Here's How Much Chick-Fil-A Franchise Owners Actually Make

Chick-fil-A has been soaring as America's most successful chicken chain, outshining its competitors with ongoing popular buzz. That kind of success attracts people who want to get in on the action, and more than 40,000 of them apply to become franchise owner-operators each year. Those who become franchisees can expect to make six figures annually, but the way it's calculated is different from other fast food chains.

New owner-operators must put up $10,000 at the start, and also give 15% of annual sales and 50% of the profit to Chick-fil-A. By comparison, McDonald's franchisees pay a significantly higher $45,000 initially, but owe just 4 to 5% of sales, matching KFC's fees, which are the same for both. Subway's upfront cost is closer to Chick-fil-A's at $15,000, with an 8% fee.

The company's annual Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD) showed average sales of $9.3 million in 2024 at free-standing restaurants and $4.5 million at its mall locations. After handing over 15% of sales and half the profit, the owner-operators get around 5% to 7% of the overall revenue, according to a financial influencer on TikTok. Using the $9.3 million average, that amounts to a yearly income of $465,000 to $651,000, and $225,000 to $315,000 for the mall restaurants. Since that's just an average, incomes will range above and below that. The lowest annual revenue of any non-mall location was $1.9 million, for instance, and the highest was a whopping $19.3 million.

Chick-fil-A is notoriously picky about who it chooses to be a franchise owner-operator, accepting less than 1% of applicants. It's a long, detailed screening process with several interviews and personal investigations that even involve talking to family members and friends. Applicants must have been a team leader before, and are ineligible if they've ever declared bankruptcy. The chain also looks for people who take part in their community, something important to the company as a whole, which is why it donates the restaurants' leftover chicken to local charitable organizations. Being an employee can help; many owner-operators previously worked for the company.

Once someone is chosen, Chick-fil-A establishes their restaurant, providing everything from the physical property to the kitchen appliances. But all of it belongs to the company, and unlike other chains, the owner-operators don't earn a financial interest in their franchise.

Among the requirements, they must be on-site full time every day, which likely contributes to Chick-fil-A being named by Redditors as the fast food chain with the best service. The restaurants are famously closed on Sunday to give workers a day off and time for religious services, so there are no sales one day of every week. According to Chick-fil-A, the owner-operators can't be involved in any other "non-passive" business interests; they also usually aren't allowed to operate more than one restaurant. It's only permitted for a limited number of people, and even then, they can only do it for up to three locations.