How much does it cost to start a food truck?
About $116,000 all in for a small one, opened by one founder in an American city: $73,800 to open the doors and $41,800 to keep going for the 9 months it typically takes to pay its way. Below, every item at low, typical and high with where it comes from — and your own quote, for your country, your town, how you start and the money you have.
To open: $73,800
Used, fitted food truck: $50,000 ($30,000–$80,000). Toast: used food trucks $30,000–$70,000; Square: used $40,000–$80,000, new made-to-order $75,000–$150,000
Extra cooking equipment and smallwares: $5,000 ($2,000–$15,000). Square: appliances 'well into the thousands', supplies 'a few thousand dollars' (estimate within)
Generator: $3,000 ($1,000–$8,000). Our estimate: quiet inverter generator for a truck
Wrap and branding: $4,000 ($2,500–$7,000). Our estimate: full vinyl wrap with design
Permits, licences and inspections, first year: $1,860 ($590–$17,100). Square citing the US Chamber of Commerce Food Truck Index: average of top-19 cities $1,864; Indianapolis $590 (lowest), Seattle $6,211, Boston $17,066 (highest); Toast survey $800–$1,400
Insurance, first year (liability and commercial auto): $3,500 ($2,000–$5,000). Food-truck guides (2025): insurance $2,000–$5,000 a year
Card reader / POS: $750 ($0–$1,200). Toast: Starter Kit $0 upfront, or $749 upfront with a cellular handheld
Opening stock and serveware: $2,300 ($1,300–$3,300). Square: startup inventory $2,000–$3,000 (ingredients $1,000–$2,000) plus serveware $300
Commissary set-up fee: $300 ($150–$1,000). Shared-kitchen benchmark guide (2026): set-up fee averages $150
Website, menu boards and launch: $1,500 ($500–$4,000). Our estimate: no published figure was found for this item.
Forming the company: $800 ($150–$2,500). An LLC's state filing is $50–$500 (state fee schedules), plus an EIN (free) and a registered agent; the World Bank measured the procedures at about 1% of income per capita, about $850 (Doing Business 2020); a lawyer's formation package $500–$2,000.
Deposit on the shared space: $800 ($0–$1,500). Commissary (required by most health codes): Toast up to $1,000/mo; POSBistro $500–$1,200/mo; FoodTruckEmpire $400–$1,500/mo; The Food Corridor, 2023 Shared Kitchen Operator Survey: $15–$45/hour nationally (42% at $20–$29); monthly memberships typically $200–$1,500 (2026 benchmark guide, average $500)
To keep going until it pays its way: $41,800
Running costs while sales build: $6,160 ($1,000–$29,200). Fuel (truck and generator), Vehicle maintenance, Overnight parking, Propane, POS software, Social media and event fees, until it breaks even; sales are taken to grow evenly to cover them, so about half is needed. Break-even: Our estimate: Food-service break-even guides (restroworks/kitchennmbrs vendor data, 2025): most food businesses 6–18 months; café/bar 6–10, fast casual 6–12, casual 8–15, fine dining 12–24; a truck's fixed costs are lower than a fast-casual room's, so the fast-casual band applies
Shared space while sales build: $3,600 ($800–$13,500). The premises' monthly cost above, until it breaks even, half of it covered by sales as they grow.
Your own living costs until it can pay you: $32,000 ($14,200–$64,100). A one-person household spends about $3,560 a month in America (BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey 2021–22); nothing is paid to you until the business breaks even.
All in: $116,000
About $116,000 all in ($56,200–$252,000): $73,800 to open and $41,800 to keep going for the 9 months it typically takes to pay its way.
With $10,000 of your own you are $106,000 short: borrowed as an SBA 7(a) or bank loan at 11% over 5 years, about $2,300 a month.
The trade's published range, before the months it takes to pay its way: $50,000–$200,000. Square 'How much does a food truck cost' (2025): $50,000–$200,000 (itemised $46,700–$187,440); Toast $75,000–$250,000; Homebase $50,000–$200,000
How much does it cost to start a food truck?
About $116,000 all in ($56,200–$252,000) for a small one, a shared space, in an American city. To open: Used, fitted food truck $50,000; Extra cooking equipment and smallwares $5,000; Generator $3,000; Wrap and branding $4,000; Permits, licences and inspections, first year $1,860; Insurance, first year (liability and commercial auto) $3,500; Card reader / POS $750; Opening stock and serveware $2,300; Commissary set-up fee $300; Website, menu boards and launch $1,500; Forming the company $800; Deposit on the shared space $800 — $73,800. To keep going for the 9 months it typically takes to break even: running costs while sales build $6,160; shared space while sales build $3,600; your own living costs until it can pay you $32,000 — $41,800. The trade's published startup range is $50,000–$200,000 (Square 'How much does a food truck cost' (2025): $50,000–$200,000 (itemised $46,700–$187,440); Toast $75,000–$250,000; Homebase $50,000–$200,000), which leaves the months before it pays its way out.
What does SparkTower's simulator pay to open it?
The simulator pays the one-off opening costs before the first customer — the running costs and the founder's living it plays month by month: Truck, kitted out (used) $45,000; Permits, inspections, commissary deposit $3,000; Wrap and branding $3,000; Opening stock $2,000; Forming the company $1,000. A food truck: $50k–$175k (Toast and FoodTruckEmpire startup-cost surveys); a used, fitted truck $40k–$80k.
How much of that do you keep?
$47,000 of it — the kit, fit-out or stock it bought — is still yours afterwards, something a buyer would pay for and a lender would lend against; the other $7,000 is spent.
What if my own money doesn't cover it?
With $10,000 of your own you would be about $106,000 short. Borrowed as an SBA 7(a) or bank loan at 11% over 5 years, that is about $2,300 a month. Most founders borrow the rest. A small-business term loan runs about 11% a year over 5 years (SBA 7(a) loans are the prime rate plus 3 to 6.5 points), repaid every month from the start — before the business has found its customers. In SparkTower's food truck simulator the founder starts with $80,000 of their own money; the launch costs come out of it and leave $26,000 to trade on, with nothing borrowed.
Can you start a food truck with no money?
Not in full: lenders want the owner to put in about 20% (the SBA's own floor for a start-up is 10%), and lend against the kit, fit-out and stock a launch buys, not its marketing or a software build. What a founder with nothing does is open smaller — a food cart or trailer — on about $13,800 of essentials (food cart or trailer (used) $10,000; permits, inspections and commissary $2,500; opening stock $1,000; forming the company $300), borrowed as a microloan (the SBA's are up to $50,000, at 8–13%) or, for a few thousand dollars, on a card at about 22%. The rest is bought once the business can afford it. A food cart: $2k–$15k against a truck's $40k–$80k (FoodTruckEmpire and Toast food-cart guides).
Will it earn the money back?
That depends on what you charge, how many customers you win and what your rivals do. The free food truck simulator pays these costs before it opens, borrows what the founder's cash doesn't cover, and plays the business forward against real rivals, so you can see whether it earns them back before you spend them.
What it costs to start others like it
- Cost to start a small-town business — $126,000 all in
- Cost to start a café — $155,000 all in
- Cost to start a restaurant — $223,000 all in
- Cost to start a salon or barber — $128,000 all in
- Cost to start a gym or studio — $208,000 all in
- Cost to start a bakery — $145,000 all in
- Cost to start a retail shop — $160,000 all in
- Cost to start a cleaning service — $27,100 all in
- Cost to start a landscaping business — $53,900 all in
- Cost to start an auto repair garage — $156,000 all in
- Cost to start a daycare or nursery — $117,000 all in
- Cost to start a plumbing or electrical trade — $55,400 all in
- Cost to start a construction company — $80,700 all in
- Cost to start a trucking company — $113,000 all in
- Cost to start a solar installer — $99,000 all in
- Cost to start a property developer — $937,000 all in