Five Guys Franchise Costs, Fees, Profit and Data for 2026

Five Guys is a globally recognized fast-casual burger chain, known for its fresh, made-to-order burgers, hand-cut fries and commitment to quality. While the brand isn’t currently offering franchise opportunities in the United States or Canada, it is still offering international territories.

1. What Is the Brand Overview for Five Guys?

About the Brand

Five Guys is a fast-casual burger restaurant known for its simple menu, fresh ingredients and high-quality customer experience. Founded in 1986 in Arlington, Virginia, by Jerry and Janie Murrell and their sons, the brand quickly gained popularity for its hand-formed burgers and fresh-cut fries cooked in pure peanut oil. By 2002, Five Guys began franchising, leading to rapid expansion. Today, the brand boasts over 1,950 locations worldwide, with another 1,500 units in development.

Mission: Five Guys’ mission is to serve fresh, high-quality burgers and fries with an emphasis on simplicity, transparency and a consistent customer experience. The brand remains committed to using only fresh ground beef, cooking exclusively in peanut oil and avoiding freezers in its restaurants to ensure quality.

Vision: Five Guys envisions being the go-to destination for high-quality, made-to-order burgers and fries, expanding its presence globally while maintaining its family-owned values and dedication to fresh, simple ingredients. The brand aims to grow with strong franchise partners in select international markets while upholding its customer-first approach.

Unique Selling Points (USPs)

• Handmade Burgers and Fries, Every Day: Burgers are hand-pattied in the restaurant and fries are cut in-house, with crew members tearing lettuce, chopping onions and slicing peppers fresh each morning. 
• Fresh Food, Not Fast Food: Five Guys emphasizes “fresh food, not fast food,” using fresh ground beef (no freezers in the restaurants) and preparing food to order rather than holding it under heat lamps. 
• Serious Fries, Cooked in 100 Percent Peanut Oil: Boardwalk-style fries are meticulously sourced, hand-cut in the restaurant and cooked through a three-part frying process in 100 percent refined peanut oil for consistent texture and flavor. 
• Huge Customization for Burgers and Shakes: Guests can build their own meal with as many toppings as they like on burgers and a wide range of mix-ins for hand-spun shakes, resulting in hundreds of thousands of possible combinations. 
• A Distinctive In-Store Experience: Five Guys leans into a recognizable atmosphere: good music, the smell of burgers and fries on the grill, and complimentary peanuts to snack on while you wait, whether you’re in your hometown store or abroad. 
• Visible Commitment to Ingredients (Potato Board): Each store highlights its potatoes on a “Potato Board,” calling out the farm that supplied the day’s potatoes, underscoring the brand’s focus on sourcing and transparency. 
• Clear Nutrition and Allergen Information: The brand provides detailed nutrition and allergen information and a dedicated guide so guests can understand exactly what is in their food and make informed choices.

2. What Are the Franchise Opportunity Details?

Why Franchise With Five Guys?

• Scale and Brand Strength: Five Guys has grown from five locations in 2001 to over 1,950 restaurants across 29 countries, giving franchisees a globally recognized, highly scaled fast-casual burger brand to build on. 
• Clear Financial and Experience Profile: The brand defines its “recipe for success” up front: strong entrepreneurial spirit, experience in sales, hospitality or retail, and minimum thresholds for net worth and liquid capital, which helps maintain a system of well-resourced, capable operators. 
• Dedicated Real Estate and Development Support: Franchisees work with a real estate team that introduces preferred brokers and helps identify viable trade areas, while a development strategy team reviews market plans, shares preferred site criteria and helps prioritize development using data-driven decisions. 
• Design and Construction Guidance: Five Guys’ design and construction teams collaborate with franchisees’ architects and general contractors to build restaurants that meet brand design guidelines, and the brand offers multiple formats to fit different market conditions. 
• Structured, Hands-On Training: New franchisees, operators and managers complete a comprehensive program: three weeks of in-store training at a certified training restaurant plus one week of classroom training at the home office in Alexandria, Virginia, focused on achieving “operational excellence the Five Guys way.” 
• Robust Application and Planning Process: The franchise application journey includes pre-qualification, a detailed franchise application, FDD review, business planning tools and facilitated conversations with current franchisees so prospects can thoroughly evaluate the opportunity. 
• Executive Committee Review and Supportive Onboarding: Prospective owners present their business plan to an executive committee before being awarded a franchise, then execute a development agreement and begin site selection with brand support — a structured process that aligns expectations from day one. 
• International Growth Opportunities: While the United States and Canada are sold out for new franchises, Five Guys is actively seeking franchise partners in select international markets across Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, providing room for expansion with an established concept.

Available Territories

While franchise opportunities are sold out in the U.S. and Canada, Five Guys is currently accepting franchise inquiries in Europe, the Middle East and the APAC region. Candidates interested in learning more about available international markets can fill out and submit an online inquiry form on Five Guys’ franchise website.

Investment Overview

Initial Costs: The estimated initial investment required to begin operation of a Five Guys franchise ranges from $977,850 to $1,375,750. The 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) breaks these costs down as follows:
 

Initial Franchise Fee: Franchisees must pay a development fee of $50,000 per restaurant and a franchise fee of $25,000 per restaurant. These fees are payable upon signing the development agreement and franchise agreement, respectively.

Five Guys offers a $10,000 discount on the franchise fee for the first restaurant developed by qualifying U.S. military veterans.

Ongoing Fees: According to the 2025 FDD, Five Guys franchisees are responsible for the following ongoing payments and fees:
 

ROI Potential: Five Guys does not make any representations in its 2025 FDD about the future financial performance of their franchisees or the past financial performance of their restaurants.

3. What Franchisee Support Does Five Guys Provide?

Pre-Opening Support

Before a restaurant opens, Five Guys’ real estate team works with franchisees and preferred brokers to identify and vet sites in the approved development area. The development strategy team reviews market plans, shares preferred site criteria and helps prioritize locations with data-driven analysis, alongside FDD review, business-planning tools and introductions to existing franchisees.

Training Programs

New franchisees, operators and managers complete a structured program: three weeks of in-store training at a certified training restaurant, followed by one week of classroom training at the home office in Alexandria, Virginia. The program is designed to give owners the skills, tools and confidence to run restaurants to Five Guys standards.

Operational Support

Operational support starts as soon as a franchise agreement is signed and continues as the business grows. Five Guys’ real estate and development strategy teams stay involved as franchisees refine their market plans and roll out additional locations, while access to corporate staff and seasoned franchisees provides a practical sounding board for day-to-day operations.

Technology and Tools

Five Guys backs its franchise system with internal, franchisee-only web portals and business process applications that support ordering, operations and communication. These tools tie into the brand’s broader digital ecosystem, including online ordering and mobile channels, to give franchisees a consistent technology backbone behind the counter.

4. What Are the Franchise Requirements for Five Guys?

Eligibility Criteria

• Liquid Assets: $2.5 million
• Net Worth: $5 million

Franchising with Five Guys requires previous restaurant, franchising and/or business ownership experience. The ideal candidate brings a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a creative mindset and experience in sales, hospitality or retail.

Any operating partner must have equity in the company.

Operational Commitments

Five Guys positions the franchise as a hands-on business that requires substantial time and resources from its owners. The brand does not promote a semi-absentee model, and there is no indication that a purely hands-off arrangement is part of the intended structure.

Funding Assistance

Five Guys does not offer direct financing or formal partnerships with lenders; franchisees are expected to secure their own funding and meet the brand’s capital requirements independently.

5. Are There Franchisee Success Stories?

“When we started looking at Five Guys, we went to different burger joints and a bunch of Five Guys locations. The remarkable thing was people’s passion for the brand. That was a winning combination. At the time, they had a unique niche and a narrow product line — do few things and do them really well.”

- Bill Gellert, Multi-Unit Franchisee

6. What Is the Market Potential for Burger Restaurants?

Burger concepts sit in the middle of a fast-food and fast-casual market that is still growing, even as consumers watch their budgets. Recent research estimates the global fast-food category at roughly the mid-hundreds of billions to more than $1 trillion in annual sales and projects a CAGR of up to 7% through 2030, driven by urbanization, delivery and digital ordering trends.

Segment-specific reports on U.S. burger restaurants describe a mature but resilient niche, with revenue approaching $175 billion and growing in the low- to mid-single digits annually as brands lean on drive-thru, value platforms and menu innovation to stay competitive.

Competitor Analysis

Five Guys’ primary competitors include Shake Shack, Smashburger, BurgerFi, Habit Burger Grill, Culver’s and the premium offering from major QSR players like McDonald’s, Burger King  and Wendy’s.

What sets Five Guys apart is its strict “fresh, not frozen” approach (no freezers in the restaurant), hand-pattied burgers and hand-cut fries cooked in 100 percent peanut oil, plus a simple, focused menu that leans on huge customization rather than limited-time novelties. The brand also emphasizes an in-store experience built around open kitchens, visible prep, loud but curated music and familiar touches like the daily potato board and free peanuts, creating a consistent, slightly old-school feel that many competitors don’t try to replicate.

7. What Is the Application Process for Five Guys Franchisees?

NOTE: Franchise opportunities for Five Guys are currently sold out in North America, but the brand is accepting inquiries about franchises in Europe, the Middle East and the APAC region.

1. Choose Your Market: Start by submitting a franchise interest form for the territory you hope to develop so the team can review your market and contact information.
2. Initial Pre-qualification Call: A Five Guys franchise development representative will follow up to outline the opportunity, explain what it takes to join the system and address early questions.
3. Complete the Franchise Application: Prospective owners then fill out a detailed application covering their professional background, operational experience, financial strength and goals for the business.
4. Review the FDD and Plan the Business: Five Guys provides its FDD along with planning tools and introductions to current franchisees so candidates can study the model, run numbers and decide whether the fit is right.
5. Present to the Executive Committee: The ownership group presents its business plan and required documentation to the executive committee in a formal review that serves as an interview for both sides.
6. Sign the Development Agreement: Once approved, the legal team prepares the development agreement, the franchisee pays the $50,000 initial development fee and the site selection and pre-opening process officially begins.

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