Coffee franchise costs

Coffee franchises range from carts and kiosks to cafes with seating, bakeries and small drive-thru stands. The fastest growth in recent years has come from drive-thru-only coffee brands, which build small buildings on busy roads and sell large sweet drinks to a line of cars. 7 Brew grew its US locations 1405% over three years. Cafe brands, many of them bakery-cafes, sell more food and depend on foot traffic.

The coffee list here also includes bakery-cafe chains whose sales are mostly food, which pulls the typical cost and sales up. For a small cafe or kiosk, look at the cheapest brands below rather than the typical figure.

What a coffee franchise costs

Across the 117 brands on the coffee list, the typical cost to open runs from $350K at the low end of each brand’s estimate to $741K at the high end. The low end is a small location in a cheaper market with little build-out; the high end a large site in an expensive one. Of these brands, 30 start at $250K or less and 3 at $100K or less.

Where the money goes

Each franchisor itemizes its cost to open. Grouping the lines for the 83 coffee brands with a full breakdown shows what a typical budget pays for, as an average share of the high estimate, with the typical amount.

Building out the site is the largest cost, whether it is a cafe fit-out or a drive-thru building with its own lane and pad. Espresso machines, grinders, refrigeration and ice machines make up most of the equipment line, and bakery-cafes add ovens. Drive-thru brands that require you to buy or ground-lease the land cost more, and some leave the land out of their estimate, so read the notes.

Cheapest and most expensive coffee franchises

The cheapest coffee brands with at least 20 US locations, by the low end of the cost to open. Use the full range on each brand’s page for budgeting, not the low end alone.

Fees and royalties

The typical coffee brand charges a franchise fee of $35K, a royalty of 6% of sales and 1.5% to a marketing fund. Another 9 brands charge a flat or tiered royalty instead of a single percentage. Royalties and marketing come off sales before rent, staff or loan payments, so on a $913K year they cost about $68K. The fees and royalties guide compares industries.

What coffee franchise locations sell

Of the coffee brands, 25 publish a comparable yearly sales figure per location. The typical one is $913K, above the $797K typical across all brands.

Drinks carry high margins, which is why a coffee location that sells less than a burger restaurant can still pay well. The constraint is throughput: how many drinks the bar or the drive-thru window can serve in the morning peak. Ask owners about peak-hour sales and staffing as much as about yearly totals.

Which coffee franchises are growing

Of the 66 coffee brands with three years of figures, 51 added US locations from 2023 to 2025 and 6 shrank. The typical brand with 20 or more locations changed by +27%, against +3.8% across all franchises.

The brands that lost the most locations were Maui Wowi (23), The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (9) and Peet’s Coffee (7). The fastest-growing franchises ranking covers every industry.

Who runs a coffee franchise

Of the coffee brands whose agreements are clear, 97 let a trained manager run the business day to day and 17 require the owner to. Initial training typically runs 93 hours, against 71 across all brands. The typical brand loses 0.4% of its franchised locations a year to closures, terminations and non-renewals. On the SBA Franchise Directory are 46 of the 117 brands, so SBA-backed loans are available for them.

Best coffee franchises to own

These coffee brands pass all five tests on the best franchises to own ranking: they grew, lost no more owners than is typical, publish earnings figures, are on the SBA directory and had 100 or more US locations three years ago.

Before you buy a coffee franchise

Coffee is crowded. Check how many coffee shops and drive-thrus are within a few minutes of your site, including the big chains that don’t franchise in the US. Ask whether the brand requires its own beans and syrups and how their prices compare. For drive-thru brands, ask who finds and develops the site, since a good corner is most of the business.

A coffee brand growing very fast may be young; check how its oldest locations are doing and how many owners it has lost on the failure rates guide.