Subway Catering Guide: Menu, How to Order & Best Options for the Office

Subway has a bigger US footprint than any other restaurant chain, with more than 20,000 US Subway locations dotted across every major market, suburb, and rest stop. That ubiquity is Subway’s real catering pitch: whoever is planning lunch for the office can almost always get sandwiches from a Subway within a short drive, even on short notice. Subway catering covers three formats: Classic and Premium Sandwich and Wrap Platters, individual Lunch Box Meals, and a twelve-box Assorted Lunch Box Bundle, all at the lower end of the national chain price range. The three-foot and six-foot Giant Sub is no longer among them. This guide walks through every format, how ordering works, where Subway excels for office events, where it falls short, and what to order instead when the occasion calls for something more polished.

Subway’s menu, pricing, and availability vary by location and change over time. Confirm current offerings and live quotes directly with the catering portal at your nearest Subway before ordering.

Subway Catering Prices (2026)

Subway prices are set store by store, and the gap is larger than you would expect. Every figure below comes from the Subway catering menu on ezCater for the store at 2421 N Clark St in Chicago, checked in September 2026. A second store at 3815 North Broadway, a mile and a half away in the same city, prices every single item differently. There is a table at the bottom showing it. Ordering direct for pickup usually lands under delivery pricing, and a delivery fee sits on top of every total here.

The short version: a Classic Sandwich Platter feeds seven for $7.13 a head, which matches the “platters from $7 per person” line on Subway’s own catering page. Individual boxes run $8.09 to $10.79. This store sets a $50 food and beverage minimum for delivery, with a delivery fee from $30.

Platter Prices

A platter is whole footlong sandwiches or wraps, cut and arranged for a group. Sauces come on the side, which matters if the tray has to sit for half an hour.

The Classic Platter is the cheapest way to feed a group at Subway, and the Veggie Delite in the standard five covers one vegetarian without a separate order. Every sandwich arrives on Italian bread with provolone, lettuce and tomato unless you change it.

Box Meal Prices

Each box holds the item, a bag of chips and a cookie. The sandwich boxes take a six-inch or a footlong at the same price, which makes the footlong the obvious pick.

A single box does not include a drink. Only the twelve-box Assorted Bundle below carries bottled drinks, so budget $2.39 a head if you want them on a smaller order.

Bundles

Read the second row carefully before you order it. The Sandwich Platter Bundle pairs a seven-serving platter with twelve of every add-on, so ezCater lists it as serving seven and the per-head figure lands at $14.75. It is the most expensive way to feed seven people on this menu. A Classic Platter with chips and cookies bought separately does the same job for less.

Sides, Desserts and Drinks

The Toppings Platter is the quiet upgrade. For $14.99 it brings lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, olives, pickles and onions to the table, which lets people rebuild a sandwich they actually want. One note on the Cookie Platter: the listing says it serves 36 while the description says it holds nine cookies across four flavours. The two do not agree, so order Cookies by the Dozen at $7.99 if you need a count you can rely on.

What a Real Order Costs

Four complete orders at this N Clark store, before tax, tip and the delivery fee.

Subway is the cheapest per head of any national sandwich chain we have priced, and the twelve plain boxes at $8.09 are the single cheapest individually packaged meal in this whole set of guides. The trade is menu depth: there is no hot format, no soup and no dessert beyond cookies.

Why Two Subways a Mile Apart Cost Different Amounts

This is the thing to know before you quote a Subway price to anyone. Subway franchisees set their own catering prices, and the variation is not regional. Both stores below are in Chicago, about a mile and a half apart. Not one item matches.

Twelve boxed lunches cost $97.08 at one store and $86.28 at the other, a $10.80 difference for an identical order. If your office sits between two Subways, it is worth pulling up both before you order. And treat every figure on this page as one store’s pricing rather than a Subway price list, because that is exactly what it is.

Subway Catering Menu

Subway’s catering menu is organized around format rather than cuisine. The core question is whether you want everyone sharing from a platter, or each person getting their own box. The major formats:

Giant Subs: No Longer on the Catering Menu

The three-foot and six-foot Giant Sub was Subway’s party centrepiece for years,
and it is the item people still search for. It is not on Subway’s catering menu
any more. Subway’s own catering page at subway.com lists exactly three formats,
and none of them is a Giant Sub. Neither of the two Chicago stores we priced for
this guide offers one either.
What to order instead. The Classic Sandwich Platter is the
closest replacement: five footlong sandwiches cut and arranged on a tray,
serving about seven for $49.89 at the store we priced. For the fifteen people a
three-foot Giant Sub used to feed, order two platters and a Toppings Platter.
For thirty, order four. You lose the single-centrepiece look and you gain a
spread people can actually pick through, which is the better outcome at a
working lunch.

Sandwich and Wrap Platters

Whole footlong sandwiches or wraps, cut and arranged on a tray. Platters are the
workhorse format for office lunches, because everyone picks their own piece
without you managing a custom order per person. There are three, and they are
not sized small, medium and large. Each is a fixed build serving seven or eight.

How the fillings work. The Classic Platter is a fixed five: Cold
Cut Combo, Turkey Breast, Black Forest Ham, Veggie Delite and Tuna, so one
vegetarian is covered without a separate order. The Premium Platter lets you pick
any five premium sandwiches. Everything arrives on Italian bread with provolone,
lettuce and tomato unless you change it, and the sauces come on the side, which
matters if the tray has to sit for half an hour before people eat.

Wraps or bread? Wraps hold up longer through a long meeting and
read a little lighter than a footlong. Some offices order a wrap platter and a
sandwich platter side by side so people can pick on preference or on dietary
need.

Lunch Box Meals

Individual boxes, each holding a sandwich, a bag of chips and a cookie. Subway
calls them Lunch Box Meals. The older “Fresh Fit” branding has been retired.
These are Subway’s strongest format for distributed or hybrid teams and for
meetings where everyone needs their own meal rather than a shared spread.

A sandwich box takes a six-inch or a footlong at the same price, so the footlong
is the obvious pick. A single box does not include a drink;
only the twelve-box Assorted Lunch Box Bundle carries bottled drinks. If part of
your team works from another office or from home, the boxes ship out
individually by courier rather than needing a buffet that only part of the team
can reach.

For more on when per-person boxes beat a shared buffet, see our guide to boxed lunch catering vs. buffet.

Salad Lunch Boxes

Subway caters salads as an individual boxed meal, not as a shareable platter.
The Salad Lunch Box holds a salad with dressing, chips and a cookie, and it
comes standard with lettuce, spinach, provolone, tomato, cucumber, green pepper,
black olives and red onion. There is no salad platter on the catering menu, and
the Protein Bowl sold at the counter is not a catering format. If part of your
team wants something lighter than a sub, or is eating low-carb, the Salad Lunch
Box is the option, and it costs about $2.70 more than the plain sandwich box.

Sides: Cookies, Chips, Drinks

A few standard add-ons to round out any catering order:

• Cookies. Two formats. Cookies by the Dozen is the one to order when you need a reliable count. There is also a Cookie Platter, whose listing says it serves 36 while the description says it holds nine cookies across four flavours, so confirm the count with the store.
• Chip variety. Individual bags. Chips are already inside every Lunch Box Meal, so buy them loose only for a platter order.
• Toppings Platter. Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, olives, pickles and onions, so people can rebuild a sandwich the way they want it. The quiet upgrade on any platter order.
• Drinks. Bottled soft drinks and bottled water, sold individually. No two-litre bottles and no coffee travellers on the catering menu.

Sides, Drinks & Add-Ons

Tip: the Toppings Platter is the add-on most people skip and
most regret skipping. Sauces already come on the side, so a tray of fresh
vegetables lets everyone rebuild a sandwich to taste rather than eating whatever
the standard build happened to be. There is no coffee, no two-litre bottle and
no hot item anywhere on Subway’s catering menu, so plan those elsewhere.

How to Order Subway Catering

Subway catering runs through a dedicated portal, not through the standard in-store or app ordering flow. Here’s the sequence:

1. Go to the Subway catering portal on subway.com. Most regular Subway landing pages have a “Catering” link in the main navigation or footer. The catering flow is separate from standard sandwich ordering.
2. Enter your delivery address or pickup ZIP. The portal checks which catering-enabled Subway locations serve your area. Not every Subway offers every format, so availability will adjust based on location.
3. Pick your date and time. The standard lead time is 24 hours. Earlier slots may be available at smaller order sizes or specific locations.
4. Build your order. Choose between Sandwich Platters, Wrap Platters, individual Lunch Box Meals, the Assorted Lunch Box Bundle, and add-ons. Pick fillings per platter or per box.
5. Review and add logistics. For delivery orders, include building access notes, floor/suite number, and a contact phone number. For pickup, note who will collect the order.
6. Check out. Most locations accept credit cards through the portal, and some Subway franchisees support corporate invoicing for recurring office orders.

What’s included: Subway catering orders typically come with napkins, plates, and basic serving items appropriate to the format. Platters arrive pre-sliced. Lunch Box Meals arrive packed and labeled. Setup is not typically provided; the driver drops the order and leaves.
Plan sandwich catering with CaterAi

Delivery, Pickup & Lead Times

Note on franchise variability: Subway is heavily franchised, which means the exact set of formats, delivery radius, fee structure, and responsiveness will differ between two locations that look identical on a map. For recurring orders, it pays to find one or two catering-enabled locations near your office that you’ve had a good experience with and stick with them.

Pros and Cons of Subway Catering

What Works Well

• Location density. There is almost always a Subway within a short drive of a US office. When lunch plans change at the last minute, or a caterer cancels on short notice, Subway is a reliable backup almost anywhere.
• Lower price point. Across formats, Subway sits at the budget-friendly end of the national catering range. For cost-sensitive teams, or for casual meals where the food is secondary to the meeting, the savings add up.
• Shared or individual, your choice. Platters for a buffet, Lunch Box Meals for per-person meals, and a Salad Lunch Box for lighter appetites. The format list is short but it covers the two ways an office actually eats.
• Customization. Subway’s entire brand is built around customization. Most dietary preferences, from vegetarian to low-sodium to low-carb, can be accommodated by choosing the right sandwich, bowl, or salad.
• Familiar and low-risk. Everyone has eaten Subway. There are no surprises, which is useful for orders where you cannot survey attendees about preferences in advance.
• Strong per-person boxed workflow. Subway’s Lunch Box Meals are one of the cleanest national-chain solutions for hybrid or distributed teams, where each person needs an individually packaged meal rather than a shared spread.

What Falls Short

• Franchise quality variance. Two Subway locations on opposite sides of the same city can deliver meaningfully different experiences. Bread freshness, order accuracy, and packaging quality depend on the operator, not the brand.
• No hot catering options beyond meatball and chicken sub fillings. Subway is largely a cold-service chain. For offices that want hot mains at lunch, Subway is a weaker choice than a chain built around hot entrees.
• No onsite staff or setup. Catering is drop-and-go. For executive meetings, client lunches, or any event that needs someone to replenish and tidy, you are on your own.
• Cross-contact allergen risk. Sandwiches are assembled on shared prep surfaces with shared gloves. For strict allergen-restricted eaters, consider individually packaged boxed lunches and confirm practices with the specific location.
• Gluten-free bread is not universal. Availability varies by Subway franchise, and the shared-surface assembly means cross-contact is a practical concern for celiac eaters even where the bread is stocked.
• Recurring-order fatigue. Subway’s menu, while broad by sandwich chain standards, is still a sandwich chain. Teams that order Subway every week or two typically plateau quickly and start asking for something else.

What Customers Say

Common praise:

• “Cheap, fast, and there’s one right down the street.”
• “Ordering is simple, the boxed lunches make distributing easy, and nobody complains about the food.”
• “Reliable enough for a last-minute fallback when a caterer drops out.”

Who Is Subway Catering Best For?

Subway vs. Other Sandwich Chains

Sandwich catering has become a crowded category. Here’s how Subway stacks up against the three other national sandwich chains most commonly considered for office orders.

Jersey Mike’s is the premium upgrade path from Subway. The meat is sliced to order, the Italian-style sub focus is tighter, and the end product looks and tastes a step above. Read our full Jersey Mike’s catering spotlight for a detailed look.

Jimmy John’s is built for speed. Fewer menu variations, faster turnarounds, strong delivery logistics. Good when you need sandwiches on short notice, less useful when you want variety or a big-format centerpiece.

Jason’s Deli has a broader menu (hot soups, large salads, a kids’ menu) but fewer locations than the others. Good for offices that want a menu with some variety beyond sandwiches, less convenient for offices outside Jason’s Deli’s core markets.

If you want to look beyond national chains, North American catering on Zerocater gives you access to hundreds of local sandwich shops and delis. A few vendor pages worth browsing: Jersey Mike’s (Chicago), Paris Baguette (NYC), Capriotti’s (Denver), and Ike’s Place (Bay Area).

A Better Option for Office Catering

Subway is a fine choice when the priority is cost and convenience and the occasion is casual. For most other occasions, most offices will get a better result from a catering platform that pulls from a wider pool of restaurants.

Zerocater connects offices with hundreds of vetted caterers across every cuisine, including local sandwich shops and delis that can go toe-to-toe with national chains on price while punching above them on food quality. Every order is managed by Zerocater’s operations team, which means reliable delivery, proper setup when you need it, and someone to call when something doesn’t land.

With CaterAi, you can plan your entire event in minutes: share your headcount, budget, dietary needs, and date, and CaterAi builds custom menus from multiple caterers. Chat to adjust items, add onsite staff or decor, and check out. Zerocater handles the rest.

Why offices switch from single-chain catering to Zerocater:

• Access to hundreds of caterers, not one menu
• Same-day ordering available for many caterers
• Dietary filtering (vegan, gluten-free, halal, kosher, allergen-aware) built into the platform
• Professional delivery with setup assistance where you need it
• One platform for events, daily meals, and everything in between

Plan sandwich catering with CaterAi
For more office catering ideas, see our guides to boxed lunch vs. buffet catering, ordering catering as an office manager, and catering for mixed dietary needs. Comparing brand options? See our deep dives on Panera catering, Chipotle catering, Chick-fil-A catering, and Olive Garden catering. For city-specific caterer recommendations, browse the best corporate event catering in Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington D.C.

Which Subway Order for How Many People?

The right Subway format depends mostly on how many people you’re feeding and whether the meal is shared or per-person. The chart below maps headcount ranges to the recommended format and order size.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Subway catering priced?

Subway catering is priced by format. Sandwich and wrap platters are priced per platter: a Classic Sandwich Platter serving seven ran $49.89 at the Chicago store we priced in September 2026. Lunch Box Meals are priced per box, from $8.09 for a sandwich box up to $10.79 for a salad or wrap box, each holding the item, chips and a cookie. Bundles are priced per bundle. Subway sits at the lower end of the national chain catering price range, which is part of its appeal for budget-conscious office orders. Franchisees set their own prices, so check your nearest Subway for a live quote.

What is the minimum order for Subway catering?

Most Subway locations accept orders as small as a single platter or a handful of boxes, which makes Subway workable for small meetings as well as large events. Delivery carries a minimum: the Chicago store we priced sets a $50 food and beverage floor before a $30 delivery fee. If you are ordering for under 10 people, pickup usually avoids the minimum entirely.

How far in advance do I need to order Subway catering?

Subway typically asks for at least 24 hours of advance notice for catering orders. For large events (50 people or more), placing the order two to three days ahead is safer, since not every location keeps the volume of deli meats, bread, and boxes needed for a big run on hand at all times. Some locations can accommodate same-day orders for smaller jobs, but this is franchise-dependent.

Can Subway accommodate gluten-free, vegan, or allergen-restricted orders?

Subway offers vegetarian options built around veggies, cheese, and plant-based proteins. Some locations stock gluten-free bread, though availability is not universal and cross-contact with wheat bread at the sandwich station is a practical concern for people with celiac disease. For strictly allergen-restricted orders, confirm directly with your specific location before ordering, and consider individually wrapped boxed lunches to reduce cross-contact between items.

How does Subway catering compare to Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, or Panera?

Subway’s advantage is price and location density, not culinary prestige. Jersey Mike’s catering leans premium, with freshly sliced meats and Italian-style subs that read a notch up from Subway. Jimmy John’s is built for speed with a tighter menu and strong delivery logistics. Panera offers more meal variety (soups, salads, bakery) and presents more polished at client-facing events. Subway beats all three on ubiquity and tends to beat them on per-person price.

Does every Subway location offer catering and Giant Subs?

Catering is franchise-dependent at Subway, and so is pricing. Nearly every location handles platters and Lunch Box Meals, which are the three formats Subway’s own catering page lists. Giant Subs and Protein Bowls are not catering formats any more, so do not plan around them. Prices vary store to store even within one city: two Chicago Subways a mile and a half apart priced every single item differently, a 10 percent gap on most of the menu.

Is Subway a good choice for recurring office meal programs?

Subway works as a recurring option for informal team lunches where cost and reliability matter more than variety. The menu rotation is narrow, so teams that order catering weekly tend to develop sandwich fatigue within a month or two. For recurring meal programs, most offices blend Subway-style chain orders with local caterers across cuisines to keep the menu fresh. A platform like Zerocater handles that rotation for you.

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