Highlights
- Every week, 12.5% of gross sales goes to the franchisor before rent, food or labor: royalty 8% of total gross sales, advertising 4.5% of total gross sales.p.36
- Opening one unit is estimated at $263,000 to $630,000, including a $15,000 initial fee.p.51
- Subway makes no financial performance representation: the filing gives no unit revenue, cost or profit figures, and no one selling the franchise may quote any.p.93
- The system went from 20,576 outlets at the start of 2023 to 18,773 at the end of 2025, a net loss of 1,803.p.94
- In 2025, closures of all kinds equalled 6.3% of the outlets open at the start of the year.
Tools, from this filing's numbers
What Subway takes off the top
Royalty 8% of total gross sales plus advertising 4.5% of total gross sales, applied to your own sales estimate. The rates are the filing's; the sales are yours.
Subway discloses no unit revenue, so start from a number you believe.
Cash you would need to open
The filing's Item 7 range, $263,000 to $630,000, is an estimate for one unit including only its first months. Slide between the low and high cases and add the months of runway you want beyond that.
Monthly operating cash is taken as one-twelfth of your weekly-sales figure above times 52, a placeholder for rent, labor and food until you have your own budget.
Where the units went in 2025
Every outlet that opened, and every one that left, drawn from Item 20 Table 3 to scale.p.102
Total outlets, 2022 to 2025
Compare Subway with another brand
Side by side, every figure cited.
Fees (Items 5 and 6)
| Initial franchise fee, standard | $15,000 | p.29 |
| Royalty | 8% of total gross sales | p.36 |
| Advertising fund | 4.5% of total gross sales | p.36 |
| Technology fee | held for review |
The filing lists every recurring and conditional fee in Item 6. The report carries all of them.
Estimated initial investment (Item 7)
| 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 |
| Training Expenses | $4,500 | $6,500 | p.51 |
| Legal and Accounting | $1,000 | $6,000 | p.51 |
| Grand Opening Advertising | $2,500 | $4,500 | p.51 |
| Miscellaneous Expenses | $8,000 | $20,000 | p.51 |
| Additional Funds | $15,000 | $45,000 | p.51 |
| Exterior Signage | $5,000 | $12,000 | p.51 |
| Total | $263,000 | $630,000 | p.51 |
Revenue (Item 19)
Subway makes no financial performance representation in this filing. The franchisor publishes no unit sales, costs or profits in the document, and no one selling you the franchise may quote numbers outside it.p.93
Units (Item 20)
| Type | Year | Start | End | Net | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| franchised | 2023 | 20,576 | 20,133 | -443 | p.94 |
| company owned | 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | p.94 |
| total | 2023 | 20,576 | 20,133 | -443 | p.94 |
| franchised | 2024 | 20,133 | 19,502 | -631 | p.94 |
| company owned | 2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 | p.94 |
| total | 2024 | 20,133 | 19,502 | -631 | p.94 |
| franchised | 2025 | 19,502 | 18,773 | -729 | p.94 |
| company owned | 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | p.94 |
| total | 2025 | 19,502 | 18,773 | -729 | p.94 |
Openings and closures, system totals (Table 3)
| Year | Start | Opened | Terminated | Non-renewed | Reacquired | Ceased, other | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 20,576 | 455 | 3 | 19 | 98 | 733 | 20,133 | p.102 |
| 2024 | 20,133 | 453 | 4 | 30 | 90 | 881 | 19,502 | p.102 |
| 2025 | 19,502 | 499 | 4 | 46 | 148 | 1,026 | 18,773 | p.102 |
Arithmetic checks flagged: Item 20 Table 3 does not foot for 2023: start + opened - closures = 20,178, filing states 20133; Item 20 Table 3 does not foot for 2024: start + opened - closures = 19,581, filing states 19502; Item 20 Table 3 does not foot for 2025: start + opened - closures = 18,777, filing states 18773. The figures shown are as filed.
Litigation (Item 3)
10 actions filed by the franchisor against franchisees in the last fiscal year.p.28 Counts are of distinct matters as the filing describes them; the report carries each one in plain words.
Scorecard
Rank among the brands on this site that report the figure, on each list's own direction. No blended grade. How the lists work.
| Cost to open | $263,000 | 22 of 74 |
| Royalty plus ad fund | 12.5% | 56 of 59 |
| Three-year unit growth | -8.8% | 66 of 75 |
| Closure rate, 2025 | 6.3% | 17 of 71, 1 = most |
| Discloses unit revenue | no | |
| Litigation disclosed | held | held |
Source
Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions franchise filing 641453, effective 4/30/2026, expires 4/30/2027. Extracted 2026-09-04 by two independent readers; only figures both agreed on, whose quoted words appear on the cited page, are shown. 1 field held for review. How this works.