additional funds line is where buyers get hurt. Note 8 defines it as three months of start-up expenses that include payroll but do “not include royalty, advertising fees, or food costs or any allowance for an owner’s draw.” At the top of the range, $45,000 does not fund three months of the 12.5% franchisor take, does not buy a single case of product, and pays you nothing. Subway adds that three months “is not a representation of when you should expect to break even, if ever.” Bring separate money.
The typical restaurant measures about 1,375 square feet, ranging from 300 to 2,000, and Subway estimates rent at $1,000 to $6,000 a month. Fresh Forward 2.0 is the required decor package for every new restaurant, and existing locations must remodel to it at their own cost.
One correction, because the brand’s reputation for cheapness runs ahead of the filing. Of the 607 Food and Beverage systems in our database with a disclosed Item 7 low end, 274 open for less than Subway’s $263,000 traditional floor.
The Subway franchise fee of $15,000 is the lowest among the four national sandwich systems and less than half of Jimmy John’s $35,000. Honorably discharged US veterans buying a first franchise pay $7,500. Existing franchisees in substantial compliance pay $7,500 for additional restaurants, and a satellite location runs $5,000.
The ongoing side reverses that advantage completely. Subway royalty fees run 8% of total gross sales and the advertising contribution another 4.5%, both drafted weekly. Combined, 12.5% of every dollar leaves the register before food, labor, or rent. That is the highest combined rate of any national sandwich chain in our database, per 2026 FDDs:
| Brand | Royalty | Ad fund | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subway | 8% | 4.5% | 12.5% |
| Jersey Mike’s | 6.5% | 5% | 11.5% |
| Firehouse Subs | 6% | 5% | 11% |
| Jimmy John’s | 6% | up to 4.5% | up to 10.5% |
Per $100,000 of sales, Subway collects $12,500 where Jimmy John’s collects $10,500, and Item 17 sets the agreement term at twenty years. Item 6 adds a $75 monthly technology fee, roughly $57 a month for the required point-of-sale hardware, $1,000 to $6,000 a year in insurance, a $3,750 renewal fee, and a $7,500 transfer fee.
Laid side by side, the two items describe the trade exactly: the cheapest entry in national sandwich franchising, at the most expensive weekly rate, for twenty years.
Here is the whole of Subway’s earnings disclosure in the 2026 FDD: “We do not make any representations about a franchisee’s future financial performance or the past financial performance of company-owned or franchised outlets.”
That is legal, and disqualifying for most underwriting approaches. No disclosed revenue or profit figure exists for a Subway franchise at any location, so any unit volume you have seen quoted did not come from the current document, and the sales team is not authorized to give you one.
A disclosed Item 19 is itself a filtered instrument. Firehouse Subs reports median annual sales of $986,432 in its 2026 FDD with a median store-level EBITDA of $95,743, or 9.7% of sales, drawn from 704 restaurants. Another 433 continuously operated restaurants were excluded for not submitting complete profit and loss statements. Even the good disclosures describe a selected group, the mechanism our Subway Item 19 and survivorship bias breakdown walks through. Subway skips the step entirely.
The document leaves two workarounds open. Item 20 carries the franchisee contact list, and Exhibit B-2 names every franchisee who ceased operating during fiscal 2025, the more useful list and the one nobody calls. Item 19 also permits a franchisor to hand you the actual records of an existing outlet you are considering buying, which is a strong argument for a resale here.
Evaluating Subway seriously? The brand dossier pulls the full Item 7 line detail, the Item 6 fee schedule, state-level closure data from Item 20, and litigation history into one buyer-facing analysis: Subway’s FDD breakdown.
All four filed 2026 FDDs, and the investment figures below are the traditional-restaurant format in each case.
| Brand | Item 7, traditional | Franchise fee | Ongoing | Item 19 median |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subway | $263,000 to $630,000 | $15,000 | 12.5% | none disclosed |
| Jimmy John’s | $366,200 to $733,500 | $35,000 | up to 10.5% | $955,639 (2,581 units) |
| Firehouse Subs | $405,350 to $875,950 | $20,000 | 11% | $986,432 (704 units) |
| Jersey Mike’s | $436,176 to $1,162,228 | $20,000 | 11.5% | $1,305,850 (2,606 units) |
Subway’s floor sits $103,200 below Jimmy John’s and $173,176 below Jersey Mike’s. It also carries two full points more in ongoing fees than Jimmy John’s and is the only one of the four that will not say what a unit sells. Choosing on entry cost alone trades $103,000 to $173,000 of upfront capital for a permanently higher rate and a blank revenue line. Our sandwich franchise comparison and the three-way Subway breakdown work through those trade-offs.
Item 20 tracks the US franchised base at 20,576 outlets entering 2023, 20,133 entering 2024, 19,502 entering 2025, and 18,773 at the end of it. Net change by year: down 443, down 631, down 729. The contraction is accelerating, and Subway operates zero company-owned outlets, so every one of those units was somebody’s business.
The 2025 detail matters more than the headline. Subway reports 499 outlets in the opened column, but its own footnote says reopens of previously closed restaurants account for approximately 56% of that figure, which puts genuinely new restaurants closer to 220. On the other side of the ledger: 1,026 restaurants ceased operations for reasons other than termination or non-renewal, 46 franchises were not renewed, and 4 were terminated. As of December 31, 2025, another 792 locations were temporarily closed.
A shrinking system reads differently from the buy side. Resale supply is heavy, with 1,307 transfers recorded in 2025, so you can negotiate on price and read a real P&L before you sign. And Subway is still a franchise selling territory it does not protect: Item 12 states you receive no exclusive territory, no radius restrictions, and no population requirements limiting where the next Subway opens. In a system that lost 729 units last year, the near-term risk shifts from a new neighbor to a dying co-tenant on your strip.
Subway appears in SBA 7(a) lending in volume. From fiscal 2020 through the March 31, 2026 data release, lenders approved 367 Subway loans worth $123.0 million, at a median gross approval of $210,000 and a median term of 120 months.
That median is the tell. Jersey Mike’s borrowers took a median $431,200 across 259 loans, Jimmy John’s $516,350 across 160, and Firehouse Subs $384,200 across 170. Subway deals are smaller because the builds cost less and because more of them fund an acquisition than a construction project: 129 of the 367 were coded change of ownership against 39 coded as startups opening a new business.
Two things temper the picture. Six Subway loans have charged off, 1.6% of the file, against zero charge-offs at Jersey Mike’s and Jimmy John’s over the same window. And approval volume has declined every year, from 77 in FY2020 to 64, 54, 49, 48, and 45 in FY2025. Lenders are still writing Subway paper, and they are writing less of it each year.
Item 10 adds one option most brands do not offer: Subway will guarantee a loan made to you for a one-time fee of 1% of the loan amount. Equipment leasing runs through Huntington Technology Finance.
Subway’s franchise requirements are lighter than the peer set on paper. The FDD sets out no minimum net worth or liquid capital figure for a standard franchisee, and Item 11 discloses 36 hours of web-based instruction, 36 hours of facilitated classroom training, and 72 hours on the job, 144 total. Item 15 requires the restaurant to be under your direct on-premises supervision or that of a trained full-time manager, who is not required to hold equity, so semi-absentee ownership is technically permitted. At a 12.5% franchisor rate on a sub-$1M sandwich box, paying that manager out of what is left is difficult arithmetic. This is an owner-behind-the-counter business.
Subway works for a buyer who wants the lowest capital entry in national sandwich franchising, will work the store, is targeting a resale with three years of tax returns in hand, and is comfortable underwriting from that store’s actual numbers rather than a system disclosure. Veterans get a real discount, and operators who already run one Subway get another at half fee.
It does not work for a buyer who needs a disclosed earnings baseline before signing, wants contractual territory protection, is modeling a manager-run passive investment, or is underwriting on system size. Subway is the second-largest system in our database of 2,126 franchise brands and it has lost 1,803 US units in three years. Underwrite the specific store, not the size of the system.
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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 $263,000 and $630,000 for a traditional restaurant, and between $227,000 and $458,000 for a non-traditional location such as a convenience store, hospital, or campus site, per the Item 7 table in the 2026 FDD. Those totals include the $15,000 franchise fee, $75,000 to $250,000 of leasehold improvements on a traditional build, $110,000 to $210,000 of equipment and decor, and $15,000 to $45,000 of additional funds. Read Note 8 before you treat that last line as working capital: it covers three months of start-up expenses including payroll, but explicitly excludes royalty, advertising fees, food costs, and any owner's draw.
Subway does not disclose it. The 2026 FDD states plainly that the franchisor makes no representations about a franchisee's future financial performance or the past performance of franchised outlets, which means there is no Item 19 average, median, or range to work from. Any Subway AUV number circulating online did not come from the current disclosure document. For comparison, the brands that do disclose report median annual sales of $955,639 (Jimmy John's, 2,581 restaurants), $986,432 (Firehouse Subs, 704 restaurants), and $1,305,850 (Jersey Mike's, 2,606 restaurants) in their 2026 FDDs. If you want a Subway number, it has to come from a specific store's tax returns and P&L.
Smaller box, lighter build, and a lower franchise fee. The typical Subway measures about 1,375 square feet with a range from 300 to 2,000, and leasehold improvements run $75,000 to $250,000 on a traditional build. Jersey Mike's discloses a total range of $436,176 to $1,162,228 in its 2026 FDD against Subway's $263,000 to $630,000, and charges $20,000 for the franchise against Subway's $15,000. The gap narrows over the term, though: Subway takes 12.5% of gross sales weekly and Jersey Mike's takes 11.5%, so the cheaper build carries the more expensive royalty for twenty years.
Yes, and the lending record proves it. SBA 7(a) FOIA data shows 367 Subway loans approved from fiscal 2020 through March 31, 2026, totaling $123.0 million at a median gross approval of $210,000 and a median term of 120 months. Volume has fallen every year in that window, from 77 approvals in FY2020 to 45 in FY2025. Six of the 367 have charged off, against zero for Jersey Mike's across 259 loans and zero for Jimmy John's across 160. Subway also discloses in Item 10 that it will guarantee a franchisee loan for a one-time fee of 1% of the loan amount.
Yes, and it is the more common SBA path. Of the 367 Subway 7(a) loans since fiscal 2020, 129 were coded change of ownership against 39 coded as startups opening a new business, and the 2026 FDD reports 1,307 outlet transfers during 2025. The advantage is decisive given the missing Item 19: Item 19 permits a franchisor to hand you the actual records of an existing outlet you are considering buying, so a resale gives you a real P&L where a new build gives you nothing. Price in two things before you sign. Existing locations must remodel to the Fresh Forward 2.0 decor and equipment package at the franchisee's sole expense, and the transfer fee is $7,500.
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