The advertised price is almost never the price you pay. On 15 September 2026 we read the offer page for seven Planet Fitness clubs: Classic ran from $10 to $19 a month, the annual fee was $0, $49 or $59 depending on the club, and a full year came to anywhere between $170 and $288. The seven-club breakdown is here.
GymsCost works out that twelve-month number for major US gym chains, and shows every fee that goes into it.
What you’ll find here
- Gym membership prices — monthly rates, joining fees, annual charges, and what a year actually costs at each chain.
- Membership plans and tiers — what the cheap tier leaves out, and whether the upgrade is worth it.
- Guest passes and free trials — how long they last, what they include, and which ones make you sit through a sales tour.
- Cancelling a membership — notice periods, buyout fees, and the deadlines that cost people an extra billing cycle.
- Gym comparisons — two chains side by side on the numbers that matter.
Why the numbers here are different
Most price articles quote one club and call it a national rate. That falls apart quickly: LA Fitness publishes no price at all on its memberships page, and franchise clubs across every chain set their own fees.
So we take every figure from the gym’s own pricing page, its membership agreement, or a dated quote from a named club, and we link the source. When a chain won’t disclose a number, we say so instead of guessing. The full method is in how we research gym prices, including the seven fees we check on every chain and how often we go back to re-verify them.
Where we are right now
We launched in September 2026 and we’re working through the biggest US chains first, one at a time, each one fully sourced before it goes up. The list is short on purpose. After the US we’ll move to the UK, Canada, and Australia, where the pricing works much the same way.
If your gym isn’t covered yet, or you’ve been quoted something that doesn’t match what we’ve published, tell us at hello@gymscost.com or through the contact page. More about who we are is on the about page.