PJ's Coffee franchise: what it costs
To get a PJ's Coffee shop open, whether it's an in-line or end-cap spot, you'll spend $522,500 to $899,000. That figure is from the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), papers every brand must give you ahead of a purchase.
Item by item: what a PJ's Coffee franchise costs
- Cost to open in total
- $522,500 to $899,000 Item 7, 2026 FDD
- Franchise fee you pay one time at the start
- $15,000 to $40,000 Item 5, 2026 FDD
- Royalty, your ongoing payments to the brand
- 5% of your net sales Item 6, 2026 FDD
- Marketing fund, which covers shared advertising
- 2% of your net sales Item 6, 2026 FDD
- Figures on sales or earnings
- $603,785 a year on average across the locations the brand counts, before costs Item 19, 2026 FDD
- Location count when 2025 ended
- Franchise owners ran 167, the company ran 13 Item 20, 2026 FDD
New Orleans Brew, LLC filed the 2026 PJ's Coffee Franchise Disclosure Document with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, dated 4/10/2026, and each figure here comes from it. Each small label points to the numbered part of the FDD where that figure sits.
PJ's Coffee FDD: sales and earnings
In Item 19, the FDD section where a brand may say how much its locations sell or earn, PJ's Coffee shares its figures. Main figure: $603,785 in average yearly sales, covering all 122 franchised PJ's shops open for the whole of 2025. It is money the store takes in, not profit, because rent, wages and every other cost get paid from it.
Use our guide to read an Item 19 before relying on any figure in it.
Other coffee franchises side by side with PJ's Coffee
Among the coffee franchises on this site, PJ's Coffee costs less to open than most, and the middle one begins at $672K.
| Brand | Total cost to opentotal, lowest to highest | Upfront feeone-time fee | Royaltyongoing, usually a % of sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dunn Brothers Coffee | $449K to $728K | $30,000 | 5% |
| PJ's Coffee | $523K to $899K | $15,000 to $40,000 | 5% |
| Dunkin' | $532K to $1.83M | $40,000 to $90,000 | 5.9% |
| Ziggi's Coffee | $587K to $1.76M | $40,000 | 6% |
| The Human Bean | $672K to $1.53M | $35,000 | None |
| Caribou Coffee | $898K to $1.51M | $30,000 | 5% |
| 7 Brew | $941K to $2.28M | $35,000 | 4.5% to 7% |
| Tim Hortons | $988K to $3.31M | $50,000 | 4.5% to 6% |
| Scooter's Coffee | $1.16M to $1.35M | $40,000 | 6% |
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. A royalty is what you keep paying the brand after opening, either as a share of sales or a set amount. A K stands for thousand, an M for million. Sales or earnings figures appear in the FDD for all 9 brands (open a brand to view its numbers). The Minnesota Department of Commerce received every FDD here in 2026.
All coffee franchises, side by side
The number of PJ's Coffee locations
At the end of 2025, PJ's Coffee had 180 United States locations, with franchise owners running 93% 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 PJ's Coffee FDD read by a franchise attorney
Before you sign, one franchise attorney can go through the PJ's Coffee FDD and franchise agreement with you.