Most US health departments require a food truck or trailer to prep and store food, wash equipment, and dump greywater at a licensed commissary kitchen — you generally can't legally run a mobile food unit out of a home kitchen or an unlicensed garage. What that commissary actually costs is the part almost nobody publishes a straight answer to, so operators end up asking on r/foodtrucks and food-trucker Facebook groups instead of finding a rate card. This page pulls together the real published ranges so you have a starting number before you start calling kitchens.
Hourly rates. Shared commissary time commonly runs $15–$50 an hour, with most listed rates clustering in the $20–$35 range for standard prep space (StreetLegal, 2026 multi-city comparison; CKitchen.com). Real listed examples: Garden State Kitchen charges $22–$25/hour for prep space and $35/hour for baking or catering use; Milk Money Kitchens in New York charges $65/hour for private kitchen access; Cook Collective (NY) sells a seven-and-a-half-hour shift for $195, which works out to about $26/hour. Houston commissaries commonly start around $30/hour plus a refundable deposit near $250. Signing a longer commitment cuts the rate — one Bellamy Kitchen example dropped from $35/hour to $18–$20/hour once a tenant committed to six months or more.
Monthly rates. For operators who'd rather budget a flat number than track hours, recurring monthly access typically runs $300–$1,500 a month: shared-kitchen access alone tends to land around $300–$800/month, full-service truck access (prep plus dedicated storage plus parking) runs $500–$1,500/month, and cold-storage-only arrangements run $150–$400/month (StreetLegal). Sacramento-area kitchens quote around $20/hour for prep-only access, $35/hour for hot or baking stations, and roughly $3,500/month for an all-inclusive ghost-kitchen-style package with 24-hour access. Expect a one-time membership or application fee near $250 and a security deposit in the $100–$250 range on top of whichever rate you pick (CKitchen.com).
What drives the price. Five things move a quote up or down: (1) Access hours — 24-hour or overnight access costs more than a fixed daytime window, and peak weekend slots are usually priced above off-peak prep time. (2) Storage — cold, frozen, dry, and locked storage are frequently billed as separate line items, commonly $30–$150/month depending on type, so a headline hourly rate can understate the real monthly cost once storage is added. (3) What's bundled in — a kitchen that already carries its own health permit and passes its own inspections effectively bundles part of your regulatory burden into the rent; one that doesn't shifts more compliance work back onto you. (4) Parking and utilities — overnight truck parking, wastewater disposal, and potable-water fill-up matter specifically for trucks and are sometimes priced separately from prep time. (5) City and region — the same square footage costs meaningfully more in dense urban markets (NYC, LA) than in mid-size metros, the same pattern as commercial real estate generally.
How to evaluate a contract. Get every number in writing before you sign: the hourly or monthly rate, what storage costs on top of it, and your actual access hours — a verbal quote that storage is "usually included" is the most common source of a bill that comes in higher than expected. Ask to see the facility's own current health inspection report; a commissary with a lapsed license or a recent failed inspection can put your own truck's paperwork at risk even though it isn't your kitchen. Confirm the agreement has a defined start date, an exit or cancellation clause, and a commitment from the kitchen to provide the signed commissary letter your permit application needs — some operators find out that step is extra, or slow, only after they've already paid a deposit.
Which states actually require it. This isn't optional paperwork in most places. Florida only exempts a fully self-sufficient mobile unit; anything less needs a DBPR-licensed commissary. California's CalCode requires an approved commissary before a county will issue the permit at all, with the signed agreement due at application, not after. New York requires a Health Department-approved commissary with its own Non-Retail Food Establishment Permit, plus daily return in NYC. Illinois requires all food to have been prepared or stored in a licensed brick-and-mortar establishment before it reaches the truck. See the Florida, California, New York, and Illinois state pages for exactly where the commissary agreement fits into each state's permit sequence.
Because most commissary operators don't publish a full rate card online — the search results for "commissary kitchen near me" turn up mostly Reddit threads, Facebook posts, and individual kitchens' own pricing pages rather than any single directory — getting an actual number for your city still means calling two or three kitchens and asking for their current sheet. Treat the ranges above as what to expect, not a quote.