How much does it cost to open a restaurant? A line-by-line US budget

There is no honest single answer: what it costs to open a restaurant depends on the concept, the city and above all the site you take. A former restaurant with a working hood and walk-in costs far less to fit out than an empty shell. What you can work out is your own number: startup cost = one-off costs + a contingency + enough money to run the first months, less the money you put in yourself. In our free calculator's example, a 60-seat restaurant needs $430,050 to open, a counter cafe $178,450, a food truck $151,185 and a delivery kitchen $122,710. Those are made-up examples to show the structure, not averages; replace every line with your own quotes.

What goes into the cost of opening a restaurant?

The US Small Business Administration splits startup costs into one-time expenses, "the initial costs needed to start the business", and monthly expenses such as salaries, rent and utilities. For a restaurant, that becomes three parts:

Food and drink are not in the running costs: you buy ingredients as you sell, so sales pay for them. The first stock you buy before opening goes under Opening.

Four example budgets, side by side

These are the startup cost calculator's four examples, each with a 10% contingency and three months of running costs. They are illustrations, not market prices: your city, your site and your concept will move every line.

Three things stand out:

• The cafe costs more per seat than the restaurant. A small room still needs an espresso machine, a counter, plumbing and a fit-out, spread over only 18 seats. Cost per seat is useful for comparing two sites of your own, not for comparing concepts.
• The truck's money is in the vehicle. A used, built-out truck is $85,000 of its $108,600 one-off costs.
• The delivery kitchen is cheap to open and expensive to run. It rents a unit in a shared kitchen, so its one-off costs are low, but $10,000 of its $26,200 monthly bills is app commission.

Line by line: the example 60-seat restaurant

The build-out is the biggest single line and the one that varies most. Before you sign a lease, get a contractor's quote for that site; a "second-generation" space that was already a restaurant may need a fraction of it.

How much money should you have in the bank when you open?

Enough to pay rent, staff and bills while sales build up. For working out the capital you need, the SBA suggests you "count at least one year of monthly expenses, but counting five years is ideal." That doesn't mean a year with no sales; it means planning for a slow start. Here is what the choice does to the example restaurant:

A sales forecast tells you how many of those months sales will actually cover. The restaurant business plan template works out your break-even customers a day and the months to earn back the startup costs, and the break-even calculator shows the monthly sales you need.

The cost most startup budgets leave out: delivery-app commission

If you list on the delivery apps from day one, their commission is a monthly cost like rent. These are the US rates on the apps' own pricing pages:

Worked example. The example restaurant expects $12,000 of app sales a month at an average 25%: $3,000 a month, $9,000 of the money to hold at opening and $36,000 over a year. If those same $12,000 of orders came through the restaurant's own ordering page instead, at an average order of $30 (400 orders), the cost would be card processing: Stripe's US rate of 2.9% + 30¢ is $348 + $120 = $468 a month. Not every app customer will switch, but every one who does keeps most of that 25%.

Use the apps to be found, and give regulars a reason to order direct from the first week: a QR code on every bag and table, and a price that is lower than on the apps. See what each app charges in detail on the US delivery app commission page, or work out your own loss with the delivery app loss calculator.

Permits and licenses: what to budget

Permits are set by your state, county and city, so there is no national price. Ask your local health department and city business office for the full list before you sign a lease. New York City shows how the pieces add up:

• Food service establishment permit: $280 a year for most restaurants, plus $25 if you make frozen desserts. You may start operating 22 days after you apply, even before the pre-permit inspection.
• Food protection certificate: the city requires at least one supervisor certified in food protection on site whenever you are open. The online course is free; the final exam costs $24, taken in person.
• Food trucks and carts: the number of street vending permits is limited by law. From 1 July 2026 the city offers 2,200 new supervisory licenses a year for five years, and every truck must be cleaned, serviced and stored at an approved commissary and return to it at least once a day.

Building, fire, signage, music and alcohol permits come on top and vary widely by state and city, so get each fee in writing before you budget. If you plan to start from home first, check your state's cottage food law.

What should a new restaurant spend on technology?

Less than you might think, if you separate what you need on day one from what can wait. The essentials are a way to take payments, a menu customers can find online and a way to take orders.

Menuthere gives you an ordering page with your menu, QR codes and a dashboard at 0% commission: Free for up to 50 orders a month, Lite at $17 a month for unlimited orders, online card payments with your own Stripe account and your own domain, and Pro at $39 a month adds loyalty, reviews and your own delivery riders with live tracking. See online ordering for US restaurants.

Take orders without commission from the day you open.

Create your free ordering page

How to pay for opening a restaurant

• Your own money and partners'. The calculator takes it off the total to show what is still to find.
• SBA 7(a) loans. The SBA's main loan program; the maximum is $5 million, and the uses include working capital, machinery and equipment, furniture, fixtures and supplies, and real estate.
• SBA microloans. Loans of $50,000 or less, useful for a truck, a small cafe or equipment.
• Equipment leasing. Spreads the cost of ovens, refrigeration or the POS over monthly payments; it lowers the startup cost and raises the monthly one.

A lender will ask for a business plan with your startup costs and a sales forecast. The restaurant business plan template has a section for each, with ready-made examples for a food truck, a cafe and a ghost kitchen.

Taxes. For US taxes, start-up costs are "the expenses you incur before you actually begin business operations", such as advertising, travel, surveys and training. You can elect to deduct up to $5,000 of them in your first year; the $5,000 is reduced by the amount your start-up costs exceed $50,000, and the rest is amortized over 180 months from the month you open. Machinery and equipment are recovered through depreciation instead. Ask your accountant how it applies to you.

How to lower the cost of opening a restaurant

1. Take a second-generation site. A space that was a restaurant may come with a hood, grease trap and walk-in, the most expensive parts of a build-out.
2. Start smaller. A truck, a counter-service cafe or a unit in a shared kitchen tests the concept for a fraction of a full dining room, as the four examples show.
3. Buy used where it is safe. Stainless tables, shelving and smallwares second-hand; check warranties on refrigeration and cooking equipment.
4. Keep the menu short at first. Fewer dishes means less equipment, less stock and fewer staff to train.
5. Lease what wears out or goes out of date, such as the POS and the dishwasher, and buy what lasts.
6. Take direct orders from day one. An ordering page and QR codes cost little and keep regulars off the apps' commission.

How to work out your own startup costs, step by step

1. List every one-off cost: premises, kitchen and equipment, permits and insurance, technology, opening.
2. Get quotes for the big lines: the build-out for a specific site, the equipment list and the permits in your city.
3. Add a contingency: a percentage on top of the one-off costs for what goes over budget.
4. Add up the monthly bills: rent, staff, utilities, insurance, card fees, software, loan repayments and delivery-app commission.
5. Choose how many months to hold: multiply the monthly bills by the months you want in the bank at opening.
6. Take off your own money: what is left is what you need to borrow or raise.

The restaurant startup cost calculator does steps 3 to 6 as you type and shows the cost per seat; copy the result into your business plan. When you are ready to open, the opening and closing checklist helps you set up each day.

Outside the US

The structure is the same everywhere; the permits, taxes, loans and app rates are not. For the UK, read how to open a restaurant in the UK and what a food truck costs in the UK. The calculator works in any currency.