Arby's franchise cost in 2026: $868,550 to $2,456,600 free-standing, a $37,500 fee, a 4% royalty, and a $1,201,669 median on 2,182 units. See the data.
Quick answer An Arby's franchise costs $868,550 to $2,456,600 for a free-standing restaurant and $651,550 to $1,379,600 for a non-free-standing one, per the 2026 FDD. The standard franchise fee is $37,500 plus a $12,500 development fee, and the royalty is 4% of gross sales for traditional restaurants. Median sales were $1,201,669 across 2,182 franchised traditional restaurants in fiscal 2025.
Under the Standard incentive in Item 5 of the 2026 Arby’s Franchisor, LLC disclosure, a developer who signs by March 31, 2027 and opens a traditional restaurant on schedule pays only the $12,500 development fee. The $37,500 franchise fee is waived, and the royalty starts at 0.5% of gross sales.
That fee break is small against the build. A leased free-standing restaurant runs $868,550 to $2,456,600 in Item 7, and a non-free-standing unit (inline, end cap with drive-thru, truck stop, travel plaza, convenience store) runs $651,550 to $1,379,600. The disclosure was issued March 26, 2026 and covers fiscal 2025, which ended December 28, 2025.
The other half of the headline is the split royalty. Traditional restaurants pay 4% of gross sales. Non-traditional restaurants, the small-footprint units in airports, hospitals, military bases, stadiums and campuses, pay 6.2%, but Arby’s forwards 2.2% of sales from that royalty to the advertising organization, so the gap is mostly a difference in how marketing gets paid.
| Item 7 line | Free-standing low | Free-standing high | Non-free-standing low | Non-free-standing high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Development fee | $6,250 | $12,500 | $6,250 | $12,500 |
| Franchise fee | $0 | $37,500 | $0 | $37,500 |
| Training fees and expenses | $10,000 | $25,000 | $10,000 | $25,000 |
| Lease deposits | $12,000 | $50,000 | $12,000 | $50,000 |
| Site costs | $0 | $451,000 | $0 | $4,000 |
| Landscaping | $0 | $45,000 | n/a | n/a |
| Architecture, engineering, design fees | $40,000 | $152,400 | $6,000 | $67,400 |
| Zoning and permitting | $1,000 | $112,000 | $1,000 | $18,000 |
| Building costs | $400,000 | $850,000 | $236,000 | $500,000 |
| Equipment | $225,000 | $325,000 | $225,000 | $325,000 |
| Computer hardware, software, POS | $32,000 | $55,000 | $32,000 | $42,000 |
| Decor package | $11,000 | $35,000 | $11,000 | $35,000 |
| Signage and drive-thru | $44,000 | $88,000 | $25,000 | $45,000 |
| Pre-opening wages | $21,300 | $41,200 | $21,300 | $41,200 |
| Opening inventory | $18,000 | $26,000 | $18,000 | $26,000 |
| Insurance | $10,000 | $16,000 | $10,000 | $16,000 |
| Working capital, 3 months | $33,000 | $100,000 | $33,000 | $100,000 |
| Rent, one month | $4,000 | $10,000 | $4,000 | $10,000 |
| Licenses, permits, utility deposits | $1,000 | $25,000 | $1,000 | $25,000 |
| Total | $868,550 | $2,456,600 | $651,550 | $1,379,600 |
The full Item 7 table and fee schedule are on the Arby’s dossier. Read the footnote before the totals. The free-standing range runs from a 1,600 to 3,000 square foot build-to-suit, where the landlord carries most of the development cost, to a conversion of an existing site, where you carry it. Arby’s states plainly that these ranges “do not reflect costs to construct a new building.” If you plan to buy a pad and build from scratch, your number sits outside this table.
Two smaller details. The development fee line shows $6,250 to $12,500, while Item 5 lists $12,500 for a traditional unit and $0 for a non-traditional one, so ask which figure applies to your deal. And one design image is available for new units, conversions and remodels, the Inspire image, which drives the building and decor lines.
Take the $1,201,669 median from Item 19. At the standard 4% royalty, a median traditional restaurant pays $48,067 a year. Item 6 also sets a minimum aggregate advertising spend of 5.2% of gross sales, made up of the Advertising and Marketing Service Fee (currently 3.22% to 5% depending on market), local market advertising and any local cooperative. That is another $62,487, for roughly $110,554 a year, or 9.2% of sales, before the optional order-ahead platform, which costs $50 a month plus 4% of each app order (35 cents minimum, $1.25 maximum).
The incentive changes the early years sharply. Under the Standard program the royalty steps from 0.5% in the first year to 1% for years two through four, 2% in year five and 4% after that, plus a $7,500 royalty credit. On the median, year-one royalty falls to about $6,008. The service fee is discounted 75% for the first three years, with a 0.85% floor, though cooperative dues are not reduced. There is also a sales test: a unit under $1,300,000 in trailing sales at its fourth and fifth anniversaries keeps a 2% royalty through year ten. Since the systemwide median is $1,201,669, that clause will matter to many new owners.
Transfers cost $17,500 for a first restaurant, and the franchise term is up to 20 years.
Item 19 reports annual unit volumes, which Arby’s defines as gross sales, for 2,182 franchised traditional restaurants in fiscal 2025. To get there it removed 21 restaurants that opened during the year, 6 that were closed for long stretches, the 115 company units sold to franchisees in December 2025, 4 multi-brand locations, all 19 non-traditional units, the 78 franchised restaurants that closed, and every company-owned store.
| Group | Restaurants | Median | Average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile | 546 | $1,762,595 | $1,856,734 |
| Second quartile | 545 | $1,337,485 | $1,345,917 |
| Third quartile | 545 | $1,082,218 | $1,086,788 |
| Bottom quartile | 546 | $821,946 | $809,495 |
| All restaurants | 2,182 | $1,201,669 | $1,274,787 |
The high was $4,008,289 and the low $390,125. By venue, 1,858 free-standing units had a $1,199,475 median, 177 travel plazas $1,406,679, and 147 other non-free-standing units $1,045,735. The Arby’s financials page breaks these out further.
What the disclosure omits matters more. There is no food cost, labor, occupancy or profit figure. The restaurants in the sample have operated for an average of 26 years, so this is a mature base, not a picture of what a 2027 opening does in year one. Excluding the 78 closures also lifts the floor. A bottom-quartile median of $821,946 against an $868,550 low-end build is the math to run with a lender.
Franchised units went from 2,305 at the start of 2023 to 2,316, then 2,286, then 2,344 at the end of fiscal 2025. Company stores fell from 1,110 to 921. The 2025 franchised gain is mostly refranchising: of the 136 franchised openings, 115 were company restaurants sold to franchisees, and Item 19 counts just 21 brand-new franchised openings.
Closures climbed each year. Franchised restaurants that terminated, did not renew or ceased operations numbered 44 in 2023, 63 in 2024 and 78 in 2025. Company closures were 17, 20 and 44. Item 20 projects 11 new franchised openings in the current year, with 9 signed agreements not yet open. One housekeeping note: Table 1 lists 3,413 total outlets at the start of 2025, while the prior year ended at 3,365.
Inspire Brands’ own franchising page for Arby’s lists a $1,000,000 net worth and $500,000 in liquid assets. The FDD itself does not state a financial minimum. Item 15 does not require you to run the restaurant personally, but you must employ two managers trained in the Arby’s program for each of your first two restaurants, four in total, and one per restaurant after that. Territory is thin: Item 12 says Arby’s may grant a protected area, typically a 1-mile radius for a free-standing unit, at its discretion, and you receive no exclusive territory. Non-traditional units get no protected area at all.
All three disclose 2026 numbers. Sonic Franchising LLC, an Inspire sibling, prices a traditional drive-in at $1,485,200 to $2,522,900 and a c-store unit from $670,200, charges a 5% royalty, and reports a $1,465,090 median across 3,057 franchised restaurants. Hardee’s Restaurants LLC puts a new-build at $1,385,000 to $2,637,395 excluding real estate, charges 3.5% for five years and 4% after on new builds, and reports a $1,294,442 median for franchised freestanding units. Arby’s posts the lowest median of the three, and also the lowest entry point. For wider context, see our QSR startup costs compared table, the best sandwich franchises and best burger franchises lists, and the general guide to how much it costs to open a franchise.
Arby’s is a mature system with a disclosed median near $1.2 million, a franchisor selling company stores, and closures rising three years running. Ask for the development fee in writing, confirm whether your site is a build-to-suit or a conversion, and call owners from the closed-restaurant list in Exhibit A-4. The $49 full report on the Arby’s dossier covers every Item, including the litigation and financial statements this post skips.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,400+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
A leased free-standing Arby's costs $868,550 to $2,456,600 to open under the 2026 FDD. Non-free-standing formats such as inline, end cap, truck stop and convenience store units run $651,550 to $1,379,600. Neither range includes buying land or constructing a new building from the ground up.
The royalty is 4% of gross sales for traditional restaurants and 6.2% for non-traditional ones. Traditional units also carry a 5.2% minimum combined advertising spend. On the non-traditional side, Arby's forwards 2.2% of sales from the 6.2% royalty to the advertising organization. Restaurants that qualify for the Standard incentive pay 0.5% in year one, rising to 4% by year six.
Median annual sales were $1,201,669 across 2,182 franchised traditional restaurants in fiscal 2025, on a $1,274,787 average. Travel plaza units ran higher at a $1,406,679 median. These are gross sales figures. The FDD discloses no costs or profit.
The franchisor is Arby's Franchisor, LLC, a Delaware company formed in 2015. Its parents are Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. and Inspire Brands, Inc., and Item 1 says the system is affiliated with other brands through private equity funds managed by Roark Capital Management, LLC.
Yes. You sign a Development Agreement even for one restaurant, and Item 7 is priced on a single-unit deal. Inspire Brands' franchising page lists a $1,000,000 net worth and $500,000 in liquid assets as the qualification bar.
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