# franchisedata.io — Franchise Restaurant Brand & Location API for Agents

> The commercial intelligence layer between AI agents and franchise restaurant data. Top 500 US restaurant chains, 210,484+ verified store locations, 2,000+ endpoints. Enriched with in-store POS tech stacks, FDD Item 19 financial models, multi-unit franchisee holding trees, real-time news wire intelligence, and statutory legal citations (FTC 16 CFR § 436.5, SEC EDGAR 10-K CIKs). Paid per call in USDC (x402) or prepaid credits ($0.002 - $0.005 / call). Web directory is 100% free and unblurred.

## Canonical Resources
- Website: https://franchisedata.io
- Real-Time Intelligence Wire: https://franchisedata.io/wire
- Rankings Leaderboard: https://franchisedata.io/companies
- Platform Pricing & Tiers: https://franchisedata.io/pricing
- Data Methodology & Audit Standards: https://franchisedata.io/methodology
- Operator Scout AI Copilot: https://franchisedata.io/scout
- Agent Skill: https://franchisedata.io/skill.md
- OpenAPI Contract: https://franchisedata.io/openapi.json
- MCP Server: https://franchisedata.io/api/mcp
- Credits Topup: https://franchisedata.io/topup
- API Docs: https://franchisedata.io/docs
- Complete Brand Sitemap: https://franchisedata.io/sitemap.xml
- Crawler Directives: https://franchisedata.io/robots.txt
- Live News RSS Feed: https://franchisedata.io/api/news/rss
- SEC Regulatory Filings RSS: https://franchisedata.io/api/filings/rss
- State FDD Filings RSS: https://franchisedata.io/api/fdd/rss

## Coverage & Intelligence Domains
- Top 500 US Restaurant Chains (FranchiseData US Systemwide Sales Ranking #1 to #500)
- 210,484+ geocoded store locations across all 50 states
- Point-of-Sale (POS) & Kitchen Display System (KDS) fingerprints (NCR Aloha, Toast, Oracle Simphony, PAR Brink, Xenial, SICOM)
- Statutory FDD Item 19 unit economics (Median AUV, Royalty %, Brand Ad Fund %, Initial Investment Ranges, state regulatory dockets)
- Digital Shelf & Delivery: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub multi-homing flags, pricing elasticity, and customer ratings
- Multi-Unit Franchisee Ownership: Parent holding companies, portfolio sizes, and operator LLC census (e.g. Flynn Restaurant Group, Sun Holdings, Carrols, Dhanani Group, Tacala)
- Real-Time Regulatory & News Intelligence: Autonomous hourly ingestion of distress/Chapter 11, FTC/DOL litigation, C-suite leadership transitions, PE M&A rollups, and store expansions
- Public Restaurant Equities: Real-time market cap, P/E ratios, stock ticker tracking, and corporate IR pipelines
- Concrete Statutory Citations: FTC 16 CFR § 436.5(s) & (h), SEC Form 10-K EDGAR accession numbers, USPTO trademarks, and first-party API telemetry

## Flagship Showcase Brands
1. McDonald's (mcdonalds) — Rank #1 · Burgers & Fast Food ($0.003/call)
2. Starbucks (starbucks) — Rank #2 · Coffee & Bakery ($0.003/call)
3. Chick-fil-A (chickfila) — Rank #3 · Chicken & Quick Service ($0.004/call)
4. Taco Bell (tacobell) — Rank #4 · Mexican Fast Food ($0.003/call)
5. Dunkin' (dunkin) — Rank #5 · Coffee & Donuts ($0.002/call)
6. Wendy's (wendys) — Rank #6 · Burgers & Fast Food ($0.003/call)
7. Chipotle (chipotle) — Rank #7 · Fast Casual Mexican ($0.004/call)
8. Burger King (burgerking) — Rank #8 · Burgers & Fast Food ($0.003/call)
9. Domino's Pizza (dominos) — Rank #9 · Pizza & Delivery ($0.003/call)
10. Subway (subway) — Rank #10 · Sandwiches & Salads ($0.002/call)
... and 490+ additional indexed US restaurant chains.

## Core Endpoints (All GET unless specified)
- GET /api/brands: Catalog of all 500 chains with POS hardware & pricing (Free)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}: Brand commercial summary, corporate info, and endpoints (Free)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/locations: Query store locations by state, city, zip, or lat/lng radius ($0.003)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/store/{id}: Store details, physical address, phone, features ($0.002)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/store/{id}/status: Real-time open/closed operating status in local timezone ($0.002)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/store/{id}/tech-stack: In-store POS & KDS fingerprint ($0.002)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/store/{id}/delivery: DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub deep links & ratings ($0.002)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/operators: Multi-unit franchisee holding entities & portfolio scale ($0.004)
- GET /api/brands/{slug}/fdd: Item 19 financial benchmarks & investment metrics ($0.004)
- GET /api/fdd/compare: Comparative AUV, royalty, and investment benchmark analysis across multiple brands ($0.004)
- GET /api/news: Real-time Bloomberg-style franchise intelligence feed (filter by category, brand, search) ($0.002)
- GET /api/news/rss: RSS 2.0 XML syndication feed for news readers and LLM monitoring agents (Free)
- GET /api/stocks: Public restaurant equities tracking & market intelligence ($0.002)
- POST /api/scout/copilot: Natural language multi-unit operator scout intelligence ($0.005)
- GET /api/export/brands/{slug}: Full RFC 4180 CSV / JSON bulk export ($0.050)
- GET /api/search/near: Multi-brand radial coordinate search ($0.005)
- POST /api/credits/topup: Buy credits in USDC or card, generates fc_live_... API key
- GET /api/credits/balance: Check current prepaid balance

## Access & Business Models
1. **Open Public Web Directory ($0 / Free Forever)**: All 500 chains, 210,484 verified locations, POS hardware fingerprints, and FDD Item 19 unit economics are 100% unblurred and accessible to human researchers, independent franchisees, and students.
2. **Developer & Agent API**: Pure pay-as-you-go via prepaid credits (`fc_live_...`) starting at a $1.00 minimum deposit, or programmatic x402 USDC micropayments ($0.002 - $0.005 / call). Zero monthly subscriptions.
3. **Enterprise Raw Data Drops**: Complete flat-file bulk dumps (Parquet, SQLite, GeoJSON) with automated sync to AWS S3, Snowflake, or BigQuery for quantitative hedge funds, private equity sponsors, and franchisors.