Every Time Costco Raised Its Membership Prices

Costco isn't just a grocery store. This beloved warehouse retail chain, which sells everything from upscale wines to sectional sofas, has fans around the globe, spanning from its U.S. hometown of Seattle, Washington to countries like the U.K., Japan, Australia, and elsewhere. Costco offers shoppers plenty of benefits, like free in-store samples and bulk-buy discounts, but if you want to join the ranks of proud Costco patrons, you first have to buy an annual membership. According to data from Statista, nearly 137 million people owned Costco memberships in 2024, and we're willing to bet that at least some of those shoppers had already been around long enough to see the chain raise its annual membership fee more than once.

On September 1, 2024, Costco raised this fee for the first time in seven years, prompting much online discussion. Most shoppers took the increase in stride, likely because, considering the brand's history, it was long overdue. Costco typically raises its membership fee by $5 every 5½ years or so — at least, it has since the turn of the millennium. This price-hike pattern may strike some as little more than a corporate cash-grab, but you might be surprised to learn how comparatively reasonable this fee has remained over the years. Let's investigate each increase in Costco's membership fees in the company's history and unpack the numbers behind this big-box phenomenon.

Believe it or not, Costco wasn't the original blueprint for members-only warehouse retail chains. Long before the brand offered its Executive, Business, and Gold Star memberships, and even before its first location opened in Seattle, Washington, its forebear went by the name Price Club. Sol Price, former lawyer and founder of another discount department store chain, FedMart, opened the first Price Club in 1976. Located in a repurposed airplane hangar, the store offered bulk goods at wholesale prices.

What set both FedMart and Price Club apart from most other retail chains of the time was their membership models. When FedMart opened in 1954, it offered $2 lifetime memberships to government employees and their families, and when Price Club first opened in the '70s, it offered $25 annual memberships to both government employees and small business owners. In 1984, Price Club introduced group memberships for $15 a year, though these came with a 5% upcharge on the store's wholesale goods. In less than 10 years, Price Club was a multi-billion dollar company. Jim Sinegal, who worked his way up from FedMart retail employee to executive vice president of merchandising, was instrumental in Price Club's development. By the early '80s, he was ready to found a membership-based retail chain of his own.

Jim Sinegal borrowed plenty of inspiration from Price Club when he co-founded Costco alongside retail executive Jeffrey Brotman. The first location (which didn't yet feature Costco's now-beloved food court) opened in Seattle, Washington in 1983, and not only did it focus on high-volume, low-cost products like its predecessor, but it took cues from Price Club's membership pricing as well. Business shoppers who visited the very first Costco paid a $25 annual fee for the privilege, but unlike Price Club — at least in its original form — Costco wasn't just for government employees and entrepreneurs.

While Costco's Business memberships were $25 per year, the store also offered Group Gold memberships for an annual $30 fee — adjusted for inflation, that's nearly $100 as of this writing. The qualifications for becoming a Group Gold member back in the '80s aren't entirely clear, but luckily for would-be shoppers, you didn't have to be in the Costco club to shop at the chain in its infancy. Non-members could purchase goods from the big-box store at a 5% upcharge. Before 1983 drew to a close, Costco's second and third stores opened in Portland, Oregon and Spokane, Washington, respectively.

Costco's membership fees remained steady for nearly a decade, but in 1992, members experienced their first $5 fee increase. Shoppers who joined the warehouse club or renewed their membership after the jump could expect to pay $30 a year, though whether this applied to all Costco memberships or just the Business tier is unclear. By this time, Costco had seemingly supplanted its Group Gold membership tier with a Gold Card membership, but records fail to indicate the exact distinctions between these offerings.

According to Costco's annual report for that fiscal year, the company implemented the $5 jump in select markets throughout 1992, and the analysis partially credited this move for the year's "substantial increase in membership revenue." That revenue was $120.6 million in total (compared to $89.7 million the previous year), a hefty sum that was still less than 2% of the company's total sales. Over 1.4 million shoppers owned Costco business — or "Wholesale" — memberships in 1992, and its Gold Card members numbered 2.37 million. At this time, Costco also offered free 90-day Gold Card passes, of which there were approximately 345,000. Despite these impressive numbers, Costco's hot streak seemingly cooled by the end of that calendar year, with the company's stock falling more than 10% — or about $2.86 per share — by December due to unsatisfactory sales.

The mid-'90s were a somewhat murky time in Costco's history, as the company didn't establish an online presence until 1998. Still, financial documents suggest that many members saw another $5 increase in annual fees sometime in 1993 or 1994. According to a 1994 quarterly report, Costco raised its membership fees in "certain markets" throughout those two fiscal years, though the exact dollar amount is unclear. What we do know, however, is that in a 1997 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Costco specified that "Individual members generally pay an annual membership fee of $35, which includes a spouse card." Business memberships, on the other hand, were available for $30, "with additional membership cards available for an annual fee of $20." The year prior, the company increased this additional-card fee from $15.

Worth noting is that 1997 was also when the company's shareholders approved the new corporate title of "Costco Companies, Inc.," which became "Costco Wholesale Corporation" in 1999. These changes followed the company's first rebranding in 1993, when the big-box store merged with its progenitor, The Price Company, to form PriceCostco. In Costco's 1997 quarterly report, it also revealed that its Business members numbered 4 million, while approximately 7.7 million people paid for its Gold Star membership. The Gold Star tier — still Costco's most popular membership, per Statista — seemingly replaced its Gold Card option, if only in name.

In Costco's annual report for fiscal 1998, the company attributed a nearly $50 million increase in membership fee earnings to "high renewal rates of existing members and a five dollar increase last Spring in our annual membership fee for Gold Star, Business, and Business Add-on members." Considering that the last confirmed price for a Gold Star membership was $35 in August 1997 (when the brand's previous fiscal year ended), we can infer that this increase resulted in a $40 annual fee for new and renewing Gold Star members. Business members saw fees increase from $30 to $35 annually.

The report also noted that its 1998 price jump was "the first overall increase in membership fees in five years," seemingly referencing the $5 hike that occurred in 1992. Of course, six calendar years — not five — passed between 1992 and 1998, potentially placing this increase in the spring of 1997, but the report's use of fiscal rather than calendar years may account for this discrepancy.

Another significant development in Costco's membership model also occurred in 1998. During that fiscal year, the company rolled out its Executive membership tier, offering existing members numerous incentives should they choose to upgrade. According to the 1998 report (which failed to specify the annual cost of an Executive membership), these perks included discounted insurance, real estate, and long-distance phone services for Gold Star members, as well as discounted credit card processing, employee healthcare, and small business loans for Business members, among other offerings.

By the summer of 2000, Costco was practically raking in cash. It made over $30 billion in net sales during the fiscal year, and it operated over 330 Costco locations around the globe. Still, the brand sought an even sharper industry edge. As announced in an August 2000 press release, Costco implemented a $5 fee increase across all membership tiers starting on September 1 of that year. Based on numbers shared in a separate press release from April 2000, we can determine this price hike resulted in an annual $40 fee for Business members and an annual $45 fee for Gold Star members. While the August release emphasized that the raise in prices would "allow the Company to be even more competitive in the future," it also claimed that it would pass on those earnings to its "more than 18 million members worldwide" in the form of savings.

By 2000, Costco's Executive membership tier cost $100 annually, and in April of that year, the company introduced a 2% rewards program through which Executive members could earn up to $500 a year on qualified purchases. While Executive memberships were only available to U.S. shoppers at the time, Costco did have locations in six different countries. Its first non-U.S. store opened in Burnaby, British Columbia all the way back in 1985, but by the summer of 2000, the brand operated 94 stores in the U.K., Canada, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

Costco waited until the spring of 2006 to raise membership prices once more. In the intervening years, the company opened an additional 143 locations, 28 of which were in Mexico. These days, TikTok is quite jealous of Mexico's Costco offerings, but back in 2006, the company was focused on other matters. According to a press release from April of that year, the company raised its membership fees across all tiers by — you guessed it — $5, starting on May 1. Following this increase, Gold Star members could expect to pay $50 annually, while Business members were likely on the hook for a $45 yearly fee (more on that later). Executive memberships were still available for $100 a year, and by this time, Costco offered its highest membership tier to both U.S. and Canadian customers. This included the 2% rewards program, for which the annual limit remained $500.

Despite this rise in fees, which affected about 15 million members per the release, Costco was still in the public's good graces. That same year, the company landed a spot on Fortune magazine's list of America's Most Admired Companies (via CNN Money), and back in 2003, Oprah even sung Costco's praises on her TV show.

One point of confusion in the history of Costco's membership model is the discrepancy between its Business and Gold Star membership fees — or, rather, how these separate tiers came to cost the same yearly price. Throughout much of Costco's lifetime, its Business tier cost less than its individual tier by about $5, likely a holdover from when the brand — like its predecessor, Price Club — primarily marketed itself to small business owners. In the 2010s, however, Costco officially leveled the membership-tier playing field.

As announced in an October 2011 press release, Costco raised fees across all tiers by its usual $5, starting November 1. The company then noted, "With this increase, all U.S. and Canada Goldstar, Business and Business add-on members will pay an annual fee of $55." An archived version of the Costco website does show that at least as far back as January 2007, both Business and Gold Star memberships cost $50 per year. Another archived webpage from February 2006 indicates that at the time, both tiers were available for $45. In fact, archives show that this was true as far back as June 2004. Based on this information, we can surmise that Costco bumped up the price of its Business membership to match that of the Gold Star tier sometime in the mid 2000s, though the precise date of increase is unknown.

The Executive membership tier also experienced its first price jump in 2011, raising from its standard $100 to $110 annually. Furthermore, Costco raised the tier's maximum 2% rewards limit to $750 per year.

A little over five years after Costco increased membership fees for its Gold Star and Business tiers to $55, it raised them yet again. By 2017, the company referred to shoppers in these tiers as "Primary Members," as shown in a press release from June of that year. The Business Add-on tier, which provides additional Costco cards to existing Business members, was also included in this classification. In the release, the company announced it would "increase annual membership fees by $5 for U.S. and Canada Goldstar (individual), Business, and Business add-on members," effective June 1, 2017. Following the price hike, these customers could expect to pay $60 a year to visit Costco.

Primary Members weren't the only shoppers affected by this increase, either. The Executive tier, which comprised approximately half of the 35 million customers affected by the price change, saw a bump of $10 annually, raising their total fee to $120 a year. As Costco described, this reflected a "Primary membership of $60, plus the Executive upgrade of $60." Once again, the company also raised the 2% rewards limit, this time to $1,000 per year. In May 2017, The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that returning members could avoid the heightened fee if they renewed on May 31, at least if their renewal date occurred before August.

As you've no doubt gathered, Costco has a habit of raising membership fees every five years, give or take. Consistent increases are hardly surprising, considering economic factors like inflation, but the retail giant broke this pattern when 2022 came and went with no indication of the company's standard price hike. The announcement didn't come until 2024, when a press release revealed that Costco's membership pricing would increase on September 1 of that year.

The warehouse chain's updated fees charged Primary Members — aka the Gold Star, Business, and Business Add-on tiers — $65 yearly. While that's a far cry from the $25 annual fee Business members paid to shop at Costco's first Seattle location in 1983, it's still less than the $80 members would pay in 2025 if that fee rose commensurate with inflation. Still, some folks were willing to pay triple digits for the chain's perks, as more than half of the members affected by the 2024 jump (about 52 million in total) belonged to the Executive tier. After the increase, Costco began charging these members $130 per year, which — as the company explained in its July 2024 release — accounted for a "Primary membership of $65, plus the Executive upgrade of $65." The rewards program, still locked in at a 2% rate, did receive a new maximum limit of $1,250 per year. When Costco will raise its fees again is still a mystery, but we recommend members tune back in around 2030.