Affiliate disclosure
We earn a commission if you join through the links on this page — 3%. It did not buy a favourable review. Costco.com blocked our automated requests, so rather than paraphrase a marketing page we have built this review from Costco’s own Form 10-K for the year ended 31 August 2025, filed with the SEC, plus the Better Business Bureau and PubMed, all checked on 11 August 2026.
Costco charges $65 a year, or $130 for Executive, and 92.3% of members in the US and Canada renew. That renewal rate is the review in one number. The rest is arithmetic: the Executive upgrade needs $3,250 of annual spending to break even, and the reason the prices inside are low is that the fee alone is about two-thirds of Costco’s entire profit.
What It Is and Who It Is For
A membership warehouse club. You pay an annual fee for the right to shop at prices set on thin margins, in large formats, from a deliberately narrow selection. The advertiser describes it as “committed to providing high-quality goods and services at an incredible value for its members”; the filing behind it lets you check whether that structure is real, and it is.
It suits a household that shops in planned monthly trips, has somewhere to put a case of something, and spends enough for the fee to disappear into the savings. It suits a single person in a small apartment who tops up groceries twice a week considerably less — and the numbers below will tell you which one you are before you pay.
The Fee Is Two-Thirds of the Profit
Costco’s fiscal 2025, from the 10-K:
| Line | FY2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Net sales | $269,912M | +8% |
| Membership fee revenue | $5,323M | +10% |
| Net income | $8,099M ($18.21/share) | +10% |
| Net new warehouses | 24 (15 in the US) | |
| Gas stations | 747, roughly 10% of net sales |
Put two of those side by side. Membership fees $5.32 billion. Net income $8.10 billion. The fee is roughly 66% of everything Costco earns, on $269.9 billion of sales. The merchandise very nearly washes its own face; the annual fee is the business.
This is worth understanding because it is the mechanism that makes the prices real rather than a trick. A retailer that earns its profit from the goods has to mark them up. A retailer that earns its profit from the door has an incentive to price the goods as low as it can bear, because the only thing it needs from you is to keep renewing. That is a genuinely aligned model — and it is also why the fee is not negotiable and why the value depends entirely on how much you use it.
One more figure that shows the same thing from the other end: deferred membership fees stood at $2,854 million at the year end, up from $2,501 million. That is money already collected for access not yet used.
What the Tiers Cost
| Membership | US annual fee | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Gold Star (individuals) | $65 | Warehouse and e-commerce access, plus a free household card |
| Business | $65 | Requires a business licence or comparable document; can add affiliate cardholders at $65 each |
| Executive (upgrade) | +$65 → $130 total | 2% reward on qualified purchases, generally capped at $1,250 a year, redeemable at warehouses |
The free household card is the underrated part. Two adults at one address share a $65 fee, which halves the effective cost. Affiliates for Business members are not free — each one pays the same $65 — and household cards are not available on affiliate memberships.
The Executive Break-Even Is $3,250
This is the one calculation everyone gets wrong, and it takes ten seconds.
Executive costs an extra $65 and returns 2% of qualified purchases.
$65 ÷ 0.02 = $3,250 of qualified annual spending to break even. That is about $271 a month through the till, on qualifying items.
Below that, the upgrade costs you money. At $2,000 a year you get $40 back for $65 — a $25 loss. At $6,000 you get $120 for $65 — a $55 gain. And the reward stops growing at $1,250, which is reached at roughly $62,500 of qualified spend.
Two details in the fine print. The reward is “redeemable at Costco warehouses” rather than paid to you in cash, so it only has value if you keep shopping. And the word “qualified” is doing work — not every purchase earns it, so treat $3,250 as the optimistic break-even rather than the exact one.
The filing also quietly notes that the reward is accounted for “net of the estimated impact of non-redemptions” — in other words, Costco budgets for the fact that some members never claim it. Do not be one of them.
What 92.3% Renewal Actually Tells You
Reviews of subscriptions usually have to guess whether people find them worth keeping. Here the company publishes it, and it is audited.
“Our member renewal rate was 92.3% in the U.S. and Canada and 89.8% worldwide at the end of 2025.”
And Costco defines it carefully rather than flatteringly: the figure excludes affiliates of Business members, is a trailing calculation covering renewals seven to eighteen months before the reporting date, and excludes memberships that expired in the previous six months whether or not they were renewed.
Nine out of ten people who pay $65 decide to pay it again. No review can tell you more than that about whether a membership delivers. It is also worth knowing the scale it holds at: 81 million paid members and 145.2 million total cardholders, having grown from 71 million paid members two years earlier.
One number complicates the picture in a useful way. Executive members are 38.7 million of the 81 million — about 48% — but the filing states that “the sales penetration of Executive members represented approximately 73.6% of worldwide net sales”. Half the members generate three-quarters of the sales. The economics of this place are built around heavy users, and if you would not be one, the average experience is not the one you will have.
Bulk Buying, and What the Cochrane Review Found
This is a weight-loss site, and there is one thing about warehouse clubs worth saying carefully, because the popular version of it comes from research that has since been retracted. So we went to the most reliable source available instead: a Cochrane systematic review.
Hollands and colleagues, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2015, reviewed 72 studies of portion, package and tableware size. A meta-analysis of 86 comparisons from 58 studies, 6,603 participants, found a small-to-moderate effect of larger sizes on how much food people consume: SMD 0.38 (95% CI 0.29 to 0.46), graded moderate quality evidence — and larger in adults, at SMD 0.46 (0.40 to 0.52), than in children.
The authors’ own translation: if sustained reductions in exposure to larger portions, packages and tableware could be achieved across the whole diet, it could reduce average daily energy intake by 144 to 228 kcal — 8.5% to 13.5% of a 1,689 kcal baseline.
Now set that against Costco’s description of itself, from the 10-K: “Many consumable products are offered for sale in case, carton, or multiple-pack quantities only.” A warehouse club is, by design and by its own account, a larger-package environment.
This is not an argument against joining. It is an argument about what to buy and how to store it. Bulk is a straightforward price win on things whose consumption rate you do not control — detergent, paper goods, batteries, pet food, coffee, tinned goods, medication. The risk is specific to food you eat directly out of the container it came in.
- Decant on the way in. Portion the big bag into smaller containers before it goes in the cupboard, not at the moment you want to eat it
- Freeze on arrival. Meat and bread in usable portions the day you get home
- Buy household goods in bulk and snacks in normal sizes, even if the unit price is worse. The evidence above is about food, not washing powder
- Remember the perishable trap: a saving on something you throw away is not a saving. Costco stocks 9,000 to 10,000 SKUs online, far fewer than a supermarket, precisely because volume is the model
What the Filing Says About the Shop
- Deliberately few products. Around 9,000–10,000 SKUs online, “significantly less than other broadline retailers”. Fewer choices, bought deeper, at better prices — and the reason you cannot always get the thing you got last time
- Kirkland Signature is described in the filing as high quality, priced “generally lower than national brands”, and earning Costco “generally higher margins”. Both halves of that are true at once, which is why it is usually the smart buy
- Ancillary businesses — gasoline, pharmacy, optical, food court, hearing aids and tyre installation. Gasoline alone is about 10% of net sales across 747 stations, and for many members the fuel saving covers the fee by itself
- Pharmacy is worth a call. If you take regular prescriptions, price them there. Rules on non-member pharmacy access vary by state and we could not verify the current position from a primary source, so ask your local warehouse
Returns and the Guarantee
From the filing: “To promote member satisfaction, we generally accept returns of merchandise.” The one stated exception is electronics: “on certain electronic items, we have a 90-day return policy”, along with free technical support and an extended warranty at no charge.
Costco is widely understood to refund membership fees on request as well, which would make the $65 close to risk-free. We could not verify that from a primary source, because costco.com refused our requests, and we are not going to state a guarantee we have not read. If that is the thing that decides it for you, ask at the membership desk and get the answer before you pay.
The Complaint Record, In Proportion
The Better Business Bureau corporate profile records 2,516 complaints over three years, with 906 closed in the last twelve months, led by service or repair issues (1,126) and product issues (671). Costco has been in business since 1 January 1982 and the corporate profile is not BBB accredited.
Two and a half thousand complaints sounds like a lot until you divide. Against 81 million paid members, that is roughly three complaints per hundred thousand members over three years. For comparison, a small pet-supplement brand we reviewed the same week had 135 complaints against an unknown but vastly smaller customer base.
The other context worth having: of the 384 Costco Wholesale listings the BBB search returned, every one we could see carried an A+ rating, and all three of the most recent corporate complaints — a damaged freezer, a Costco Travel booking, and a missing $20 shop card from a third-party membership deal — had been answered and were being resolved.
How It Compares
| Option | Where it wins | Where it loses |
|---|---|---|
| Costco Gold Star ($65) | 92.3% renewal; free household card halves the cost for a couple; fuel, pharmacy and optical on site; returns policy described as generally accepting merchandise back | You pay before you save; bulk formats; limited selection |
| Costco Executive ($130) | 2% back, worth having above $3,250 of qualified annual spend | A guaranteed loss below that; reward is store credit, capped at $1,250 |
| A regular supermarket | No fee, normal package sizes, closer, better for topping up | Higher unit prices on staples; no fuel or pharmacy tie-in |
| Splitting a membership | The free household card is for one address — two adults in a household genuinely share one $65 fee | Business affiliates are $65 each, not free |
Who Should Join, and Who Should Not
Join if:
- You are a household of two or more and will use the free household card
- You will do planned monthly shops and have somewhere to store bulk
- You buy fuel regularly — for many members that alone covers the fee
- You take regular prescriptions and will price them at the pharmacy
- You spend over about $3,250 a year there, in which case take Executive
- You are happy to buy the Kirkland version of most things
Do not join if:
- You shop for one, top up little and often, and have no storage
- You would take Executive on $2,000 of spending — that is a $25 loss before you buy anything
- The nearest warehouse is a long drive you would not otherwise make
- You know that a multipack of something you like does not survive the week. The Cochrane evidence is about you, and so is the cupboard
- You are buying mostly fresh food for a small household and will throw half of it away
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 92.3% US and Canada renewal rate — the market’s own verdict, audited
- Business model genuinely aligned: the fee is ~66% of profit, so goods are priced thin
- Free household card with every paid membership — two adults, one $65 fee
- 81 million paid members and 145.2 million cardholders; grown from 71 million in two years
- Returns described in the filing as generally accepted, with 90 days on electronics plus free tech support
- Fuel at 747 stations, roughly 10% of sales — often covers the fee alone
- Pharmacy, optical and hearing aids on site
- Kirkland Signature: lower than national brands, and usually the smart buy
- Complaint rate of roughly 3 per 100,000 members over three years; 384 warehouse listings all A+
- Every claim in this review is checkable in an SEC filing
Cons
- You pay $65 before you save anything — a light shopper loses money
- Executive needs $3,250 of qualified spend just to break even
- The 2% reward is store credit, not cash, and capped at $1,250
- Costco budgets for members who never redeem it
- “Qualified purchases” is undefined at the point of sale
- Many consumables sold in case or multipack only — a consumption risk on food
- 9,000–10,000 SKUs online: the thing you liked may not be there next time
- Business affiliate cards cost a full $65 each
- Corporate BBB profile is not accredited and shows no letter rating
- We could not verify the membership fee refund guarantee from a primary source
Limitations of This Review
Costco.com blocked our automated requests, returning an access-denied page, so we could not read the join page, current promotional pricing, or the membership terms directly. This review is therefore built from Costco’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended 31 August 2025 (SEC, CIK 0000909832), the Better Business Bureau, and PubMed, all checked on 11 August 2026.
That is a good source for fees, member counts, renewal rates and the reward structure, all of which are audited. It is a worse source for anything that changed after 31 August 2025 — promotional signup offers, gift-card bundles sold through third parties, and any fee change since. Check the current fee before you pay. We have also not verified the membership fee refund guarantee, and have said so rather than repeat it.
We did not join, shop, or price a basket, so nothing here compares Costco’s prices against any other retailer’s. The break-even arithmetic is ours, from the published fee and reward rate; because “qualified purchases” is not defined in the filing, $3,250 is the optimistic figure and your real one will be higher.
On the bulk-buying evidence: we used a Cochrane review deliberately, because the best-known popular research on package size and eating includes work that has since been retracted. The Cochrane meta-analysis is graded moderate quality and its studies were assessed as being at unclear or high risk of bias — it establishes a real effect, not a precise one, and the 144–228 kcal figure is the authors’ modelled estimate for a whole-diet change, not a prediction about your shopping. Nothing here is medical or financial advice.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is a Costco membership?
From Costco's own annual report for the year ended 31 August 2025: the annual fee for Gold Star (individual) and Business memberships is $65 in the US. Paid members can upgrade to Executive for "an additional annual fee of $65", making $130 in total. Every paid membership includes a free household card, and Business members can add affiliate cardholders at the same $65 each.
Is the Executive membership worth it?
Only above about $3,250 of qualified annual spending. Executive members earn a 2% reward on qualified purchases, so recovering the extra $65 requires $65 ÷ 0.02 = $3,250 through the till. Below that you are paying more than you get back. The reward is capped at "generally up to a maximum reward of $1,250 per year", which is reached at roughly $62,500 of qualified spend, and it is redeemable at Costco warehouses rather than paid in cash.
How many people actually keep their membership?
Almost everyone. The 10-K reports a member renewal rate of 92.3% in the US and Canada and 89.8% worldwide at the end of 2025. Costco is careful about the definition: it excludes affiliates of Business members, is a trailing calculation covering renewals seven to eighteen months before the reporting date, and excludes memberships expiring in the previous six months. Even read conservatively, nine in ten people who try it carry on paying — which is the most useful single number in this review.
How big is Costco?
At the end of fiscal 2025 it reported 81 million total paid members and 145.2 million total cardholders, of which 68.3 million were Gold Star and 12.7 million Business. Net sales were $269.9 billion, up 8%, and net income $8.1 billion, up 10%, or $18.21 per share. It added 24 net new warehouses in the year and operated 747 gas stations.
Where does Costco actually make its money?
From the membership, not the merchandise. The 10-K reports membership fee revenue of $5,323 million for fiscal 2025 against net income of $8,099 million — so the fee accounts for about 66% of total profit. That is the structural fact behind the low prices: goods are sold at thin margins because the fee is the earnings, which is a genuinely good deal for anyone who shops there enough to use it.
Do Executive members spend more?
Dramatically more. Executive members were 38.7 million of the 81 million paid members — about 48% — but the filing states that "the sales penetration of Executive members represented approximately 73.6% of worldwide net sales in 2025". Roughly half the members generate about three-quarters of the sales. If you would be a light user, you are not the customer this pricing is designed around.
Is buying in bulk actually a good idea?
For non-perishables and household goods, yes. For food you eat straight from the package, be careful. A Cochrane systematic review of 72 studies found moderate-quality evidence that larger portions, packages and tableware increase how much people consume — a pooled effect of SMD 0.38 across 6,603 participants, and 0.46 in adults. The authors estimated that sustained reductions in exposure to larger sizes across the whole diet could cut daily intake by 144 to 228 kcal. Costco's own filing notes that "many consumable products are offered for sale in case, carton, or multiple-pack quantities only".
What is the return policy?
The 10-K says that "to promote member satisfaction, we generally accept returns of merchandise", with a specific exception: "on certain electronic items, we have a 90-day return policy" plus free technical support and an extended warranty. Costco is widely understood also to refund membership fees on request, but we were unable to verify that from a primary source because costco.com blocked our requests, so we are not stating it as a fact — confirm it at the membership desk before joining if it matters to you.
Does Costco have a good complaint record?
Read the numbers in proportion. The Better Business Bureau corporate profile records 2,516 complaints over three years and 906 closed in the last twelve months, led by service or repair issues (1,126) and product issues (671). Against 81 million paid members that is roughly three complaints per hundred thousand members over three years. The corporate profile is not BBB accredited, but the 384 individual warehouse listings we saw all carried an A+ rating, and all three of the most recent corporate complaints had been answered.
Can I use the pharmacy or optical without shopping?
The 10-K lists pharmacy, optical, hearing aids, food court, tyre installation and gasoline among its "warehouse ancillary" businesses. Rules on non-member access to pharmacies vary by state and we could not verify the current position from a primary source, so ask your local warehouse directly. If you take regular prescriptions it is worth pricing them there — for anyone on long-term medication, that comparison can matter more than the grocery savings.
Is there a downside to joining?
Three. You pay before you save anything, so a light shopper can lose money on the fee alone. The warehouse format is built to increase basket size — Costco carries far fewer SKUs than a supermarket and sells many consumables only in multipacks. And the drive, the queue and the volume mean it rewards planned monthly shopping rather than topping up, which does not suit every household.
Verdict
4.4 / 5
A membership whose value is confirmed by the only measure that counts — nine in ten members renew — with one upgrade most people should not take and one shopping habit worth planning around.
We spend most of these reviews finding the gap between what a company says and what its documents show. Costco is the rare case where the documents are better than the marketing. The renewal rate is 92.3% in the US and Canada, defined conservatively and audited. Membership has grown from 71 to 81 million paid members in two years. And the structure genuinely explains the prices: $5.32 billion of fees against $8.10 billion of net income means the merchandise is close to a break-even operation and the annual fee is the earnings. A retailer paid at the door has every reason to price the aisles honestly.
So the criticisms are small and arithmetic. Executive is not for most people. The extra $65 buys 2% back, which needs $3,250 of qualified spending a year to break even — and “qualified” is undefined, the reward is store credit rather than cash, it is capped at $1,250, and Costco explicitly budgets for the members who never redeem it. If you are not confident you clear $3,250, take Gold Star and use the free household card, which quietly halves the fee for a couple.
And then the thing this site cares about. Costco’s own filing says “many consumable products are offered for sale in case, carton, or multiple-pack quantities only”, and the best available evidence — a Cochrane review of 72 studies, 6,603 participants, moderate-quality — is that larger packages measurably increase how much people eat, with a modelled whole-diet effect of 144 to 228 kcal a day. That is not a reason to stay away. It is a reason to buy your detergent in bulk and your snacks in normal sizes, and to portion the big bag on the way into the cupboard rather than at the moment you open it.
Join if you are a household rather than a person, if you will shop monthly rather than daily, and if you buy fuel. Take Gold Star unless you can show your own arithmetic clears $3,250. And decide what goes in the trolley before you are standing in front of a pallet of it.
Before You Join
Check the current fee at the desk — ours comes from a filing dated 31 August 2025. Take Gold Star unless you will spend over $3,250 a year, and activate the free household card the day you join. Ask about the membership refund guarantee rather than assuming it. Price your prescriptions and your fuel, which is where the fee usually pays for itself. And plan the trolley before you are looking at the pallet.