Dunkin'
Limited-Service Restaurants
What it costs
Figures are from the 2026 filing in MN — the Franchise Disclosure Document as the state registry holds it.
- Total investment
- $532,400 – $1,832,500
- Initial franchise fee
- $40,000
- Franchised outlets
- 8,744
How its owners fared
1.6% of finished loans charged off
4 of 243 franchisees who borrowed to buy Dunkin' did not repay. Lower charge-off rate than 76 of 99 comparable brands in Limited-Service Restaurants. See every one of them →
Based on 243 finished loans.
The median comparable Limited-Service Restaurants brand lost 6.9% of its borrowers. Dunkin' lost 1.6% — 0.2 times the median. See it against every comparable brand →
What else the filing says
- Serious
- 0
- Worth asking about
- 3
- For context
- 1
17 of 23 FDD items checked against a rule
Every item a rule can check has data behind it. One more is recorded but not tested, so silence on it is not a clean bill. 5 cannot be answered from the filing at all and are handed to you with the source named. See all 23 →
10.90% of revenue goes to the franchisor every year, before rent, wages or stock. The royalty is 5.90% of that; the rest is the brand fund and the marketing the same filing requires. Over the 20-year term this filing states, the $40,000 franchise fee is 1% of what you will pay them. See the whole fee stack →
Straight answers
From this filing and the federal loan record. Nothing here is projected, and where the filing does not say, it says so.
- How much will it cost to open?
- $532,400 – $1,832,500, of which $40,000 is the franchise fee. That is the franchisor’s own estimate and excludes the working capital to survive the months before revenue covers costs.The filing →
- What will I owe them every year?
- 10.90% of revenue, before rent, wages or stock.The fee stack →
- Is the system growing or shrinking?
- Up 3.3% over the year this filing covers — 8,465 franchised outlets to 8,744. The same filing reports 2 franchised outlets terminated in that year, which the net figure does not show.Item 20 →
- Did the people who borrowed to buy one repay?Free
- 1.6% were charged off, of the 243 SBA loans that have finished. A charge-off means the lender wrote the loan off — not that the outlet closed, and not that the owner lost money. Loans still being repaid count neither way — a loan that has not finished has not succeeded.Loan outcomes →
- What should I be worried about?
- 3 terms worth raising before you sign. Separately, 5 of the 23 disclosure items cannot be answered from the filing at all — those are listed with their sources under what to ask about, and one more is recorded without a test. Silence on them is not a clean bill.What to ask about →
- What should I ask existing owners?
- Every flag is written as a question to put to a franchisee, with the item it came from. Item 20 lists their names and numbers — the filing obliges the franchisor to give you them, and they are the only people who can tell you whether the money is real.The questions →
What you would earn, and when
Neither is in the filing: both turn on your rent, wages and financing. Enter those and the five-year model returns your profit, your cash flow year by year, the month you break even, and the NPV and IRR of the whole investment.
- Can I make money?
- The franchisor reports $1,372,069 average gross revenue — what outlets took in, not what owners kept. The model takes this brand’s actual fees and your own costs off that, and shows the profit left each year.Five-year model →
- How long until I break even?
- The model tracks your cash month by month to the one where it turns positive — and shows the deepest point before it does, which is the cash you need to get there.Five-year model →