Fitness
F45 Training Franchise
A group functional-training gym franchise built around 45-minute high-intensity interval workouts run on a rotating studio-wide class format, requiring franchisees to buy a standardized equipment package from the franchisor. F45 Training Incorporated was incorporated in Delaware in March 2015 and began offering U.S. franchises that August; the company also franchises the related FS8 (Pilates/yoga/stretch) and Vaura (low-impact/pilates) brands through affiliates. Franchised unit count declined every year of the FDD's three-year window, from 789 in early 2024 down to 707 by the end of 2025.
Disclosed in the FDD's litigation section (Item 3)
Item 3 discloses several disclosed disputes, the most material being a 2020-filed Illinois suit (Rezko v. F45 Training) in which a Cook County court granted the plaintiffs partial summary judgment in 2023, finding F45 had violated the Illinois Franchise Disclosure Act and the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act by failing to disclose prior litigation and an updated disclosure statement; F45 settled in December 2023 for $610,000. F45 separately settled a 2017-filed suit by NFL player Terrell Owens over unpaid promotional/likeness fees in August 2024 for seven monthly payments of $50,000 each ($350,000 total), and has two ongoing franchisee disputes (MaD Fitness Group, settled January 2026; Globo Gym, pending) over equipment and territory issues.
Every franchisor has to file a document called an FDD before they can legally sell you a franchise. Buried in it are the two things a sales rep won't volunteer: what you'll actually spend to open, and whether existing locations are opening or closing. That's what's below, pulled straight from F45 Training's own filing.
What it costs to open
From the filing's investment breakdown -- not a "starting at" number a sales rep quoted you.
Franchise fee
$60,000
Total to open
$362,300–$857,700
Ongoing royalty
7% of gross sales
What you'd actually spend, over time
The upfront cost is only part of it. Plug in what you expect a location to bring in, and see the real total once royalties over a few years are added on top.
Defaulted to a rough fitness industry average, not a figure from F45 Training's own FDD -- change it to your own estimate.
Total cost of ownership over 5 years
$607,300 – $1,102,700
Startup investment
$362,300–$857,700
Royalty per year (7%)
$49,000
Total royalty, 5yr
$245,000
When would you break even?
Revenue alone doesn't tell you this -- it depends on what's left after rent, labor, and everything else. F45 Training's FDD doesn't disclose a reliable profit figure (most franchisors don't), so this starts from a typical fitness profit margin (~15%) and applies it to the revenue you entered above -- adjust the percentage to your own realistic estimate.
Defaulted to a general fitness industry benchmark, not a figure from F45 Training's own filing -- this is a starting point to adjust, not a promise about what franchisees actually make.
At that profit, you'd break even in about
3.5–8.2 years
Weigh that payback period against what you already know: F45 Training is currently losing locations. A long payback period on a shrinking brand is a very different bet than the same payback period on a growing one.
Is F45 Training actually growing?
Franchisors have to report, every year, how many locations opened, closed, or changed hands. Most franchise sites never show you this. Here it is:
Locations opened vs. closed, by year
ShrinkingFrom Item 20 of F45 Training's FDD, the section franchisors use to disclose real openings and closings.
| Year | Franchised units, start | Franchised units, end | Net change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 728 | 789 | +61 |
| 2024 | 789 | 751 | -38 |
| 2025 | 751 | 707 | -44 |
Most recent year (2025): lost 44 franchised units, ending the year at 707 total.
What you're actually signing up for
The cost and growth numbers above are only part of the picture. These three FDD items are the ones a prospective franchisee tends to weigh most heavily once they're past the sticker price.
Training & ongoing support (Item 11)
Item 11: a required Induction Seminar (for owner plus Head Trainer) and, if the Head Trainer doesn't complete it, an on-site "train-the-trainer" program costing $4,000-$11,000; ongoing access to the F45 Intranet, F45 Support and F45 Tech systems.
Territory protection (Item 12)
Item 12: a real Protected Area -- generally a population of at least 15,000 -- within which F45 won't establish or authorize another F45 Studio during the franchise term, though F45 reserves the right to operate at "Reserved Areas" (office campuses, military bases, airports, hotels) even inside that Protected Area.
Renewal & termination terms (Item 17)
Item 17: 10-year term, with two additional consecutive 10-year renewal terms available if the franchisee meets then-current renewal conditions, including a then-current form of franchise agreement that may carry materially different terms.
How F45 Training compares to other Fitness franchises
Across the 9 fitness franchises we've hand-verified so far, the typical range to open runs $512,636–$1,337,041, with royalties averaging around 7.3% of gross sales (based on the 9 of them that charge a flat %-of-revenue royalty).
$764,577–$1,104,920 · 8% royalty
Pure Barre$445,299–$736,465 · 7% royalty
StretchLab$271,037–$814,192 · 8% royalty
Anytime Fitness$539,329–$905,482 · 8% royalty
Club Pilates$403,289–$1,029,811 · 8% royalty
Burn Boot Camp$291,145–$678,003 · 6% royalty
Planet Fitness$1,282,500–$5,386,000 · 7% royalty
The Joint Chiropractic$254,250–$520,800 · 7% royalty
Keep going
- F45 Training and Club Pilates are both fitness franchises; F45 Training's total investment starts about $40,989 lower than Club Pilates's. Club Pilates Franchise
- F45 Training and Burn Boot Camp are both fitness franchises; Burn Boot Camp's total investment starts about $71,155 lower than F45 Training's. Burn Boot Camp Franchise
Where this came from: F45 only files a Net Worth/Experience Exemption notice with California DFPI, so this entry is sourced from Minnesota's CARDS registry instead: MN File No. 11137, Clean FDD issued April 1, 2026, filed 4/2/2026, effective 5/15/2026. The automated parser found no numbers at all for this filing -- its body headers use "Item 5" rather than the "ITEM 5" pattern the parser searches for, so every figure below was hand-extracted. Item 5: a $60,000 "Establishment Fee" (the franchise-fee equivalent) plus a separate mandatory $115,000 Equipment Pack Fee for exercise equipment, screens, sound system and training uniforms purchased from F45 or its affiliate. Item 6: royalty is the greater of 7% of Gross Sales or $2,500/month, plus a Brand Fund of up to 2% (or $200/month, whichever is higher) and a separate flat $2,500/month Marketing Fee for local advertising. Item 7 Total: $362,300-$857,700. Item 20 Table No. 1 hand-extracted (the parser found nothing): franchised outlets fell from 789 to 707 across 2024-2025 even as the system added 61 net in 2023. You can pull the same filing yourself from the California DFPI's public franchise search. Filed 2026-05-15. None of this is investment advice -- get the franchisor's current FDD and talk to a real attorney or accountant before you sign anything.
If you see a different unit count elsewhere: franchisors only have to refile their FDD annually, so the numbers here can run 6–18 months behind a franchisor's own real-time marketing claims -- which often aren't independently verified, and sometimes count signed-but-not-yet-open locations. A gap isn't necessarily an error on either side; it's two different snapshots in time from two different sources.