Does Starbucks have bathrooms?

Starbucks announced an open-restroom policy in May 2018, meaning restrooms would be available to any guest at company-operated U.S. locations, regardless of purchase. The policy was a response to a widely publicized 2018 incident.

In 2025 Starbucks updated its "Third Place" guidelines, and individual managers may now request purchase or enforce customer-only restrooms at stores experiencing maintenance or safety issues. In practice, restrooms remain widely available to customers and are often shared with walk-ins at the manager's discretion.

At a typical U.S. company-operated Starbucks:

• Single-use restrooms with a keypad or code on the door — ask a barista for the code
• Gendered restrooms at larger stores, single-stall gender-neutral at smaller ones
• Restrooms are cleaned hourly during open hours
• Baby changing tables at most locations (check the door icon)
• Wheelchair-accessible stalls at the vast majority of stores

If a restroom is locked or marked "out of service," the door keypad may have been disabled temporarily — ask at the counter.

Some locations do not have public restrooms at all:

• Drive-thru-only stores (the tiny Starbucks format with only an ordering window)
• Some kiosk-format stores inside malls or office lobbies
• Licensed stores inside airports, hospitals, grocery stores, or hotels — follow the host venue's restroom policy

At airport Starbucks, the airport-wide restroom is usually nearby. At grocery-store Starbucks, use the store's public restroom. At hotel Starbucks, restrooms may be behind the guest-only barrier.

Restroom policy varies more internationally. In many European Starbucks, restrooms require a code purchased with your receipt (a holdover from European café norms where restroom use is charged separately). In Japan, restrooms are typically available without a purchase but are shared with the broader building's guests. In the UK and Australia, policy mirrors the U.S. open-restroom approach.