Square vs Toast: Cost and Fees Calculator
Enter your volumes to compare estimated monthly costs and fees for Square and Toast across the selling types both offer, using published US pricing.
Full POS system
Estimates combine processing fees and monthly subscriptions on the plans noted above. One-time hardware, setup, and add-ons are excluded. Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and may have changed.
How the Square vs Toast calculator works, and how the two compare
Square is an all-in-one flat-rate payments company covering card readers, full POS systems, and online stores. Square charges 2.6% + $0.15 in person on its free plan (readers from $59, Square Terminal $299), and 3.3% + $0.30 online on the free plan; paid plans at $49 and $149 per month lower those rates. Toast is the leading restaurant-specific POS platform in the US, with proprietary hardware and mandatory in-house payment processing. Toast's Core plan is $69 per month at 2.49% + $0.15 in person; the $0 Starter Kit bundles hardware but charges 3.09% + $0.15, online orders run 3.50% + $0.15, and hardware is proprietary at roughly $800 per station.
How they are similar: Where they overlap: both Square and Toast cover running a full point-of-sale system, which is what this calculator compares. In both cases the bill is driven by a percentage of each sale plus any fixed per-transaction fee, which is why your average transaction size changes the effective rate as much as the headline percentage does.
How they differ: Only Square offers in-person card readers and online selling, so that side of the business is not part of this comparison. Square operates as flat-rate card processing with published per-transaction fees, while Toast operates as a point-of-sale platform where software subscriptions and card processing come as a package. Square is the strongest all-rounder: one account covers in-person, POS, invoices, and a free online store, with no monthly fee required to start. Toast is restaurant-only and all-in: the deepest food-service feature set on the market, but you must use Toast processing, hardware has near-zero resale value, and contracts commonly run 2 to 3 years.
Assumptions used in this calculator
- Square is modeled on: 2.6% + $0.15, free POS software, Square Terminal $299.
- Toast is modeled on: Core plan $69 per month at 2.49% + $0.15; Starter Kit $0 per month at 3.09% + $0.15.
- Rates are published or typical US pricing as of mid-2026 and change often; quote-based providers are modeled at representative rates. Always confirm current pricing with the provider.
- One-time hardware, setup, add-on apps, keyed-in transactions, international cards, and chargeback fees are excluded from the monthly figures.