How to start a gym: costs, members needed and timeline
By Elara team · Published
Eight franchisors of class-based gyms estimate in their disclosure documents that opening one studio costs $195,850 to $1,151,135, and that it takes about 6 to 17 months from signing to opening. Six will not let a studio open until it has presold a minimum number of memberships; the three that publish one set it at 75 to 250. An independent gym skips the franchise fee and can buy its own equipment for less, but it still pays for the space, the build-out and the months before the first class. This guide is for gyms and fitness studios that run scheduled classes led by an instructor, such as HIIT, strength, boxing, boot camp and barre, in the US and Canada. It does not cover financing: what follows is the budget a lender or landlord will ask to see.
The steps, in order
- Price the opening line by line, using the franchisors' cost columns below as a checklist, and negotiate the landlord's build-out allowance with the rent.
- Work out the members you need and the members your timetable holds, from your rent, classes a week, places in each class and membership price.
- Plan the new members each month that cancellations call for, and the intro offer or trial class that brings them in.
- Set the timeline and the presale target you need before the first class, and check the presale rules where you open.
- Budget the running costs, including the music licences, insurance, and the defibrillator and training your state or province requires.
- Write the membership terms within your state's or province's contract rules.
What it costs to open
Every franchisor selling in the US must give buyers a disclosure document whose Item 7 lists the cost of opening one location, line by line. The eight class brands below are from their filings with Minnesota's franchise registry, in USD. All are 2026 documents except Rumble's, from 2025, the newest on file.
| Brand | Total | Build-out | Equipment | Opening marketing | First 3 months' funds | Franchise fee | Space |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fit Body Boot Camp | $195,850 to $391,800 | $50,000 to $150,000 | $12,000 to $20,000, plus $6,000 to $8,000 of mats | $17,000 | $15,000 to $45,000 | $57,600 | 2,500 to 3,000 sq ft |
| Burn Boot Camp | $291,145 to $678,003 | $76,437 to $288,516 | $59,784 to $104,300 (with furniture and fixtures) | $30,000 | $22,685 to $43,800 | $60,000 | 3,600 to 7,000 sq ft |
| F45 Training | $362,300 to $857,700 | $1,000 to $350,000 (net) | $115,000 pack, plus up to $20,000 shipping and tax | $25,000 | $60,000 to $100,000 (not counting rent) | $60,000 | 2,000 to 3,000 sq ft in one note, 1,650 to 2,400 in another |
| Pure Barre | $455,299 to $736,465 | $215,000 to $336,000 (gross) | $44,264 to $51,520 package (financed) | $30,650 to $39,900 | $19,000 to $43,000 | $60,000 | 1,500 to 1,800 sq ft |
| Rumble (2025) | $509,640 to $1,141,016 | $130,000 to $529,500 (net) | $115,500 to $199,700 package | $24,825 to $30,563 | $39,000 to $75,000 | $60,000 | 2,000 to 2,400 sq ft |
| Title Boxing Club | $548,637 to $947,729 | $242,962 to $471,404, plus $12,000 to $17,132 architecture | $95,674 to $105,759 package, plus $18,001 to $21,834 delivery | $25,000 | $63,000 to $120,000 | $49,500 | 2,500 to 3,500 sq ft, 30 to 48 bags |
| BFT | $691,372 to $1,151,135 | $288,275 to $513,719 (gross) | $146,501 to $228,519 package | $36,800 to $50,200 | $24,000 to $78,000 | $60,000 | 2,400 to 2,800 sq ft |
| Orangetheory | $764,577 to $1,104,920 | $245,000 to $418,317 | $119,122 to $163,424 (with its OTbeat system, 8 to 12 stations) | $36,000 to $45,000 | $171,239 | $59,950 | 1,750 to 4,800 sq ft, typically 3,100 |
Sources: each brand's disclosure document, Item 7, from the 1 (Burn's is read from a marked-up copy with the deleted text removed). The columns shown do not add to the total: each document also lists signage, deposits, professional fees, technology, insurance and smaller lines. Fit Body Boot Camp's rows add up to $2,000 more than its stated low total; the table gives the totals as stated.
Some build-out figures are net of what the landlord pays. F45 and Rumble give build-out after the landlord's tenant-improvement allowance (F45 assumes about 30%), while Pure Barre and BFT give it before any allowance, and the other four don't say. Compare the totals, not this column. Orangetheory franchisees reported receiving $0 to $100 per sq ft from landlords in Orangetheory's last fiscal year, $28.62 on average, and Rumble says allowances in its experience have ranged from $42,000 to $407,000, a median of $120,125. The allowance is negotiated in the lease, so it is worth as much attention as the rent.
Equipment packages hold more than equipment. BFT, Rumble and Pure Barre sell, and Title requires, a package that includes millwork such as the front desk, cubbies and retail displays, and Pure Barre's Item 7 expects its package to be financed. F45's total includes $40,000 to $67,000 of optional recovery amenities; without them it would be $322,300 to $790,700. Fit Body Boot Camp lists bare equipment, which is why its line is the smallest.
Some lines only a gym pays. F45 budgets $1,700 to $2,000 a year for music licences and Title $1,800 to $2,200, and F45 budgets $1,500 to $2,100 for a defibrillator (AED).
An independent gym does not pay the $49,500 to $60,000 franchise fee or a required equipment package, and it can choose a smaller space. It still pays for the space, the build-out, its equipment, opening marketing and the months before opening, without a brand's name to sell its presales.
What the equipment costs
A franchise package is priced as a whole. An independent gym buys item by item, at manufacturers' and retailers' regular prices like these, before tax and usually before freight (the flooring, heavy bag and barre were on sale for less on October 22, 2026):
| Item | US regular price | Canada |
|---|---|---|
| Concept2 RowErg | $990, or $940 each for 5 or more | Sold from the US store, plus $100 USD shipping, Canada's 50% counter-tariff (since September 8, 2026), sales tax and brokerage2 |
| Concept2 BikeErg | $1,100, or $1,060 for 5 or more | Sold from the US store, plus $105 USD shipping, Canada's 50% counter-tariff (since September 8, 2026), sales tax and brokerage2 |
| Rogue Echo Bike | $945 | C$1,295 |
| Rogue SML-2 squat stand | $525 | C$709 |
| Rogue Ohio Bar, 20 kg | $305 | C$418 |
| Rogue Echo bumper plates, 260 lb set | $583 | C$799 |
| Rogue rubber hex dumbbells, per pair | 25 lb $105, 50 lb $195 | C$146, C$271 |
| Rogue kettlebell, 35 lb | $80 | C$110 |
| Greatmats rolled rubber flooring, 8 mm | $2.29 a sq ft | |
| TITLE Boxing 100 lb heavy bag | $349.99 | |
| VITA Barre wall-mount barre, 12 ft, maple, 1.5 in | $489.95 |
A strength-and-conditioning floor for a 20-place class, with ten stations of each kind and enough dumbbells and kettlebells for everyone, comes to $40,115 at these prices, with the RowErgs at Concept2's price for 5 or more and everything else at single-item regular prices: ten RowErgs ($9,400), ten Echo Bikes ($9,450), ten squat stands ($5,250), ten bars ($3,050), ten sets of plates ($5,830), twenty pairs of 25 lb dumbbells ($2,100), twenty 35 lb kettlebells ($1,600) and 1,500 sq ft of rolled rubber ($3,435). Freight, tax, boxes, a sound system, an AED and heavier weights come on top. That is about a third of F45's $115,000 pack, which also includes TVs, a sound system, turf, uniforms and marketing collateral.
Work out the members you need and the members your timetable holds
A class gym has two numbers to plan around. One is how many members cover the month's costs. The other is how many members the timetable can hold, because every member takes places in classes each week and every class has a set number of places. If the first number is higher than the second, no amount of marketing fixes the plan: the gym needs more classes, more places in each or a higher price.
The gym below is hypothetical, in USD. Its prices and attendance are assumptions, not market rates.
- 3,000 sq ft, 30 classes a week with 20 places each, and $45 instructor pay per class.
- One unlimited membership at $179 a month, with each member coming to 2.5 classes a week on average.
- Monthly costs of $14,000 besides instructor pay:
| Cost | A month | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | $6,455 | 3,000 sq ft at the US average shopping-center asking rent of $25.82 per sq ft a year (see running costs) |
| Insurance | $257 | Median general liability, business owner's policy and workers' compensation quotes |
| Music licences | $131.17 | BMI, ASCAP and SESAC for this timetable (see running costs) |
| Equipment | $1,114.31 | The $40,115 floor above, spread over 36 months |
| Everything else | About $6,043 | The rest of the assumed $14,000: utilities, cleaning, software, marketing, desk staff and your own pay |
Instructor pay adds $5,850 a month (30 classes a week over 52 weeks is 130 classes a month), for $19,850 in all. After Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ and 0.7% for recurring billing, each membership brings in $172.26. So the gym covers its month at 116 members. At 75% average fill, its 600 places a week hold 180 members coming 2.5 times each. Break-even fills 48.3% of places on average.
The calculator below starts from this gym. Change any input to yours.
Members a class gym needs, and members its timetable holds
Adds instructor pay for every class on the timetable to the month's other costs, divides by what one membership brings in after card fees, and sets the result against the members your classes can hold. The defaults are the guide's hypothetical gym; enter amounts in your own currency.
It takes 116 members to cover the month, and the timetable holds 180 members at 75% fill.
| Members needed to cover the month | 116 members |
|---|---|
| Members the timetable holds at 75% fill | 180 members |
| Average fill at the break-even count | 48.3% |
| Places on the timetable each week | 600 |
| Instructor pay (130 classes a month) | $5,850 |
| Monthly costs with instructor pay | $19,850 |
| Each membership brings in, after fees | $172.26 |
- Only memberships count as income here. Drop-ins, packs and retail lower the members you need; leave them out until they're steady.
- Monthly costs hold only what you enter, so add repayments on any loan for the build-out. Income tax is left out.
- A month is 52 weeks over 12, so it carries 4.33 weeks of classes and instructor pay.
The timetable is the lever that moves both numbers at once. With the same price, more classes hold more members but cost more to staff:
| Classes a week | Instructor pay a month | Members to break even | Members held at 75% fill | Fill at break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | $3,900 | 104 | 120 | 65% |
| 30 | $5,850 | 116 | 180 | 48.3% |
| 40 | $7,800 | 127 | 240 | 39.7% |
At 20 classes a week the gym needs 104 of the 120 members it can hold, so a slow month or a few cancellations put it below break-even. At 40 it needs about half the members it can hold, but it pays for ten more classes a week before they fill. The price moves only the first number: at $149 the gym needs 139 members, at $209 it needs 99, and either way the timetable holds 180.
For scale, the franchisors' Item 19 figures give their studios' average members and revenue for the last year:
| Brand | Studios | Average revenue a year | Average members | Revenue per member a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orangetheory | 1,189 | $802,145 | 444 | $150.55 |
| Burn Boot Camp | 307 | $732,444 | 378 | $161.47 |
| Rumble (2024) | 56 | $492,590 | 275 | $149.27 |
| Pure Barre | 603 | $393,761 | 205 | $160.07 |
| BFT | 36 | $399,433 | 185 | $179.92 |
Revenue per member is our division of average revenue by average members over 12 months, and revenue includes packs, retail and other sales as well as memberships; memberships were 92% of BFT's revenue and 84% of Pure Barre's. Orangetheory's averages also leave out the 95 studios that closed during its period. The brands count members differently, too: Pure Barre, BFT and Rumble count monthly active members, Orangetheory a monthly member count, and Burn members from point-of-sale data. Of these brands, only Burn discloses its franchisees' profit: its 307 studios open at least a year averaged $121,679 of net operating income, a median margin of 16%, self-reported and unaudited, and the 12 with fewer than 200 members lost $29,058 on average. A franchised studio also pays the franchisor a royalty each month, so it needs more members than an independent with the same costs.
Plan for members leaving every month
Members cancel every month, so a gym at its break-even count has to sign new members just to stay there. Three franchisors disclose their studios' average monthly attrition: Pure Barre 5.9%, BFT 6.6% and Rumble 8.8%. At BFT's rate, a gym holding 116 members loses about 8 a month, and one holding 180 loses about 12. Pure Barre's studios signed 17 new members a month on average. Count the new members you need each month in the plan, with the intro offer or trial class that brings them in, not only the total.
Plan the timeline and the presales
The disclosure documents give the time from signing to opening, which includes finding a site. Most give it in Item 11; Burn's comes from its Items 6 and 7.
| Brand | Signing to opening | Presale requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Fit Body Boot Camp | About 215 days; open within 270 | None found |
| Title Boxing Club | Typically 6 to 10 months; deadline 12 at the latest | At least 175 founding members before opening |
| Orangetheory | 9 to 12 months | At least 250 presale memberships, sold over the 12 to 16 weeks before opening |
| Burn Boot Camp | About 6 months to sign a lease, then 4 to 6 more to open | No number |
| F45 Training | About 12 months | At least 75 Foundation Memberships, plus a friends-and-family soft opening |
| Pure Barre | About 12 months to soft opening | About 6 months of presales to a minimum it doesn't publish |
| BFT | About 15 months to soft opening | About 5 months of presales, minimum not published |
| Rumble (2025) | About 17 months to soft opening | About 5 months of presales, minimum not published |
Treat the short end with care. In June 2026, New York's Attorney General settled with Xponential, which franchises Pure Barre and BFT and franchised Rumble until July 2025,3 over disclosure documents filed from 2020 to 2024 that "represented estimated studio opening times of three to six months";4 across its brands, its New York franchised studios took about 13.3 months from signing on average.5
The presale bars show what the franchisors think an opening needs. Measured against the hypothetical gym's 116, F45's 75 is about two thirds of that count, and Title's 175 or Orangetheory's 250 more than all of it, though a franchised studio's costs and founding-member prices are not the hypothetical gym's. The first months also run below the eventual average: Pure Barre's new studios in 2025 averaged $12,655 of revenue in their first calendar month, a partial month not counting presales, and $39,415 in month three.
If you sell memberships before you open, check the law where you are. In Illinois, a member who signs before a gym opens can cancel if the gym has not opened within 12 months of signing, or within 3 months of the date the contract promised, whichever comes first, and the gym must refund every payment within 30 days of the notice.6 Any Illinois gym contract's first term can be at most a year.7 In New York, a member can void a contract for a club that has not opened within a year of signing,8 and money taken before a club fully opens goes in escrow unless the club shows the Secretary of State it is financially responsible enough to cover members' claims.9
Budget the running costs
| Cost | Sourced figure |
|---|---|
| Rent, US | $25.82 per sq ft a year average asking rent at shopping centers, Q3 2026 preliminary.10 The report does not say whether taxes and shared costs are included. Burn Boot Camp's Item 7 gives rent of $5,500 to $20,000 a month for 3,600 to 7,000 sq ft |
| Rent, Canada | Toronto C$36.3611 and Vancouver C$38.8312 per sq ft a year, average triple-net asking, Q2 2026. We found no national figure |
| Insurance | Median quotes for gyms and fitness centers, updated June 11, 2025: general liability $69 a month, business owner's policy $86, workers' compensation $10213 |
| Card processing | Stripe: 2.9% + 30¢ per online payment with a US card, plus 0.7% for recurring billing,14 2.9% + C$0.30 in Canada15 |
| Instructors | In job ads still live in October 2026 on their own careers pages, five Orangetheory franchisees posting a per-class rate offered $37.50 to $67.50 at the midpoint, a median of $45. The sample is small, and three of the five employers include bonuses in at least one range. Fitness trainers and instructors earned a median of $22.67 an hour in May 202516 |
Music licences
Playing recorded music in classes needs a public performance licence, and in the US the rights are split between societies, each licensing its own catalog. Their fitness rates for 2026, from the schedules they file with Colorado's Secretary of State:
| Organization | Licence | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| BMI | Fitness clubs with group classes | $0.387 per member a year, with a minimum of $432 and a maximum of $2,944 at each location |
| ASCAP | Fitness clubs with group classes | $545 a year for up to 500 places a week, $708 for 501 to 1,000, rising to $1,440 for 3,001 to 4,000 |
| SESAC | Health and athletic clubs | $434 a year at each location, for owners of 1 to 9 |
| GMR | By quote; no published rate |
Sources: BMI, ASCAP and SESAC 2026 licensing filings with the Colorado Secretary of State.17,18,19 ASCAP counts places as classes a week times room capacity, summed over rooms. Even at the 180 members its timetable holds, the hypothetical gym's BMI rate is $69.66, so it pays the $432 minimum; its 600 places a week put it in ASCAP's $708 band; with SESAC's $434, that is $1,574 a year, or $131.17 a month, before GMR. ASCAP and SESAC also license instructors directly, at $226 and $156 a year each.
In Canada, SOCAN's tariff 19 for fitness classes was last certified at C$2.50 a year per room times the average participants a week in that room, with a C$74.72 minimum, and Re:Sound's tariff 6.B at C$0.467 per class held in 2022. Both have proposed higher rates that are not yet certified, so ask each for the current figure.
Check the safety and contract laws where you open
Several states require a gym to keep a defibrillator (AED) on site, and most of those also require trained staff on hand. A few that a class gym is likely to meet:
| Place | Law | Who it covers | What it requires |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | General Business Law 627-a | Health clubs with 50 or more members | An AED, and an employee or volunteer trained in AED and CPR during staffed hours |
| Illinois | 210 ILCS 74/5.25, 74/10, 74/15 | Fitness facilities serving 100 or more people, excluding those that employ no one to instruct | An AED, a trained user on staff during staffed hours and a written emergency plan filed with the state |
| California | Health and Safety Code 104113 | Health studios selling memberships | An AED, trained staff, a check every 30 days with records and a written plan |
| Massachusetts | Chapter 93, section 78A | Health clubs | An AED and a trained provider during staffed hours |
| Oregon | ORS 431A.450 | Indoor exercise facilities with 50 or more people on a typical business day | An AED on site at all times |
| Virginia | 59.1-296.2:2 | Health clubs | A working AED at each location |
| Manitoba | Defibrillator Public Access Act | Fitness clubs with 150 or more members, or 20 or more hours of indoor group classes in most weeks | An AED |
Membership contracts have rules too. New York limits health club contracts to 36 months,20 gives members 3 business days to cancel,8 and requires a bond, letter of credit or deposit of $50,000 to $150,000 depending on contract length, with exemptions that include clubs where everything a member pays comes to $150 or less, and clubs that offer a qualifying monthly option on every plan.21 California limits contracts to 3 years.22 These are summaries, not legal advice: read the text for your state or province, or ask a local lawyer, before you write the membership terms.
Before you buy a franchise
The disclosure documents' Item 20 counts how many of each brand's franchised studios opened, closed or left the system each year. For 2025:
| Brand | Studios at the start | Opened | Closed or left | Studios at the end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orangetheory | 1,283 | 13 | 87 | 1,209 |
| F45 Training | 751 | 26 | 69 | 707 |
| Pure Barre | 617 | 14 | 14 | 617 |
| Burn Boot Camp | 356 | 34 | 4 | 388 |
| Fit Body Boot Camp | 217 | 27 | 67 | 192 |
| Title Boxing Club | 90 | 2 | 13 | 78 |
| BFT | 49 | 8 | 13 | 44 |
"Closed or left" adds terminations, non-renewals and studios that stopped operating for other reasons; transfers to a new owner are not counted. F45's own tables give 707 and 706 at the end, though its rows add to 708. Burn's two tables end at 388 and 386, a gap that matches the 2 company studios it sold to franchisees. Title also took back 1 studio. Fit Body Boot Camp's own rows do not add up to its end count; the table gives its figures as stated. Item 20 also lists former franchisees with contact details, as the FTC's Franchise Rule requires.23 Call some: they are the people who can tell you what the first year cost.
Set up booking and memberships
When you set up the timetable and memberships, the gyms page shows how Elara runs class booking with waitlists, memberships that renew through your payment account, and check-in from the class roster: staff check members in, and anyone who still owes a signed waiver is stopped. Memberships renew monthly or yearly with no minimum term, so the nearest to a fixed-length contract is a yearly plan paid a year at a time. Elara runs the classes, not the door, so keep your access system for entry. For how to sell recurring plans next to packs, see the memberships page, and for an opening plan built around reformers instead, the Pilates studio guide. Elara is sold by quote: ask for a quote and tell us your timetable, class sizes and memberships.