As of November 2026, a Costco membership costs $65 a year for Gold Star (individual) and for Business, and $130 a year for Executive. Those are the U.S. fees after Costco’s last increase, which took effect on September 1, 2024. I pulled the Costco numbers below from Costco’s own pages, its investor relations site and its annual report filing, and I flag anything I could not confirm. This guide is part of the shopping-membership coverage here at Ecommerce Paradise, written for people who want the real cost before they hand over a card.
Disclosure: some links below are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Only the Amazon Prime links are affiliate links. The Costco links go straight to Costco.
If you run a store, there is a second angle. Costco’s Business membership and its Executive reward are cost lines that belong next to your business formation and bookkeeping decisions, so I cover that near the end.
| Membership | Annual fee (U.S.) | Reward | Who it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Star (individual) | $65 | None | Households that shop at Costco occasionally and want warehouse access |
| Business | $65 | None | Business owners who want to buy for the business, with add-on members at $65 each |
| Executive | $130 ($65 base plus $65 upgrade) | About 2% annual reward on qualified purchases, capped at $1,250 per 12 months | Heavy Costco shoppers who spend more than roughly $3,250 a year on qualified purchases |
Fees exclude sales tax where it applies. Costco’s household card is free with a membership, and the details are in the add-on cards section below. Costco can change fees and terms, so check the sign-up page before you pay.
How Much Does a Costco Membership Cost in 2026?
The short version: $65 for the base membership and $130 for Executive. Costco’s investor relations release on the 2024 change says Gold Star, Business and Business add-on members went up $5 to $65, and Executive memberships went from $120 to $130. The same release says the maximum annual Executive reward rose from $1,000 to $1,250. You can read it on Costco’s investor relations site.
Costco’s most recent annual report, the 10-K for the fiscal year that ended August 30, 2026, confirms the base number. It says the annual fee is $65 in the U.S. and includes a free household card, and it describes the last increase as effective September 1, 2024. That filing is on SEC.gov.
One caution about stale numbers. Before September 1, 2024, Gold Star and Business were $60 and Executive was $120. If you see those figures on an older page or a third-party site, that is the likely reason. An older version of Costco’s Executive rewards page (costco.com/executive-rewards.html) is one of them: as of November 12, 2026 it still shows older numbers ($55 upgrade, $110 Executive total and a $750 reward cap), which do not match the current $65, $130 and $1,250.
In monthly terms, $65 a year is about $5.42 a month and $130 a year is about $10.83 a month. Costco charges annually, not monthly, so you pay the full fee up front or at renewal.
The cost questions people actually search
If you are asking how much a Costco membership costs for a single person, the answer is $65 for Gold Star. If you are asking about a couple or a household, the free household card means two adults can share one membership, and I explain the rules below. If you are asking about the Executive fee, it is $130, and the reward can pay some or all of that back depending on what you buy.
If you are asking what the Costco membership costs for a business, the Business fee is also $65. Add-on members on a Business membership are $65 each, which is the number to watch if you plan to put several people on the account.
What Each Costco Membership Includes
Gold Star
Gold Star is the base individual membership at $65. It gets you into the warehouses and onto Costco.com, and the 10-K says the annual fee includes one free household card. It carries no annual reward, so the value comes entirely from Costco’s prices and the services it offers to members.
Business
Business is also $65, and per the investor release, Business add-on members pay $65 each. What I could not find on the pages I could load is the eligibility paperwork Costco asks for when you open a Business membership, or the rules on buying for resale. Costco’s membership desk or its sign-up flow is where to confirm those.
Executive
Executive is the top tier at $130 a year. According to Costco’s Executive benefits page, an Executive membership is an additional $65 upgrade fee on top of the $65 base membership, and Executive members can earn up to $1,250 a year on qualified purchases. Costco’s Executive rewards page says the upgrade is prorated based on the months left in your current membership, but that older page still shows a $55 upgrade, a $110 Executive total and a $750 reward cap, so I use the investor release and the benefits page for the current figures. The reward itself is about 2% on qualified purchases.
The reward is not on everything. Costco’s current Executive rewards terms exclude cigarettes and tobacco products, gasoline, Costco Shop Cards, postage stamps, cellphones, cellphone accessories and phone plans, food court purchases, membership fees, miscellaneous fees, deposits, taxes and shipping, and an older version of that page calls the cards Costco Cash Cards. The same terms list some state-specific alcohol and prescription exclusions and say Costco can change the excluded categories without notice. Costco’s benefits page adds that qualified purchases start earning from the day you sign up as an Executive member, so purchases made before you upgrade do not count. Only purchases made by the primary or primary household cardholder count, which matters if more than one person shops on the account.
Costco’s separate Executive benefits page says the reward is mailed with the renewal notice, two months before the renewal date, and never expires. It also lists services such as insurance programs and payment processing, but it describes them as available to all Costco members, so Executive status is not required for them. I would not pay the upgrade for those services alone.
Executive Membership Break-Even: Is the Upgrade Worth $65?
The Executive upgrade costs $65 and returns about 2% of qualified spending. So the break-even point is $65 divided by 0.02, which is $3,250 of qualified purchases in a year. Below that you lose money on the upgrade alone, and above it you come out ahead, up to the $1,250 cap.
The cap only matters at very high spending. At 2%, you hit $1,250 after $62,500 of qualified purchases, and the table below uses simple hypothetical numbers so you can see the shape of it.
| Hypothetical qualified spend per year | 2% reward | Reward minus $65 upgrade |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | $40 | -$25 |
| $3,250 | $65 | $0 (break-even) |
| $4,000 | $80 | $15 |
| $6,000 | $120 | $55 |
| $10,000 | $200 | $135 |
| $62,500 or more | $1,250 (cap) | $1,185 |
These are examples, not predictions about your household. Your qualified spend is lower than your total Costco spend because gas, food court purchases, tobacco and the other excluded categories do not count. That is the number people forget, and it is why I would look at a few months of receipts before deciding.
There is also a timing detail. Costco’s rewards terms say the reward is issued approximately three months before your renewal date, in the Renewal Statement, while its Executive benefits page says it is mailed with the renewal notice two months before the renewal date, so treat the exact timing as approximate. The terms also say you must be a current, paid Executive member at the end of the membership year to be entitled to the reward, and that it is not guaranteed to equal or exceed the upgrade fee. If you cancel or downgrade to get a refund of the current upgrade fee, any reward issued or accrued is subtracted from that refund and any excess is forfeited, so do the math before you upgrade rather than after.
This is general math, not financial advice. I am not telling you whether to upgrade, since that depends on how you shop and what you buy.
Add-On and Household Cards
Every U.S. membership includes a free household card, according to the 10-K. In the 2026 filing, Costco reported 84.1 million paid members, 66.3 million household cards and 150.4 million total cardholders, so the free card is widely used.
On who qualifies, Costco’s Gold Star sign-up page says primary members get one free household card for anyone over the age of 16 who lives at the same address. I did not see household card rules on the Business or Executive pages I could load, so confirm them at the membership desk if you are on one of those tiers.
Business is different. Per the investor release, Business add-on members pay $65 each. If you run a small team and want several people shopping under the business account, that cost adds up, and it also affects the Executive reward, since purchases by anyone other than the primary or primary household cardholder do not earn it.
Upgrading to Executive, renewing and adding cardholders all run through the same account. Costco’s membership page says all cards on a membership are renewed together, so a household with two cards still pays one fee.
New-Member Offers, Student Pricing and Military Pricing
Here is what Costco’s pages show today. Its join page lists two $65 Digital Costco Shop Card offers. One is for setting up auto-renewal at sign-up on a Visa credit or debit card or a Mastercard debit card, and the page says it is only for new members and people who have not held a membership in the last 18 months. The other is for applying for and being approved for the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by Citi with a new Executive membership. The page shows the promotion as valid through December 20, 2026, and I could not see the full fine print, so read the terms there before you count on either one.
The second offer involves a credit card, so I am not recommending it. Card approval depends on the issuer, and the card has its own terms. If you are considering it, read the card terms on Costco’s page and decide whether it fits your finances. This is not financial advice, and terms change.
Student pricing and military pricing for Costco membership are not shown on the pages I could load. I did not find a student or military discount on the membership pages, so I will not claim one exists. Costco runs promotions from time to time, so ask at the membership desk or check the sign-up page on the day you join.
If you are a student comparing memberships, the picture is different elsewhere. Walmart+ lists $49 a year for qualifying college students and government assistance recipients, and I cover the Amazon version in my Amazon Prime Student guide.
Renewal, Cancellation and Refund Policy
Costco renews memberships annually. Its membership page says you can renew online, that all cards on the membership renew together, and that renewals can take about 24 hours to process. The auto-renewal Shop Card offer above requires auto-renewal to be on, so read that condition before you tick the box.
On refunds, Costco’s Member Privileges and Conditions page offers a risk-free 100% satisfaction guarantee on both your membership and merchandise and says limited exceptions apply. That page does not describe a membership refund process, so confirm with the membership desk if the refund matters to your decision.
The Executive upgrade has its own refund rule. According to Costco’s Executive rewards terms, to receive a refund of the current Executive upgrade fee the membership must be canceled or downgraded to Gold Star or Business, and any 2% Reward issued or accrued is subtracted from the refund, with any excess forfeited. The Member Privileges and Conditions page does not address Executive upgrades or refunds, so ask the membership desk how the rule applies to your account.
Costco Membership Fee History and the Next Increase
The 2024 increase was the first in seven years. A Kiplinger report on the change says the prior increase was in June 2017, and that Costco has traditionally raised fees by $5 to $10 about every five and a half years. Retail Dive reported the same 2024 numbers and said roughly 52 million memberships were affected, with a little over half being Executive. You can see that in its fee increase coverage.
Has Costco announced another increase as of November 2026? I did not find one. I read the 10-K, and it refers only to the September 1, 2024 change and announces no new one. I will not guess a date, because Costco has not announced one in anything I loaded.
What the filing does show is that the 2024 increase is still feeding results. Membership fee revenue rose 11% in fiscal 2026 to $5.907 billion, and Costco says the fee income increase accounted for about 30% of membership income growth in 2026 and about 40% in 2025. The same filing reports a renewal rate of 92.3% in the U.S. and Canada and 89.8% worldwide, so most members stayed after the higher fee.
Executive members were 42.3 million of the 84.1 million paid members in 2026, or about half. The filing says they accounted for roughly 75.2% of worldwide net sales, which tells you who Costco is built around.
Costco vs Sam’s Club, Amazon Prime and Walmart+
Costco is a warehouse club, so the fair comparisons are Sam’s Club on the warehouse side and Prime or Walmart+ on the delivery side. Sam’s Club’s join page lists $60 a year for Club and $120 a year for Plus, with Plus offering up to 2% Sam’s Cash and no cap shown on that page. Walmart’s October 20, 2026 announcement puts that Sam’s Cash at up to $750 a year. Costco Executive is $130 with a $1,250 cap, so the gap is $10 on the fee and $500 on the reward cap.
On the delivery side, Walmart’s Walmart+ page mentions a $98 annual membership fee only in a footnote, and lists a 30-day trial for $1, free delivery on orders over $35 and free shipping with no order minimum on Walmart.com.
For Prime, Amazon’s September 14, 2026 press release lists standard Prime at $14.99 a month or $139 a year, the same source my Prime Student guide uses. Check the sign-up page for Amazon Prime before you join, since those numbers can change.
| Membership | Annual fee | What you are paying for |
|---|---|---|
| Costco Gold Star | $65 | Warehouse and online access |
| Costco Executive | $130 | Warehouse access plus about 2% reward, capped at $1,250 |
| Sam’s Club Club / Plus | $60 / $120 | Warehouse access, Plus adds up to 2% Sam’s Cash (up to $750 a year per Walmart) |
| Walmart+ | $98 | Delivery, shipping and gas savings |
| Amazon Prime | $139 (or $14.99 a month) | Shipping and streaming bundle |
Costco and Prime solve different problems. Prime is about fast shipping and a huge catalog, and Costco is about unit pricing and a limited selection. My Prime vs Walmart+ comparison covers the delivery side in more depth.
If none of these fits, my roundup of Prime alternatives walks through the other options. For a broader view of every major club and delivery program in one place, the best shopping memberships guide is the place to start.
Costco Business Membership for Ecommerce Owners
If you run an online store, the Business membership at $65 is worth a look as a cost line. The resale rules for Business members are not shown on the pages I could load, so do not assume you can resell what you buy there. I do not cover reselling strategy in this guide, and reselling has its own brand, marketplace and supplier rules to read first.
For a high-ticket store, Costco is better thought of as a benchmark and a supply source for the odds and ends, not a replacement for real supplier relationships. Authorized supplier accounts and MAP pricing are what protect your margin, and my guide to finding suppliers for high-ticket products covers that process. Costco also sells in some big-ticket categories, so look at how its pricing compares as you choose a niche, using my high-ticket niches list.
The Executive reward matters if you spend a lot at Costco for business reasons. The reward counts only purchases by the primary or primary household cardholder, and it excludes categories like gas, shipping, fees and taxes. If your team buys through add-on cards, those purchases do not earn the reward, which is a detail worth knowing before you build a purchasing habit around it.
On the money side, whether a membership fee is a deductible business expense depends on how you use it and how your entity is set up. Talk to your accountant about that, because I am not giving tax advice. Keeping business purchases on a business card and a separate membership makes the record much cleaner at tax time, and understanding how high-ticket dropshipping works helps you see which costs are actually business costs.
Is a Costco Membership Worth It?
It depends on what you buy, and I cannot answer it for you. A useful way to frame it is the number of Costco visits or online orders you would make in a year and the categories you buy. If you spend a few hundred dollars a month on groceries, household goods and fuel, the $65 fee is spread across a lot of purchases. If you go twice a year, the fee eats most of whatever you save.
There are three checks I would run. First, compare unit prices for five or six things you buy often between Costco and your usual store. Second, count how many trips you would realistically make and whether a warehouse is close enough to be worth it. Third, check whether you would actually use the free household card, because sharing one membership across two adults lowers the cost per person.
The Executive tier is a separate decision. It only pays off above about $3,250 of qualified yearly spending, so it is a fit for large households and for businesses that buy a lot there. Costco says purchases made before you upgrade do not earn the reward, so waiting has a cost, but starting on Gold Star or Business while you track your qualified spend is the lower-risk path.
If your goal is cheaper shipping on a broad catalog, a warehouse club is the wrong tool and Amazon Prime or Walmart+ may fit better. If you are weighing several options and want someone to look at your numbers, my coaching page explains how I work with store owners.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Costco membership cost?
As of November 2026, Gold Star and Business memberships cost $65 a year each, and Executive costs $130 a year, plus sales tax where it applies. That comes from Costco’s investor relations release and its 2026 annual report, which says the fee is $65 in the U.S. and includes a free household card.
Does Costco have a student or military membership discount?
Not on the pages I could load. I did not find a student or military discount on Costco’s membership pages, so I would not count on one. Check the sign-up page and the warehouse membership desk for any current promotion before you pay.
When did the Costco membership fee last increase?
The most recent increase took effect on September 1, 2024, and it was the first since June 2017. Gold Star and Business went from $60 to $65 and Executive went from $120 to $130, per Costco’s investor relations release and press coverage. I found no announced increase as of November 2026.
Is the Costco Executive membership worth the extra $65?
It breaks even at about $3,250 of qualified purchases a year, since the reward is about 2% and the upgrade costs $65. The reward is capped at $1,250 and excludes things like gas and food court purchases, so your qualified spend is lower than your total. This is arithmetic, not advice, so run it on your own receipts.
Can a small business use a Costco membership?
Costco sells a Business membership at $65 a year, with add-on members at $65 each, per its investor relations release. The eligibility requirements and resale rules are not shown on the pages I could load, so confirm them with Costco. Whether the fee is deductible is a question for your accountant.
Related Articles
If you are comparing memberships or tracking the costs of running a store, these guides go deeper.
- Amazon Prime Pricing: Every Plan, Add-On, and Discount Explained
- How to Cancel Amazon Prime: Every Method That Actually Works
- Amazon Prime Review: Is It Still Worth It for Entrepreneurs?
- Wholesale Suppliers for Resellers: Where to Find Legit Ones
- Best Deal Sites in 2026: Find the Lowest Prices on Everything You Buy Online
Disclaimer
This article is for general information only and is not financial, tax or legal advice. Membership fees, rewards and promotions change, so confirm current terms with Costco and each provider before you pay. Figures are as of November 2026 and come from the sources linked above.
Trevor Fenner is an ecommerce entrepreneur and world traveler from Seattle, Washington, and the founder of Ecommerce Paradise, a platform focused on helping entrepreneurs build and scale profitable high-ticket ecommerce and dropshipping businesses. With over a decade of hands-on experience, Trevor specializes in high-ticket dropshipping strategy, niche and product selection, supplier recruiting and onboarding, Google & Bing Shopping ads, ecommerce SEO, and systems-driven automation and scaling. Through Ecommerce Paradise, he provides free education via in-depth guides like How to Start High-Ticket Dropshipping, advanced training through the High-Ticket Dropshipping Masterclass, and fully done-for-you turnkey ecommerce services for entrepreneurs who want a faster, more hands-off path to growth. Trevor is known for emphasizing sustainable, real-world ecommerce models over hype-driven tactics, helping store owners build scalable, sellable, and location-independent brands.
He maintains homes in Seattle and Bali, spends most of the year overseas, and usually returns to Seattle for about a month each summer.
