McDonald's franchise cost, FDD fees & initial investment
Source: McDonald's Franchise Disclosure Document, issuance date May 1, 2026 · Franchisor: McDonald’s USA, LLC · FDD year 2026 · As filed — verify.
Free teaser — Items 5, 6 and 7 as filed
| Initial franchise fee (Item 5) | $45,000 |
|---|---|
| Royalty (Item 6) | 5.0% — as filed: “Royalty (1) 5% or 4% of Gross Payable monthly on the “Gross Sales” include all revenues” |
| Advertising / brand fund (Item 6) | 4.0% — as filed: “Advertising and Not less than 4% of Spent during each calendar Most franchisees participate in local” |
| Estimated initial investment (Item 7) | $1,472,000 – $2,807,000 |
Sources: Items 5, 6 and 7 — McDonald's Franchise Disclosure Document, issuance date May 1, 2026. As filed — verify.
Item 19 — financial performance representations
This franchisor includes Item 19 financial performance representations in its FDD. Item 19 makes financial performance representations, but no single clearly-labeled average/median gross-sales figure was extracted automatically; consult Item 19 of the source FDD for the full tables.
Outlet trend (Item 20, Table No. 1 — from the 2026 FDD)
Total outlets at fiscal year-end — Item 20, Table No. 1, as reported in the 2026 FDD (a single filing's own three-year table, shown as filed).
| Fiscal year | Total outlets |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 13,457 |
| 2024 | 13,559 |
| 2025 | 13,706 |
Change across the three reported years: +249 outlets (growing). These counts come from a single filing's own three-year table — they are outlet counts, not a multi-year filing diff.
What changed — 2026 FDD vs 2024 FDD
Headline figures from this page's filing (2026) set against the prior filing we hold (2024). The audit below diffs every fee line, every Item 7 row and the Item 3 and Item 20 detail across the full verified set (2024 + 2026 FDDs).
| Metric | 2024 FDD | 2026 FDD | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial franchise fee (Item 5) | $45,000 | $45,000 | Unchanged since 2024 |
| Royalty (Item 6) | 5% | 5% | Unchanged since 2024 |
| Advertising / brand fund (Item 6) | 4% | 4% | Unchanged since 2024 |
| Estimated initial investment — low end (Item 7) | $1,470,500 | $1,472,000 | +$1,500 |
| Estimated initial investment — high end (Item 7) | $2,642,000 | $2,807,000 | +$165,000 |
| Total outlets (Item 20, latest fiscal year reported) | 13,457 (FY2023) | 13,706 (FY2025) | +249 outlets |
Sources: McDonald's Franchise Disclosure Document, issuance date May 1, 2026; McDonald's Franchise Disclosure Document, issuance date May 1, 2024. Changes are this desk's arithmetic on the as-filed figures. As filed — verify.
Multi-Year Redline & Risk Audit — McDonald's
$79
A line-by-line diff of this brand's FDD across filing years: what the franchisor changed, what it quietly restated, and what it stopped disclosing — built only from filings we actually hold.
- Line-by-line Item 5 & 6 fee diff across every filing year held
- Item 7 investment-range shifts, low end and high end, with calculated changes and formulas
- Item 3 litigation and bankruptcy changes between filings
- Item 20 openings, closures, transfers and turnover — the churn under the headline count
- Every figure cited to its filing, item and page
- Restatements shown with both numbers — never overwritten
- A closing “What this report does not include” section naming every gap
- The source FDDs the audit cites, bundled with the report
On sale
We hold a verified multi-year set of this brand's filings — 2024 + 2026 FDDs — each retrieved from the state franchise registry and passed through the desk's verification gate: issuance date confirmed, the cover Item 7 range verified against the Item 7 total, and the Item 20 outlet table parsed. The audit below is built from exactly those filings.
Buy the audit package — $79The paid package bundles the audit plus the source FDDs it cites. Delivered by email after purchase — see the FAQ for how delivery works.
Market context: a professional FDD review by a franchise attorney commonly runs $2,000–$5,000. A Redline audit is a document diff, not legal advice — it shows you exactly what changed between filings so any review you commission starts from evidence.
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Citation: McDonald's Franchise Disclosure Document, issuance date May 1, 2026. Document: Food-Beverage/McDonald's_2026_ccSt5TUt.