How Much Is a Gym Membership in 2026?

There is no single average, because gyms sell four different products at four different prices. Here is what the chains we track actually charge, taking the cheapest standard membership at each location and the median across all of them.

Two things stand out. The gap between budget and mid-range is enormous: a Planet Fitness costs about a fifth of a Crunch in Manhattan. And the location matters as much as the brand. Crunch's cheapest membership runs from $9.99 a month at some franchise clubs to $119 at Manhattan ones, and Club Pilates from $79 to $269 depending on the studio.

Dues are the number gyms advertise. All-in is the number you pay. Of the 1,694 locations we price, 515 of them (30%) attach something beyond dues to their cheapest membership, and the median amount is $12.42 a month, or $149 over the first year.

• Annual fees, charged by 9 of the 106 brands we price at a median of $72.11 a year. Planet Fitness bills $59 at the New York clubs we track, against the $49 it advertises nationally. Crunch charges $75.19, Retro Fitness $72.11, New York Sports Club $79.99.
• Enrollment and startup fees, on 31% of the priced membership plans in our data, at a median of $149. Club Pilates is why that figure is so round: $149 appears on more than a thousand of its studio plans. Life Time is the steepest, at a median $349 to walk in the door.
• The commitment premium, which is a fee in reverse: at the 184 clubs selling both, month-to-month costs more than signing a term. See below.

The math on a cheap membership: Planet Fitness at our median $19 a month, plus the $59 annual fee and a $1 startup fee, is $288 for the first year. That is $24 a month, 26% above the sticker.

The floor in our data is public, not private. New York City's recreation centers charge $8.33 a month for adults 25 to 61, and nothing at all if you are under 25. Among chains, Planet Fitness advertises $15 a month nationally and runs a median $19 at its New York clubs, PureGym's paid-in-full single-club plan is $24.92, and Retro Fitness starts at $26.11, or $37.26 all-in once its annual and signup fees land.

Cheap is more common than the round-ups suggest. Of the 354 traditional gyms we price, 48% charge under $50 a month and 42% charge under $30.

Five things that actually move the number, in rough order of how much they save.

• Commit to a term. At the 184 locations selling both a contract and a month-to-month plan, the contract is a median 17% cheaper. PureGym is $32.99 with no commitment and $24.92 paid in full.
• Drop to a smaller access tier. New York Sports Club charges $103 a month for every club and $57 for a single neighborhood one, which is usually the only one you'd use.
• Use day passes if you go rarely. The median cheapest day pass is $14.99 across the 76 clubs that sell one, and a membership breaks even at a median 1.9 visits a month. Twice a week and the membership wins easily; twice a month and it doesn't.
• Check the public option first. Rec centers, university gyms, and YMCA branches undercut every private chain in our data except the cheapest big-box tiers.
• Ask for the student, senior, or off-peak rate. Gyms rarely print them next to the standard price.

One thing that doesn't work is waiting for a sale on dues. These are list prices taken from the gyms' own sites, and the promotions that appear are almost always waived signup fees rather than a lower monthly rate. Browse the full list, cheapest first.

A no-contract membership is easy to find, and it costs more. Of the 6,162 priced membership plans in our data, 1,323 carry no commitment term at all, so "no contract gym membership" is not the rare thing it sounds like. It is just priced as a convenience.

At the 184 clubs that sell both, committing is a median 17% cheaper. New York Sports Club: $114 month-to-month against $103 on a one-year commit. Harbor Fitness: $85 against $70.75 paid in full. CompleteBody: $120 against $96.58.

What our data doesn't cover is what it costs to leave. A contract that saves you ten dollars a month can cost more than that to break, and buyout terms vary by gym and by state. Read the cancellation clause before the discount decides for you.

This is the thinnest part of the market. Only 10 of the 106 brands we price publish a family or couples rate at all, across 59 locations.

Where they exist, the discount is modest. The YMCA branches we track charge $80 for an adult and $135 for a two-adult household, about 16% off two singles with children included. District Gym prices a Core membership at $199 and the Core Duo at $349, which works out to $174.50 each. Asphalt Green lists $175 a month for one adult plus two children and $295 for two adults plus two children on its annual plan.

For a couple, the honest read is that two budget memberships usually beat one couples plan. Family plans earn their keep on the children, not the second adult.

Student rates turn up at 34 of the locations we price, a median 19% below that club's own standard membership. The YMCA lists $61 for a student against $80 for an adult, and Asphalt Green charges undergraduates $100 a month on an annual plan where the standard rate is $165.

Senior rates are more common, at 70 locations, but seniors do best outside private gyms entirely. New York City rec centers are $25 a year for anyone 62 or older, for veterans, and for people with disabilities. At private clubs the discount is smaller, a median 17% once you exclude the city centers: the YMCA lists $63 for a senior against $80 for an adult, and Life Time's New York clubs list a 65 Plus membership at $299 where the cheapest standard tier is $309.

If you're on Medicare, check whether your plan carries a fitness benefit before paying for any of this. Several cover a membership outright at participating gyms.

New York is the market we price most deeply, and it is expensive without being uniformly expensive: a median $104 a month in dues and $109.75 all-in across 527 priced locations.

The spread is the real story. Traditional gyms run a median $59.99 and class studios $129. The cheapest membership in the city is $8.33 at a Parks & Rec center, and the most expensive standard membership we list is $430 at Equinox Hudson Yards. One New York gym in ten charges more than $249.

Fees are slightly rarer here than nationally: 28% of New York locations add something beyond dues to their cheapest membership, a median $6.75 a month. Compare every NYC gym by price, or start with a borough: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens.

Every figure on this page comes from list prices we collect from gyms' own websites and re-verify on a schedule, not from a survey of what people say they pay. This page uses the September 2, 2026 snapshot: 1,770 locations, 8,608 individual plan prices, 120 brands, 49 states.

Coverage is uneven on purpose. We price every kind of gym in New York City (546 locations) and every Club Pilates studio in the country (1,224), so the national medians lean toward studio pricing and the traditional-gym figures are New York figures. Each line above says which it is.

"List price" is the lowest standard membership dues at a location. "All-in" adds annual and signup fees spread over the first twelve months. Student, senior, youth, corporate, and family rates sit outside the standard-price medians and are reported on their own. We publish medians rather than averages because a handful of $700-a-month clubs would drag an average somewhere no real person shops.