The Staggering Amount Of Cash Costco Makes From Memberships Alone

Costco's membership-based business model makes a lot of bank, especially since it increased the cost of membership in late 2024. Considering that the discount warehouse shopping chain has more than 100 million members worldwide, the $5 increase for a Gold Star membership (or $10 for the Executive tier) adds up. According to a quarterly earnings call that took place in September 2025, Costco made around $1.72 billion on memberships in that quarter alone. In 2023, membership fees earned the chain $4.5 billion in revenue (via Retail Brew).

As big as that number is, it's a paltry amount compared to the company's net sales for the 2025 fiscal year, which hit $270 billion; membership fees accounted for a small amount of that total. This factors in both types of membership that the average shopper can get at Costco: the $65 Gold Star membership, as well as the $130 Executive membership. Businesses can also avail of a $65 Business membership, which allows them to add affiliate card holders for the same price as a Gold Star membership.

There are a few things people need to know before buying a Costco membership, however, chief of which is the fact that regular shoppers are usually better off getting the Executive membership even though it's twice the price of a regular one. The Executive tier comes with a wide range of benefits — including a Costco perk that lets you save on entertainment tickets and exclusive access hours — so you end up saving more in the long run. In fact, the rewards at this tier make it so that a lot of households end up making the full cost of their membership back through savings.

An executive membership at Costco offers an annual 2% cash back reward, which makes the $130 fee basically free if you shop enough. The amount you'd need to spend to make a Costco Executive membership worth it is surprisingly low, allowing you to recoup the full membership cost via cash back at just over $540 per month. Considering the USDA estimate for a "thrifty" food budget for a family of four is around $1000 per month, a lot of households can easily get the most out of their memberships.

This is probably a big reason why Executive members accounted for a mind-blowing 74.3% of all sales, despite comprising less than half of all members. The membership pays for itself as long as you shop at Costco regularly enough, which means you get free access to the chain's lower prices and other deals. Even with the price increases from last year, the membership fee is still a bargain.

The interesting thing about all this is that when you factor in inflation, a Costco membership is actually cheaper today than it was back in 1983. The cost of a Costco membership back when it first opened was $25, which was a lot more than it seems today. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' inflation calculator, $25 in 1983 had the same purchasing power as $80.64 in 2025. That puts current regular membership rates at close to 20% cheaper than you would have paid if the pricing matched inflation rates. The Executive membership has an even bigger difference; when it launched in 1997, it cost $100 — the equivalent of $201.49 in 2025.