AI drive-thru ordering for Toast: how it connects, how orders land and what to test

Maple's voice AI drive-thru works with the POS systems Maple takes orders into, and Toast is one of them. A Maple unit stands beside your speaker post, takes the order by voice, shows the guest a live cart and sends the order to your POS. The drive-thru is in early access with a small number of restaurants and is priced per unit, with no public price. This guide sets out what the Toast connection covers, what to have ready, which Toast settings matter, how a lane order should look in Toast, and a test to run before live cars.

Toast makes one part of this easier than most POS systems. Maple connects straight to Toast through Toast's Orders API, and cards go through your own Toast account, so Maple's docs list no separate business verification step. The rest of this guide is the part nobody should take on trust: what the lane does, which Toast settings it needs, and how to check each one with a real ticket.

Does AI drive-thru ordering work with Toast?

Yes. Maple's drive-thru works with the same POS systems Maple supports for phone orders, and Toast is on that list. The guest talks to the unit at the lane, sees each item and the running total on its screen, and the order goes to your POS.

Maple's public pages describe the Toast connection for phone ordering. They give no lane-specific Toast details, so this guide separates what Maple documents (setup, menu sync, how orders reach Toast) from what you should confirm for a lane (payment at the window, kitchen routing, order label). If you are comparing vendors first, how AI drive-thru vendors compare lays out each vendor from its own pages, and what an AI drive-thru costs covers the prices vendors print and the numbers to get in a quote.

Does Toast have its own drive-thru system, and where does AI voice fit?

Yes. Toast sells Toast Drive-Thru, which its page describes as a drive-thru solution built for enterprise that combines POS-native software, AI voice-ordering integrations, outdoor hardware and Toast support. Toast announced it on April 14, 2026, aimed at enterprise quick-service chains. The page lists a drive-thru mode in the POS, a customizable order-confirmation screen for guests, 55-inch outdoor menu boards that sync prices and stock-outs from the POS, and a kitchen display setting that sorts drive-thru tickets by car order. It says Toast Drive-Thru integrates with AI voice-ordering partners to take orders.

That matters for how you read this guide. Toast's package is one vendor's hardware, software and support, aimed at enterprise. Maple's unit is the voice-ordering piece alone, and Maple's drive-thru page says it stands beside the speaker post you already have. Other voice vendors are also joining Toast's partner ecosystem: on September 21, 2026 Presto announced an integration with Toast, and Restaurant Dive's report says Toast's POS passes the orders Presto takes to the restaurant's kitchen display system. Presto's own figures there (about 95% order accuracy, a worker stepping in on about 10% of orders) are the vendor's, not independent results. Toast's support site also has a setup article for an Incept AI integration.

So when you talk to Maple, ask how its Toast connection fits with whatever Toast drive-thru hardware you run or are quoted, and whether your Toast rep needs to approve a voice partner for a Toast Drive-Thru rollout. Maple's public pages do not say. Presto Voice reviewed sets Presto's modes and figures beside the others.

What does Maple's Toast connection cover?

These lines come from Maple's Toast integration page and Maple's Toast setup docs.

Part	What Maple's Toast pages say
Connection	Maple connects straight to Toast through Toast's Orders API. Orders and payments both land in your Toast account.
Menu	Menu items, prices, modifiers, options and categories import as you set them up in Toast.
86'd items	For phone orders, items you 86 in Toast stop being offered on calls, in real time.
Hidden items	For phone orders, items you hide in Toast are not synced.
Menu changes	Changes you publish in Toast reach Maple automatically, and you can also resync the menu from the Maple dashboard. Menu changes must be made in Toast.
Prices and hours	Price changes, availability schedules and menu hours stay in step.
Where orders appear	Orders appear in Toast under the dining option you choose, and can report under a Toast revenue center you pick.
Card payments	Cards are taken through Toast Hosted Checkout, and funds settle into your Toast deposit account. With Toast Direct, cards go through your Toast account, so there is no separate business verification.

Those lines describe phone ordering, the connection Maple documents in public. The two rows most likely to differ at a lane are where orders appear and how the card is taken, so both are on the question list below.

What do you need before you start?

For the Toast side, Maple's page lists three things:

• Admin access to Toast Web, and the Toast restaurant GUID for each location.
• A Maple Pro plan, which includes phone ordering and POS integrations.
• A Toast menu you are happy for guests to hear read back: clear item names, current prices and your real modifier groups, since Maple's menu comes from Toast.

Maple's Toast integration page adds that Toast requires the 8.4 Manage integrations permission to add a partner integration, so check whose Toast login has it. It also tells you to check any Toast-side charges before you authorize the connection.

The connection itself takes five steps in the docs:

1. Install the Maple integration from your Toast Web integrations page (Toast Partner Connect).
2. Enter your Toast restaurant GUID in Maple to connect the location. Keep the GUID from the Toast email; if the email is missing or the accounts use different contacts, ask Maple to help match the location.
3. Create the dining options and service charges described in the docs in Toast Web.
4. Pick those dining options and charges in Maple. Maple checks them against Toast and flags anything set up wrong before you go live.
5. Place test orders and check them in Toast.

The unit is the extra piece at a lane. Maple's drive-thru page says it stands beside your existing speaker post with its own directional microphone and speaker, so nothing is rewired and your headsets keep working. Ask Maple's sales team how installation and the Toast connection are scheduled for your site, because the public pages give no timeline.

Which Toast settings matter for a lane order?

Maple's docs describe three kinds of Toast setup. Only the first is certain to touch a lane.

Toast setting	What the docs say	What it means for a lane
A Take Out dining option	Required. Used for pickup, and for Maple-managed delivery orders.	Lane orders are not delivery, so this is the option to ask about. Confirm which dining option a lane order will use.
A second Take Out option named "Maple Courier"	Recommended, so the kitchen can tell a Maple courier order from a regular guest pickup. Optional.	The same idea helps a lane. Ask whether a separate option can mark lane orders so the window crew can tell them from counter and phone orders.
A Delivery dining option	Required only if you offer your own delivery.	Not part of a lane.
A "Maple Delivery" service charge	Required only for Maple-managed delivery.	Not part of a lane.
Revenue center	Orders can report under a Toast revenue center you pick.	Decide whether lane sales should report apart from counter sales.

The dining option names are for your own reporting; guests never see them. You can change the mapping later in Maple under Location, Integrations, Toast.

How should a lane order land in Toast?

Maple's drive-thru page says the order goes straight to your POS, and the Toast docs say Maple prices each order through Toast so the charged total matches the Toast check. Check both with real tickets, one row at a time:

Check	What to look for in Toast
Items and modifiers	Every item and modifier the guest said is on the check the way your crew would ring it, including required modifier groups.
Total	The total on the unit's live cart matches the total on the Toast check.
Dining option	The order sits under the dining option you mapped, and reports under the revenue center you picked.
86'd item	Mark an item 86 in Toast and see whether the lane stops offering it. Maple's docs say this for phone calls; they do not say it for a lane, so treat it as a question to confirm.
Hidden item	Hide an item in Toast and see whether it stays off the lane menu. Maple's docs say hidden items are not synced for phone ordering; confirm the lane behaves the same way.
Menu change	Change a price in Toast and publish. Time how long the lane takes to show it, and try the resync button in the Maple dashboard.
Kitchen destination	The ticket reaches the printer or kitchen display your cooks read. Maple's page asks you to confirm kitchen routing with your team rather than assume every setup behaves the same way.
Order label	How the window crew can tell a lane order from a counter or phone order. Maple's pages document the dining option for phone orders only, so ask what a lane order carries.

How does a guest pay at a Toast lane?

Maple's Toast docs describe card payment for phone and online orders: the guest pays through Toast Hosted Checkout, funds settle into your Toast deposit account, and pickup can be paid on the call or in store if you allow it. Nothing in Maple's public pages says how a lane order is paid, so this is the first question for the demo. Do not assume the window works like a phone pickup.

Decide before the trial which of these you want, then ask Maple whether it fits your lane: the guest pays at the window on your Toast hardware, the guest pays another way at the lane, or the order is sent unpaid for the window to settle. Run each through a test check and look at the deposit side as well as the ticket.

What happens at the speaker and the window?

From Maple's drive-thru page: the guest sees each item and the total as they order, so mistakes get caught before the window. Maple knows your full menu and every modifier, skips items that are out of stock and takes orders in many languages. You choose the add-on it offers. Your crew stays in charge: a one-press kill switch puts the lane back to normal with no AI in the loop, and guests can ask for a person at any time.

For what to rehearse with the crew, see the drive-thru fallback plan.

What if your restaurant already connects to Toast through Stream?

Maple's Toast docs say locations that connected Toast through StreamOrders before Toast Direct should follow the Toast-through-StreamOrders steps, and Maple's integration page says to ask Maple to confirm the changeover steps before you change an existing connection. Review the current connection, menu, payment flow and order destination together, test the direct connection before switching live calls, and do not assume an existing connection or subscription ends on its own.

What should you ask before a Toast lane trial?

Maple's public pages leave these open for Toast, so settle them in the demo:

• Which Toast location and restaurant GUID will the unit connect to, if you run more than one?
• Which Toast dining option and revenue center will a lane order use, and can lane orders be labeled apart from counter and phone orders?
• How is a lane order paid: at the window on your Toast hardware, or another way? Maple's Toast docs describe Toast Hosted Checkout for phone and online orders.
• Does the lane read the full Toast menu, or only the items you allow for phone orders?
• How long after a menu change in Toast does the lane reflect it, and what does the resync button do for a lane?
• If you run or are quoted Toast Drive-Thru hardware, how does Maple's unit fit with it, and does Toast need to approve the voice partner?
• What does the guest see and hear if Toast cannot be reached?
• What does early access include, and where would your site be in line?

How do you run a first-week test on a Toast lane?

1. Before the unit arrives, clean up the Toast menu: names a guest would say, prices, required modifier groups and anything you want hidden.
2. Place test orders yourself, from a plain item to a long one with required modifiers and a change midway, and follow each check to the kitchen.
3. Mark one item 86 and one item hidden, and check the lane keeps up. Then change a price and time the sync.
4. Press the kill switch in a quiet hour and time how long the crew takes to run the lane by hand.
5. Go live on one lane in a slow daypart. Keep three counts apart: orders completed without help, orders that needed a person, and tickets the kitchen had to correct.

A worked example of the counts, with made-up numbers to show the arithmetic: if a slow daypart sees 40 lane orders, and 34 finish without help, 4 need a person and 2 tickets are corrected by the kitchen, then 34 ÷ 40 = 85% finished without help, 4 ÷ 40 = 10% needed a person, and 2 ÷ 40 = 5% needed a kitchen fix. Those are not results from any restaurant. Use your own counts and compare similar dayparts before you widen the trial.

What goes wrong with the Toast side, and how do you fix it?

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
An item the guest wants is not offered	First check whether the item is 86'd or hidden in Toast. Maple's docs describe that behavior for phone orders; confirm with Maple that the lane follows it.	If it is, un-86 or un-hide it in Toast and publish. Menu changes are made in Toast, not in Maple. If the item is live in Toast and still missing at the lane, ask Maple.
A menu change is not showing	The change has not reached Maple yet.	Publish in Toast, then resync the menu from the Maple dashboard.
Orders land under the wrong dining option	The dining option mapping in Maple is not what you meant.	Open Location, Integrations, Toast, edit the dining and delivery setup and save.
Maple flags a Toast setting during setup	A dining option or service charge in Toast does not meet Maple's checks.	Fix the setting named in the flag in Toast Web, then save again in Maple so it re-checks.
The install does not find your location	The Toast email is missing, or the Toast and Maple accounts use different contacts.	Ask Maple to help match the location to your GUID.
You need to turn Toast off	Switching POS or ending the trial.	Remove Maple in Toast Partner Connect. Toast sends a partner removal notice, and Maple turns off the Toast integration for that location.

How does this fit with Toast's own kitchen and kiosk tools?

If your kitchen runs on Toast's display system, Toast KDS: cost, screens, routing, fire timing and offline limits explains what Toast documents, and the routing check above tells you whether lane tickets reach it. Toast also sells its own kiosk, covered in Toast Kiosk: features, cost and setup. For lane setup inside the POS itself, POS setup for a drive-thru covers Toast and Square. The AI drive-thru pilot checklist has a longer worksheet, and how an AI drive-thru order reaches the POS explains the handoff for any POS.

What does it cost and when can you get it?

The drive-thru is in early access with a small number of restaurants and priced per unit. There is no public price; talk to sales through the drive-thru page to learn where you are in line. Phone ordering into Toast is on Maple's Pro plan, $350 a month or $220 a month billed yearly, with no per-minute fees; see Maple's pricing. One other vendor, Audivi AI, prints $475 a month for its drive-thru voice AI and does not say whether that is per lane or per store, so when you compare a quote, ask each vendor what one unit covers.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a separate Toast account or card verification for the lane? Maple's docs say Toast Direct runs cards through your own Toast account, so there is no separate business verification. Ask Maple how that applies to a lane.

Do I have to replace my headsets or speaker post? No. The Maple unit stands beside your post and works on its own. Your headsets keep working, and the kill switch puts the lane back to normal whenever you want.

Can I change the menu in Maple? No. Menu changes are made in Toast and reach Maple automatically. You can resync from the Maple dashboard.

What if a guest wants a person? They ask, and Maple hands the lane to your crew. Your crew can also take over at any time with one press.

Which Maple plan includes Toast ordering? Pro. Voice covers answering, FAQs and call transfer.

Published by Maple, which sells the product described here. This AI-assisted guide uses Maple's published drive-thru page, Toast integration page and Toast setup docs, plus Toast's drive-thru page and Restaurant Dive's September 21, 2026 report, all read November 11, 2026, with an original lane test and question list. It does not report a Maple test at a Toast lane, a customer result or a price for the drive-thru unit.