# McDonald's USA, LLC

> McDonald's USA, LLC (founded 2005) is a Food & Beverage franchise with 13,706 units. Franchise fee $45,000, total investment $525,000–$2,728,000, royalty 4.0% to 5.0%, Item 19 financial performance disclosed.

**Last updated**: 2026-06-05
**URL**: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md

## Quick Verdict

**Best for:** McDonald's USA, LLC fits first-time franchise buyers looking for a mature food & beverage concept.

**Strengths**

- Discloses Item 19 financial performance
- 13,706 units — strong system scale

## Key Facts

- **Industry**: Food & Beverage
- **Year founded**: 2005 (21 years in business)
- **FDD year on file**: 2026
- **Units (Item 20)**: 13,706 total franchised; 147 opened in most recent year
- **Company-owned units**: 644
- **Item 19 (financial performance representation)**: Yes

## Investment

- **Franchise fee**: $45,000
- **Total initial investment**: $525,000 – $2,728,000
- **Royalty**: 4.0% to 5.0%
- **Ad fund**: 4%

## Item 19 Financial Performance

- **Reporting period**: 2024
## Direct Competitors

| Metric | **McDonald's USA, LLC** (this brand) | VI BrandCo, LLC (Similar price) | DOCTOR'S ASSOCIATES LLC (Biggest system) | Vintage Hospitality Group, LLC (Top-rated) |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Franchise fee | $45K | $35K | $15K | $50K |
| Total investment | $525K–$2.7M | $1.1M–$2.7M | $227K–$630K | $3.7M–$6.6M |
| Royalty | 4.0% to 5.0% | 4.0% | 8% of total gross sales | 5.5% |
| Total units | 13,706 | 109 | 18,773 | 28 |
| Item 19? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |


## Risk & Legal Signals

- **Item 4 bankruptcy**: none disclosed

## Frequently asked questions

**Q: How much does a McDonald's USA, LLC franchise cost?**
A: McDonald's USA, LLC requires a $45,000 initial franchise fee and a total initial investment range of $525,000–$2,728,000, per the most recent FDD on file.

**Q: Does McDonald's USA, LLC disclose financial performance (Item 19)?**
A: Yes. McDonald's USA, LLC discloses Item 19 financial performance representations in its FDD. See the franchise's financials sub-page for the disclosed figures.

**Q: What ongoing fees does McDonald's USA, LLC charge?**
A: Franchisees pay a royalty of 4.0% to 5.0% and an advertising fund contribution of 4% on gross sales or revenue as defined in Item 6 of the FDD.

**Q: How many McDonald's USA, LLC locations are there?**
A: McDonald's USA, LLC's most recent FDD reports approximately 13,706 total franchise units in the system. See the franchise's growth sub-page for the full opens/closes breakdown and year-over-year trend.

## Source

Data on this page is extracted from McDonald's USA, LLC's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, filed under FTC Rule 16 CFR 436.
- **Filing regulator**: Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (WI)
- **Regulator search URL**: https://apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/FranchiseEFiling/activeFilings.aspx
- **FDD year**: 2026
- **Extraction pipeline**: pdfplumber text extraction + Claude AI structured field extraction, validated against the canonical Item 5/6/7/19/20 sections.

## Available Reports

- **Free Tier 1 summary**: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- **Tier 2 personalized 12-section deep-dive report**: $4.99 (or $9.99 for a 3-pack of 3 reports — purchased on the franchise page)

## Related

- Browse other Food & Beverage franchises: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchises/food-and-beverage?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- Compare side-by-side: https://vetmyfranchise.com/compare?slugs=mcdonalds-usa-llc&utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- Fees deep dive: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc/fees?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- Item 19 financials: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc/financials?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- Growth & Item 20: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc/growth?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md
- Industry benchmark: https://vetmyfranchise.com/franchise/mcdonalds-usa-llc/vs-industry?utm_source=claude&utm_medium=ai_referral&utm_campaign=vmf_agent_md