Tell us about the spot and the deal they are offering. You get a monthly sales range, what you keep after their commission, how long the machine takes to pay for itself, and a straight verdict.
The calculator tells you what a spot like this is worth. VendBuddy finds the real ones near you, scored by traffic and category.
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Monthly sales = people on site × share who buy each day × average sale × days open. You keep what is left after product cost, card fees and the location’s commission. Payback is the machine cost divided by that monthly net. Each number below is shown as a range because the sources give ranges, and we would rather show you the spread than pretend to a precision nobody has.
| Assumption | Number used | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Share of people on site who buy each day | 8–12% captive shift sites, 4–8% typical workplaces, 1–3% residential, 0.5–2% pass-through | How many people does a vending machine need (VendBuddy operator data). Round-the-clock sites sit at the top of the range, so a 24-hour site uses the upper half. |
| Average sale, snack, drink and combo machines | $2.01 overall to $2.45 on cards | Cantaloupe Micropayment Trends Report 2026, as cited in our vending statistics (#s77, #s83). |
| Average sale, offices and gyms | $2.10–$2.80 office, $3.20–$4.80 gym | VendBuddy operator data, vending statistics #s43. |
| Average sale, AI coolers | $4.49 to $8 | $4.49 is Cantaloupe’s 2025 Smart Store average (#s83); $8 is the top of the grab-and-go range in what an AI vending machine earns. |
| Product cost | 45–55% of sales | The worked example in How many people does a vending machine need. |
| Card fees | 5–6% of card sales, on the 78% of sales that are cashless | Vending statistics #s37 (VendBuddy cost data) and #s76 (Cantaloupe, 2025). |
| Machine cost (default, change it to yours) | $3,000 traditional, $7,500 AI cooler | Midpoints of $2,000–$4,000 all-in for a used machine and $5,000–$10,000+ for a smart cooler or AI machine, vending statistics #s14 and #s15. |
| The verdict line | about $150 a month net | A machine needs roughly 10–12 sales a day to gross about $500 a month and net $150–$250, per How many people does a vending machine need. Strong means even the low end clears it; skip means even the high end does not. |
What the calculator leaves out: your time and fuel for restocking, repairs (operators report $50–$150 per machine per month averaged over a year, #s16), spoilage, theft and any monthly software fee on an AI cooler. Take those off the net before you decide. A snack-only or drink-only machine serves part of what a combo would, and we have no sourced split for that, so read its range from the low end.
People on site each day, times the share of them who buy something, times the average sale, times the days the site is open. The share who buy is the number that swings the most: about 8 to 12 percent at a captive shift site with nowhere else to buy, 4 to 8 percent at a typical workplace, and 1 to 3 percent in an apartment building.
Many small and mid-size sites take 5 to 10 percent of sales, hospitals and hotels can ask up to 20 percent, and plenty of offices and condos take nothing and just want the amenity. Put the number they asked for into the calculator and watch what it does to your net before you agree to it.
When even the optimistic end of the range stays under about $150 a month net, the machine is unlikely to be worth the restock trip. That usually means too few people, too many other places to buy, or a commission that eats the margin.
No. It is a range built from published averages, so it tells you whether a spot is worth a closer look. Real sales depend on the exact placement, the product mix, prices and how well the machine is kept stocked. Treat the first 90 days of sales as the real answer.
Going deeper: how many people a machine needs, profit by location type, vending statistics with sources and the ROI calculator.