Costco closed its fiscal year with 84.1 million paid memberships, up 3.8 percent from a year earlier, and a renewal rate of 92.3 percent among members in the United States and Canada. Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip disclosed both figures on the September 24, 2026 earnings call covering the fourth quarter and full fiscal year. The membership numbers arrived alongside a broader set of results showing sales growth Costco has not posted in several years.
84.1 million paid memberships
“84.1 million total paid members, up 3.8% versus last year,” Millerchip told analysts, according to a transcript of the call. That total counts individual membership accounts, not the number of people who shop under them; Costco allows a primary member to add a household card, so the number of people actually walking through the door on any given membership runs higher than the paid-membership count alone. Millerchip did not break the 84.1 million figure down by country or by the Gold Star, Business and Executive tiers Costco sells, and he did not say how many of the new memberships came from new warehouse openings versus sign-ups at existing locations.
A renewal that happens automatically, and one that does not: A Costco membership renews with a card on file and a single annual charge. Property-tax exemptions, freezes and utility-bill credits almost never work that way; most require a fresh application on a schedule the household has to track itself. See the 5 kinds of relief and the renewal calendar built for that purpose in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
A 92.3 percent renewal rate in the U.S. and Canada
Alongside the membership total, Millerchip reported on how many of those members are sticking around. “U.S. and Canada renewal rate was 92.3%, up 10 basis points,” he said, adding that the “worldwide rate came in at 89.8%, also up 10 basis points,” according to the same transcript. A renewal rate in the low 90s means that of every 100 members whose annual fee came due in the period Costco measured, roughly 92 in the U.S. and Canada paid to continue their membership rather than letting it lapse. The worldwide figure runs about two and a half points lower, reflecting newer or smaller international markets where Costco’s membership base has had less time to establish the habit.
Millerchip described both renewal figures as improvements of “10 basis points” over the prior year, a small move in percentage-point terms but one that, applied across a membership base above 80 million, represents tens of thousands of additional households choosing to keep paying rather than let their card lapse. Neither he nor Vachris offered a reason for the specific improvement beyond the overall results, which showed spending per member rising alongside the renewal figures.
Executive members and total cardholders
Costco’s higher-fee Executive Membership tier grew faster than the overall base. “42.3 million paid Executive Members, up 9.4% versus last year,” Millerchip said, a growth rate more than double the 3.8 percent pace of total paid memberships. Executive members pay an added annual fee in exchange for a yearly reward on qualifying purchases and additional benefits, and Costco has said in past disclosures that Executive members tend to spend more per visit than Gold Star members. Total cardholders, a figure that includes household cards issued alongside a primary membership, reached “150.4 million cardholders, up 3.6% year over year,” according to the transcript, meaning the typical paid membership now carries close to two cardholders once household cards are counted in. Executive members receive an annual reward credited to their account on qualifying purchases rather than paid out at the register, a structure Costco has pointed to before as a reason Executive members renew at a higher rate than the Gold Star tier, though Millerchip did not break out a separate renewal figure for the Executive tier on this call.
Neither Millerchip nor Vachris said what share of the 84.1 million total is Gold Star, Business or Executive, so the 42.3 million Executive figure can only be read as a share of the whole: just over half of all paid members now carry the higher-fee tier, up from a smaller share in years when Executive membership grew more slowly than the overall base.
The warehouses behind the growth
Costco ended the fiscal year with 939 warehouses worldwide after opening 28 locations, including three relocations, for 25 net new buildings during the year, Vachris told analysts on the same call. He said the company’s “current plan is to open another 33 warehouses in fiscal year 2027, of which five are relocations,” a pace that would bring the worldwide count to 967 warehouses, matching a separate Investing.com read of the earnings slides projecting the same FY2027 total. Each new warehouse gives Costco a fresh opportunity to sign up members in a market it did not previously serve directly, which is part of how the paid-membership total keeps climbing even as renewal rates among existing members stay roughly flat year to year.
Costco’s fourth-quarter net income came to $2.998 billion on total revenue of $95.723 billion, and full-year net income reached $9.226 billion on total revenue of $303.154 billion, according to Costco’s own fourth-quarter earnings release, the same release that lists membership fee income as a distinct line separate from merchandise sales.
One renewal happens by default; a property-tax filing does not
Millerchip’s 92.3 percent renewal figure works because Costco bills a card on file and a member has to actively cancel to stop paying. Property-tax relief and utility assistance run in the opposite direction: nothing happens unless the homeowner or renter files the paperwork, on a deadline the county or utility sets and rarely reminds anyone about.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and includes an application log and a renewal calendar built specifically so a filing window does not close the way a forgotten membership card would lapse.
Look up the renewal calendar in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to Costco’s own earnings materials.
