You're about to sign for ten years. They handed you 923 pages.

That is the Subway Franchise Disclosure Document, 2026, filed with a state regulator. Everything that matters is in it. Almost nobody reads it. This site does, every night, and shows you the page.

Run by Claude, an AI. Owned by a franchisee of 18 years. How it reads.

Subway · 2026 FDD · 923 pages

Total initial investment	$263,000 to $630,000	p.51
Initial franchise fee	$15,000	p.29
Royalty plus ad fund, weekly	12.5% of sales	p.36
Item 19 revenue claim	No claim made	p.93
Units, end of 2025	18,773	p.94

The full Subway page · the $49 report

A franchise listing site, 2026-09-03

$227,000 to $630,000

Lead form under it. No closures. No filing year you can check.

The 2026 filing, page 51

$263,000 to $630,000

$36,000 more at the low end than the site said. And that is the number they got closest.

The number you were given is the least of it.

The listing sites publish the investment range and a form. The filing also carries 59 separate fees, whether the franchisor will tell you what a unit earns, every lawsuit, and how many stores closed. None of that is on the listing. All of it is on the page.

Wisconsin DFI 641453, Subway, effective 4/30/2026 · page 51 · as the machine sees it

Item 7ESTIMATED INITIAL INVESTMENT(Single Restaurant)Type of ExpenditureLowerAmountMidAmountHigherAmountMETHODOFPAYMENTWHEN DUETO WHOMPAYMENTIS TO BEMADEInitial Franchise Fee(1)$ 15,000$ 15,000$15,000Lump sumWhen you signFranchiseAgreementUsReal Property (2)$3,000$6,000$12,000Lump sumWhen you signIntent toSublease orSublicense, ordirect leaseUs, Landlordor Licensor(See note 2)Leasehold Improvements (3)For a Non-Traditional Location$75,000*$42,000$150,000*$46,000$250,000*$80,000As incurredPro rata duringconstructionVendorEquipment, Furniture and Décor(4)$110,000$160,000$210,000As incurredWhen you placeorderVendorOptional Security System(not including monitoring)$2,500$3,000$4,000Lump sumWhen youplace order

Item 7. What it costs to open

Each line lands when both readers agree and the words are on the page.

Expenditure	Low	High
Initial Franchise Fee	$15,000	$15,000	p.51
Real Property	$3,000	$12,000	p.51
Leasehold Improvements	$75,000	$250,000	p.51
Equipment, Furniture and Décor	$110,000	$210,000	p.51
Optional Security System	$2,500	$4,000	p.51
Freight Charges	$8,000	$15,000	p.51
Opening Inventory	$7,500	$15,000	p.51
Insurance	$1,500	$7,500	p.51
Supplies & Smallwares	$5,000	$9,000	p.51
Total	$263,000	$630,000	p.51

Then the part nobody shows you.

Wisconsin DFI 641453, Subway, effective 4/30/2026 · page 94 · Item 20

Item 20OUTLETS AND FRANCHISEE INFORMATIONTable No. 1System wide Outlet Summary for years 2023 to 2025Column 1Outlet TypeColumn 2YearColumn 3Outlets at the Start ofthe YearColumn 4Outlets at the End ofthe YearColumn 5Net Change202320,57620,133-443Franchised202420,13319,502-631202519,50218,773-7292023Company Owned20242025202320,57620,133-443Total Outlets202420,13319,502-631202519,50218,773-729Table No. 2Transfer of Outlets from Franchisees to New Owners(other than the Franchisor)For years 2023 to 2025Column 1StateColumn 2YearColumn 3Number ofTransfers2023Alabama2024

Item 20. Outlets, three years

Openings, closings, and the trend the listing leaves out.

Type	Year	Start	End	Net
franchised	2023	20,576	20,133	-443
company owned	2023	0	0	0
total	2023	20,576	20,133	-443
franchised	2024	20,133	19,502	-631
company owned	2024	0	0	0
total	2024	20,133	19,502	-631
franchised	2025	19,502	18,773	-729
company owned	2025	0	0	0
total	2025	19,502	18,773	-729

0net loss in Subway units, 2023 to 2025, from 20,576 to 18,773. p.94

Two readers. One rule. Every night.

Claude reads the page and returns each figure with the words it found it in. Grok, a different company's model, reads the same page blind. A number is published only when both agree and the quoted words are on the cited page. Anything else is held back, in public, in the run log.

0brand pages, every number cited

0full reports on sale

0franchisors queued from the state registry

last run 2026-10-18 02:30: 0 found · 0 downloaded · 0 extracted · 0 clean · 0 held · 1 errors · full log

Ranked by the filings.

Not by who paid for placement. One figure per list, cited on every row. Pull sideways.

Lowest cost to open

Kumon$101,630
The UPS Store$114,026
Kona Ice$114,730

74 brands ranked · all

Lowest royalty plus ad fund

59 brands ranked · all

Fastest growing systems

75 brands ranked · all

Highest closure rate

71 brands ranked · all

Brands that disclose unit revenue

69 brands ranked · all

Most litigation disclosed

68 brands ranked · all

Six lists today. Every list · every brand.

The whole filing, read. $49.

Every fee, the Item 19 method and what it leaves out, three years of openings and closures, every lawsuit in plain words, the territory and renewal terms, and the questions to ask existing franchisees that this filing's own numbers raise. Delivered the moment you pay. Thirty-day refund, no questions.

Subway report · every fee (Items 5 and 6) · 59 rows

Standard initial franchise fee	$15,000	p. 29
Short-term satellite fee	$1,000	p. 30
Additional fee for non-compliance	$7,500	p. 30
Lease recording fee	$50 plus recording costs of $50–$2,500	p. 32
Security deposit / first month rent	$2,000–$12,000	p. 32
Digital menu boards (purchase)	$8,000–$14,000	p. 33
Digital menu board hardware-as-a-service	$155 per month	p. 41

and 52 more fees. A listing site shows two.

Buy the Subway report, $49 84 brands on sale. All reports.