Arby's franchise: what it costs
A free-standing Arby's restaurant costs $868,550 to $2,456,600 to open. The source is the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), and a brand must give you those papers before you buy.
Item-by-item Arby's franchise cost
- Full cost of opening
- From $868,550 to $2,456,600 Item 7, 2026 FDD
- Franchise fee you pay one time at the start
- $37,500 Item 5, 2026 FDD
- Royalty, your ongoing payments to the brand
- A 4% share of gross sales Item 6, 2026 FDD
- Marketing fund, which covers shared advertising
- A 3.22% to 5% share of gross sales Item 6, 2026 FDD
- Figures on sales or earnings
- $1,274,787 a year on average across 2,182 locations it counts, before costs Item 19, 2026 FDD
- Location count as 2025 ended
- Franchise owners ran 2,344; the company ran 921 Item 20, 2026 FDD
Each figure above was copied from the 2026 Arby's Franchise Disclosure Document, which Arby's Franchisor, LLC filed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, dated March 26, 2026. Each small label points to the numbered part of the FDD where that figure sits.
Sales and earnings data in the Arby's FDD
Item 19 is the FDD section where a brand may tell you what its locations sell or earn, and Arby's shares figures there. Its main figure: average yearly sales of $1,274,787 across 2,182 franchised traditional restaurants that were open all of 2025. It is money the store takes in, not profit, because rent, wages and every other cost get paid from it.
Before you rely on any figure in it, our guide covers reading Item 19.
Arby's beside other franchise restaurants
On this site, most restaurant franchises cost more to open than Arby's; the middle one starts at $1.34M.
| Brand | Total cost to opentotal, lowest to highest | Upfront feeone-time fee | Royaltyongoing, usually a % of sales | Sales or earnings showndoes the brand show sales figures | Year filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subway | $263K to $630K | $15,000 | 8% | No | 2026 |
| Jimmy John's | $366K to $734K | $35,000 | 6% | Yes | 2026 |
| Firehouse Subs | $405K to $876K | $20,000 | 6% | Yes | 2026 |
| Jersey Mike's | $436K to $1.16M | $20,000 | 6.5% | Yes | 2026 |
| Arby's | $869K to $2.46M | $37,500 | 4% | Yes | 2026 |
| Five Guys | $928K to $1.38M | $25,000 | 6% | No | 2026 |
| Panera Bread | $1.34M to $4.57M | $50,000 | 5% | Yes | 2026 |
| McDonald's | $1.47M to $2.64M | $45,000 | 5% (plus rent) | Yes | 2024 |
| Sonic Drive-In | $1.49M to $2.52M | $15,000 | 5% | Yes | 2026 |
Before you buy, a brand has to hand over its Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD); the brand's latest one is where every figure comes from. After opening, the royalty is what you keep paying the brand: a share of sales or a set amount. "Sales or earnings shown" tells whether the brand says what its locations take in. A K stands for thousand, an M for million. The filing year is the year that FDD was listed with the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
The number of Arby's locations
At the end of 2025, the United States had 3,265 Arby's locations, with franchise owners running 72% of them (Item 20). In that same part of the FDD, you get phone numbers for owners still running stores and ones who left. Your best way to learn how these costs play out in real life is to call a few of them.
Get the Arby's FDD read by a franchise attorney
Before you sign, one franchise attorney can go through the Arby's FDD and franchise agreement with you.