Cold Stone Creamery Franchise Cost (2026)

What stands out about Cold Stone Creamery

Cold Stone's depository account must remain funded after royalty and advertising withdrawals. It is maintained cash, not a subscription or a replacement for the additional-funds allowance in Item 7. That operating allowance excludes owner wages, and the rent/deposit row does not resolve the total note's exclusion of rent beyond the initial deposit. The printed investment is not an all-in occupancy budget.

Mandatory online ordering introduces charges beyond the royalty and advertising percentages. Item 11 describes Olo's monthly, order, payment, activation and dispute components, with applicability that depends on the service and transaction. Gift-card fees use redemption amounts rather than every sale. The local-advertising percentage is separately recommended, not required, so it is not treated as another universal fund payment.

The $604,392 average and the median in Item 19 concern existing stores selected at fiscal year end. First-time openings during that year, Guam and stores then temporarily closed are excluded. The top and bottom groups are ranked subsets of that same population, not individual sales extremes. None of these unaudited gross-sales measures deducts the expenses needed to establish owner income.

Outlet ownership changes cannot be read as physical closures without checking the source tables. Item 20 includes a sale from the franchisor in a state ending count, while another state shows a reacquisition missing from the national column. Earlier franchised and company-owned movements also fail to reconcile. Those disagreements remain visible rather than being replaced with assumed corrections.

What are the initial franchise fees and financial requirements for Cold Stone Creamery?

Item 5 lists an initial franchise fee of $27,000 for Cold Stone Creamery. Check the cited Item 5 for payment timing, discounts and format-specific terms.

These minimums come from the franchisor’s website, not from the FDD, and can change: Cold Stone Creamery franchise page (checked October 29, 2026).

Item 5, PDF pages 31-34, states $27,000 for the first traditional restaurant and $15,000 for the second and each subsequent traditional restaurant. Non-traditional restaurants pay $10,000-$20,000 each. The 20% discount applies to active or active-reserve U.S. Armed Forces members, honorably discharged members and 501(c)(3) organizations: $21,600 for the first traditional, $12,000 for subsequent traditional, or $8,000-$16,000 for non-traditional restaurants. This explains Item 7's eligibility-spanning fee range; it is not the ordinary first-restaurant fee. Initial fees are non-refundable. Transfers and renewals do not pay this initial franchise fee, but have their separate Item 6 fees. Limited promotions and operational tests may change fees without making those incentives available to every applicant. Grand-opening marketing, optional lease review/guarantee and affiliate equipment purchases are separate components; Item 5's $5,300-$9,800 affiliate equipment category is not the entire Item 7 equipment budget. The optional signature-product license estimated at $2,500-$5,000 concerns products still under development, not a confirmed required opening charge.

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 5, PDF p. 31.

How much does it cost to open a Cold Stone Creamery franchise? (Item 7)

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 7, PDF p. 40.

Item 7 of Cold Stone Creamery’s 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document estimates the total cost to open one traditional cold stone creamery restaurant at $390,675 – $680,775. This total includes the initial franchise fee.

Other formats

For comparison, the median high-end investment among 25 restaurants & food records without a source-review hold is $1,297,100.

The traditional table spans PDF pages 40-42; the non-traditional table is on pages 42-43, with common Notes 1-12 on pages 44-46. All nineteen numeric traditional lines are retained in source order. The Real Estate row refers to Note 2 without dollar bounds, so it is not represented as zero. Both totals expressly exclude real estate, building construction and rent except the initial security deposit, although the rent/deposit line itself is labelled for three months; Note 2 describes deposits generally ranging from one to six months of rent. That scope difference needs confirmation rather than an invented all-in occupancy amount. The low franchise-fee line applies to an eligible discounted subsequent traditional restaurant, not an ordinary first restaurant. Initial training tuition for two is included in that fee; the travel/living line covers two persons but excludes their salaries. Leasehold estimates assume a 1,200-square-foot traditional or 500-square-foot non-traditional vanilla shell, national-average labor and brand electrical/HVAC standards, without extensive renovations. Equipment includes furniture, furnishings, installations and trade fixtures; supplemental POS/menu-board estimates are not automatically additional nonoverlapping totals. Initial insurance premiums concern commercial general liability; other required coverages, including workers' compensation and employer liability, vary. Miscellaneous includes pre-opening employee-training payroll, petty cash, security/landscaping/sound systems, banking, professional/incorporation costs and pest control. The depository account is maintained/replenished cash, not a monthly fee. Additional funds cover the first three months, including payroll and working capital but excluding owner wages or salary; the period is not a promise of break-even or sufficient cash.

What ongoing royalties and fees does Cold Stone Creamery charge? (Item 6)

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 6, PDF p. 34.

Item 6 of Cold Stone Creamery’s 2026 FDD lists the charges below. Recurring charges and charges triggered by a transfer, renewal or other event have different conditions. Read each fee’s basis and notes before comparing rates.

How to read an Item 6 fee table.

Cold Stone Creamery startup investment and modeled fees over 10 years

A source check placed this record on review hold. Automatic fee estimates are withheld until the outstanding issues are resolved. Gift-card and payment-processing charges depend on redemption/transaction amounts; data and help-desk fees are ceilings without stated lower bounds. Olo's required service has conditional components and provider-dependent charges, while hardware, network and security costs have different scopes. Recommended local advertising is not mandatory. Supplemental startup equipment/marketing costs may already be represented in Item 7. Annual gross sales alone cannot establish a complete nonoverlapping recurring-fee total. See the fee amounts and definitions in Item 6 above. Open the calculator with your own assumptions.

Item 20: Cold Stone Creamery franchised outlet history

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 20, PDF p. 96.

Item 20 Table 3 reports 1,052 franchised outlets at the end of 2025. The company-owned table reports a further 2 outlets.

Calculated outlet totals, net growth and exit rates are withheld because this record has not cleared the current Item 20 source checks. The table retains the outlet counts printed in Item 20. Read the unresolved source issues.

Reported exits include terminations, non-renewals, franchisor reacquisitions and other cessations. A reacquired outlet may continue operating. How we calculate the exit rate. How to read the Item 20 outlet tables.

79 units changed owners in 2025.

Item 20's Table 3 national rows are on PDF page 96, company endings in Table 4 on page 98 and ownership-transfer totals in Table 2 on page 91. These are the stated 2023-2025 fiscal-year tables; Table 5 identifies November 30, 2025 as the projection date. Guam and Puerto Rico rows are included in Table 3, unlike Item 19's explicit Guam exclusion. Franchisee-to-franchisee transfers are ownership changes, not physical closures or extra openings. Source reconciliation holds remain: the 2023 national row states 908 starting, 49 opened, 0 terminated, 5 non-renewed, 0 reacquired, 3 other cessations and 952 ending; the recorded movements do not reach the printed ending count. Minnesota and Nebraska 2023 state rows increase their endings without matching movement entries. For 2025, the national reacquired column prints zero despite Montana showing one reacquisition on page 94 and Table 4 showing that acquisition on page 97. The South Dakota ending includes a franchisor-to-franchisee sale without a matching opening entry; the page 96 footnote explicitly includes that sale. Table 4's 2023 total has 4 starting, 3 in its reacquired-from-franchisee column, no openings/closures/sales, and 1 ending; those entries also do not reconcile under the printed heading. Printed national movements and company endings are retained rather than relabelled or changed to force arithmetic. Reacquisitions and sales between ownership types are not necessarily business shutdowns.

How much do Cold Stone Creamery franchise owners make? (Item 19)

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 19, PDF p. 85.

Item 19 of the 2026 FDD reports average Gross Sales (All franchised outlets) of $604,392 (December 1, 2024 to November 30, 2025, 978 existing U.S. franchised stores that did not first open during the measured fiscal year, excluding Guam and stores temporarily closed at fiscal year end). Cold Stone Creamery’s Item 19 reports sales but no profit, costs or owner pay. Rent, payroll, supplies, loan payments and Item 6 fees come out of sales before an owner is paid, so these figures cannot show what an owner earns.

Read the source-review hold before using this figure.

See every Cold Stone Creamery Item 19 figure, with its period and sample.

Payback calculator (enter your own assumptions) Check any inputs against this record’s Item 7 startup costs and Item 6 fee rules.

How to interpret Cold Stone Creamery’s Item 19 figures and sample limits.

How long is the Cold Stone Creamery franchise agreement term?

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 17, PDF p. 77.

The standard Cold Stone Creamery franchise agreement runs 10 years, with renewal terms of 5 years.

Item 17, PDF pages 77-78: ten years from public opening for a new/non-operating restaurant with owned premises or a direct third-party lease; for an existing operating restaurant, ten years from the agreement's effective date. An affiliate sublease instead determines the initial term, excluding extensions/renewal options. Co-branding into another Kahala restaurant uses that restaurant's remaining agreement term. New/transfer agreements allow one conditional five-year renewal, not automatic indefinite renewals: at least 210 days' notice, no default, compliance and default-history limits, premises rights, current payments, a new agreement/related documents, renewal fee, necessary remodel/refurbishment and a general release. The new agreement may materially change fees and other terms. At the end of a renewal agreement, an owner may apply for a successor agreement and pay the initial fee under additional conditions; the franchisor may reject that application. No guaranteed successor duration is inferred.

How long does it take to open a Cold Stone Creamery franchise? (Item 11)

Source: Cold Stone Creamery 2026 FDD, Item 11, PDF p. 58.

Item 11 of the 2026 FDD states the time from signing the franchise agreement or the first payment, whichever is earlier to opening: 4 to 12 months, for traditional and non-traditional restaurants.

Franchises with a similar investment range

These published records are selected by proximity to Cold Stone Creamery’s $390,675 low-end Item 7 investment, starting with Restaurants & Food. Formats, fees and source qualifications differ; the figures are not interchangeable budgets:

• Little Caesars $377K – $1.77M Source review pending Provisional publication Restaurants & Food
• Firehouse Subs $405K – $876K Restaurants & Food
• Jimmy John's $366K – $734K Source review pending Restaurants & Food
• German Doner Kebab $366K – $638K Source review pending Provisional publication Restaurants & Food
• Jersey Mike's $436K – $1.16M Restaurants & Food
• Penn Station East Coast Subs $441K – $820K Restaurants & Food

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• Papa Murphy's$450K – $693K
• Crave Cookies$328K – $735KSource review pendingProvisional publication
• Nothing Bundt Cakes$475K – $994K

Frequently Asked Questions about Cold Stone Creamery

This record has unresolved source-review issues and was published provisionally. Read the specific issues before using these answers.

What is the initial franchise fee for a Cold Stone Creamery?

The initial franchise fee is $27,000 for a traditional restaurant. Additional locations or non-traditional formats may have different fees.

How much does it cost to open a Cold Stone Creamery?

Item 7 estimates $390,675 – $680,775 for a traditional restaurant, including its printed eligibility-spanning fee range, leasehold improvements and equipment. Real estate, building construction and rent beyond the initial deposit are excluded. The rent/deposit row and total note have different wording; these are not a confirmed all-in project budget.

What are the ongoing fees for Cold Stone Creamery?

The ordinary royalty is 6% of Gross Sales of Gross Sales, plus 3% of Gross Sales advertising. Technology, ordering, security, payment processing and conditional fees are separate. Gift-card charges apply to redemptions, and the local-advertising recommendation is not a required additional fund contribution. Annual sales alone do not determine the complete fee bill.

How much revenue does a Cold Stone Creamery generate?

Item 19 reports average Gross Sales of $604,392 for its eligible existing-store sample during the measured fiscal year. It excludes first-time openings that year, Guam and stores temporarily closed at year end. The unaudited sales reports do not show profit or owner income.