Gyms in San Antonio

Ask each San Antonio gym for its full price in writing, and measure it against national numbers. Statista, as cited by Forbes Health, put the average US membership at $28.58 a month in 2021, with a range from about $10 to $300. Fixr (January 2025) puts a basic gym at $15 to $40 a month and gyms with more advanced equipment at $50 to $100.

The monthly fee is only part of the price. Ask about initiation fees, annual fees and how cancellation works, and get them in the contract. Those same fees decide whether the gym has to post security with the state, as below. The Texas-wide guide is on our gyms hub.

Texas health spa registration

The Health Spa Act covers businesses that sell memberships for instruction in, or use of facilities for, a physical exercise program, which takes in most membership gyms. Each location needs a health spa operator's certificate of registration from the Secretary of State, at $100 a year. The certificate must be posted at the gym, and your contract must show its registration number.

Some places fall outside the Act: tax-exempt nonprofits, member-owned private clubs, studios that teach only dance or aerobics, and rehab providers. If one of those is your choice, the protections below may not apply.

Security for San Antonio gym members

Unless exempt, a gym must post $20,000 to $50,000 of security per location, rising with the prepaid memberships it holds. A gym can be exempt if it never requires a contract or prepayment over 31 days, financing, automatic bank drafts or an initiation fee, or if it's an established operator with over $50,000 in assets per location, five years under the same ownership and no closure complaints. The Secretary of State's search shows whether security is posted, and a PDF list of registered locations is updated every Wednesday.

• Three-day cancel. Written notice with proof of payment, sent by certified mail to the gym's home office before midnight of the third business day after the contract date, gets you a full refund. The contract must print this notice in 10-point type.
• Length. A Texas gym contract can't run longer than three years, and a financed one can't require payments for more than five.
• Moves and closures. If the gym closes without offering a site within 10 miles, moves more than 10 miles, or fails to provide advertised services, you can cancel and get unearned payments back.
• Storm closures. If the gym is unusable for 30 days or more because of an event beyond the owner's control, such as a natural disaster, it must extend your contract by the same time.
• New gyms. If a gym selling memberships before opening doesn't open within 180 days, or stays open less than 30, prepaying members are generally owed a full refund.

A gym must post notice 30 days before closing or relocating; that notice isn't required after a fire, flood or act of God. Members of a closed gym can claim against its security by mailing the contract and proof of payment to the Secretary of State within 90 days of the closure notice appearing online. Take a complaint about a San Antonio gym's business practices to the Attorney General's consumer protection line, (800) 621-0508.

For local context see the San Antonio guide, and compare gyms in Boerne or gyms in New Braunfels.