Can I buy a Starbucks franchise?

Individual Starbucks franchises are not available; stores are either company-operated or licensed to institutions. The 67% of Starbucks stores that are not company-operated are licensed to institutions rather than franchised to individuals. Licensees include hospitals, hotels, grocery chains, airports, and universities, not individual investors.

How much would a Starbucks franchise cost?

There is no individual-franchise fee to list. Starbucks licenses locations exclusively to institutional operators, and the relevant fee schedules are business-to-business deals with hospitals, airports, hotels, and universities, not a published investment range for an individual applicant.

Is owning a Starbucks location profitable?

No public return figure exists for an individual Starbucks franchisee because Starbucks has no individual-franchise program. As a public company, Starbucks publishes company-wide financials, while licensing-partner economics remain private business-to-business terms. Neither replaces the FDD Item 19 disclosure available for an actual franchise.

What franchise can I buy instead of Starbucks?

US brands that DO accept individual franchise applications in the same category: , , , , , . Each has a verified profile on FRANticc with investment figures traced to its current FDD.

Can I license a Starbucks store as an individual?

No. Starbucks licenses stores to institutional operators, including hospital systems, hotel groups, grocery retailers, airport concessionaires, and university dining services, rather than individual investors. A person cannot apply to open a standalone Starbucks in the way a traditional franchisee could with another QSR brand.

Starbucks Franchise Cost: Not Sold to Individuals

Franchise Reality Check

Individual Starbucks franchises are not available; stores are either company-operated or licensed to institutions.

Around the world, 33% of Starbucks stores are company-operated and 67% are licensed. That 67% does not mean individuals can buy franchises. Starbucks licenses locations to institutional operators, including hospital systems, hotel chains, grocery retailers, airport concessionaires, and university dining services. An individual investor cannot apply to open a standalone Starbucks as they could with a McDonald's or Dunkin' franchise.

US Locations

16,933 (Jun 2026)

Founded

1971 (Seattle)

Ownership

Public (Nasdaq: SBUX)

Licensed Stores (Global)

67%

Individual Franchise

Not Offered

How Starbucks Actually Operates in the US

Starbucks Corporation

16,933 US stores · company-operated + institutional licensing

Starbucks directly operates most of its US stores. Its licensed locations are run by institutional partners that already have an operating footprint, including hospital systems, hotel groups, grocery chains, airport concessionaires, and university dining services. They are not operated by individuals seeking to purchase a franchise.

Why There's No Starbucks Franchise Fee for an Individual to Quote

The 67% of Starbucks stores that are not company-operated are licensed to institutions rather than franchised to individuals. Licensees include hospitals, hotels, grocery chains, airports, and universities, not individual investors.
For a standalone Starbucks, there is no published fee for an individual franchise, investment range, or FDD, because Starbucks offers no such route.
Starbucks has pursued legal action against websites posing as an individual-franchise program. That reflects persistent false search demand, not proof that the program exists.
Aggregator-site listings for “Starbucks franchise cost” are misusing licensing-program language intended for institutions and applying it to individual investors.

Documented Starbucks franchise-scam sites

Starbucks does not license franchises to individuals, and it sued over websites premised on the claim that it does.

Starbucks brought suit against the operators of starbucksfranchise.com and starbuckslicense.com. Those sites distributed fake memoranda of understanding and invoices using the name “Foresight Global Consulting.” The case was filed in Seattle around October 2022; the sites later went dark, and the case was dismissed around April 2024.Restaurant Business Online / Law360 reporting (secondary; exact article URL not confirmed)

Coffee & bakery franchises that DO accept individual applications

If you want a coffee-shop business, these US brands are currently seeking individual franchisees, with investment figures taken from their current FDDs.

Dunkin' 8,744 units · $532K–$1.8M 7 Brew 578 units · $941K–$2.3M Scooter's Coffee 882 units · $1.2M–$1.3M Tim Hortons 669 units · $696K–$1.9M Biggby Coffee 461 units · $242K–$973K Cinnabon 1,310 units · $257K–$704K

See All US Franchises

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Data: Starbucks corporate newsroom, store-model description (about.starbucks.com); Starbucks Q3 FY2026 results release — 16,933 US stores, global company/licensed mix (investor.starbucks.com); Starbucks company history (about.starbucks.com/history); Restaurant Business Online / Law360 reporting on the starbucksfranchise.com lawsuit (secondary).
If any data is incorrect, write to [email protected]