Kiosk payments: cards, wallets and cash

Most restaurant kiosks take cards and phone wallets at a reader built into the unit. Cash usually means the guest orders at the kiosk, then pays a cashier: Toast prints a receipt with a QR code for the cashier to scan. Kiosks that take bills themselves exist, but they come from cash-handling companies such as Glory; Square, Toast and Clover do not list one. New York City and New York State require food stores and retail establishments to take cash, with narrow exceptions.

The payment setup decides three things at the counter: who the cash guest talks to, what happens to card payments when the internet drops, and what you pay per card sale. This guide sets out what Square, Toast and Clover document, how cash works on kiosks, and a decision table.

What does each POS kiosk accept?

Payment	Square Kiosk	Toast kiosk	Clover Kiosk
Cards	Tap or chip on the built-in reader; magstripe needs a separate Square Reader	Credit and debit, swiped or tapped	Contactless, chip, swipe and debit PIN
Phone wallets	Apple Pay and Google Pay	Not named in Toast's kiosk payment article	Contactless listed; wallets not named
Gift cards	A checkout setting you can turn on	A setting you can turn on; guests can use more than one gift card per order	Not described in Clover's kiosk setup guide
Cash	Not among the kiosk's checkout settings	Guest prints a receipt with a QR code and pays a cashier; needs a printer at the kiosk	Not described in Clover's kiosk setup guide
Internet outage	Offline payments not supported with the kiosk app	New kiosk experience keeps working for guests offline; Toast Router cellular backup with a paid subscription	You set a payment limit for offline payments
Tips	Percentage or dollar amounts	Kiosk tip percentages set apart from other Toast tip settings	Tip settings shared with your other Clover devices; capture set per kiosk

Sources: Square's kiosk setup guide, kiosk checkout settings and kiosk hardware page; Toast's kiosk payments article, kiosk setup guide and kiosk page; Clover's kiosk setup guide and kiosk page.

Square's setup guide mentions cash sales once but does not say how a kiosk guest pays cash, and its checkout settings list gift cards as the only extra payment option. If you run Square and take cash, ask Square to show you the cash flow before you buy.

How does cash work on a kiosk?

Toast documents the fullest cash flow. You turn on the cash option in Toast Web, and the guest taps Pay with cash, prints a receipt and takes it to the counter. The cashier scans the QR code with the terminal's front camera to pull up the check and takes the cash as usual. You can print your own cash instructions on that receipt.

Toast also makes you choose when a cash order reaches the kitchen:

• When the receipt prints: the kitchen starts before the guest pays. Food is ready sooner, but a guest who walks away leaves a ticket nobody paid for.
• After the cashier takes payment: nothing is cooked unpaid, but the guest waits twice, once in line and again for the food.

Pick the first if your cashier stands next to the kiosks and walk-aways are rare. Pick the second if the counter is across the room or cash guests often change their minds.

Independent kiosk companies describe the same idea. GRUBBRR's FAQ lists "Pay at Counter" for cash, and Tillster's kiosk page says cash orders go to the POS for staff to take payment.

Can a kiosk take bills and coins itself?

Yes, with extra hardware. Glory, which makes cash recyclers, sells the C27 cash-enabled self-service kiosk, built with Acrelec's kiosk and Glory's smallest cash recycler, and taking cash, card or mobile payment. In March 2023 Glory announced a partnership with kiosk software company QikServe to add cash payment to QikServe's restaurant kiosks. Bite, another kiosk software company, lists Glory under cash recycling on its partner page. None of these pages prints a price.

Another route suits cashless venues. KIOSK Information Systems sells cash-to-card kiosks: a guest inserts cash and gets a prepaid card to spend on site. That matters in New York, below.

Do you have to take cash?

In New York, food stores and retail establishments must. New York City has banned cashless food and retail stores since 2020, and its consumer protection department says businesses must take cash unless they have a machine that converts cash to a prepaid card. They cannot charge more for paying in cash.

A statewide law took effect on March 21, 2026. The Attorney General's March 2026 alert says food stores and retail establishments cannot refuse cash or charge more for it. Phone, mail and internet orders are exempt unless the sale happens in the store. The law also does not apply where a store provides a device on site that converts cash into a prepaid card, with no fee and no minimum load above one dollar. Penalties run up to $1,000 for a first violation and $1,500 for each later one.

Other states and cities set their own rules. Ask your lawyer whether these laws cover your restaurant, and whether a staffed register that takes cash covers you when your kiosks take only cards.

What do card fees look like at a kiosk?

A kiosk payment is an in-person card payment, so it should cost the same as a tap at your register. Check that on your quote. Square prints its rates, and on Square Plus a tap, dip or swipe costs 2.5% + 15¢, per its restaurant pricing page. Square's kiosk hardware page also lists 6% + 30¢ per Afterpay transaction.

Clover's full-service restaurant pricing prints 2.3% + 10¢ for a card tapped, swiped or inserted, and 3.5% + 10¢ for a card typed in, on prices it says are only available on Clover.com. Clover quotes the kiosk itself on custom pricing, so ask which rate applies to kiosk sales. Toast's pricing page prints no card percentage, so ask for it on your quote.

The fixed part of the fee weighs more on small orders. At 2.5% + 15¢, a $5 coffee costs about 28¢, or 5.5%, while a $25 order costs about 78¢, or 3.1%. A cash sale has no card fee, but someone still counts, stores and deposits the money.

Which payment setup fits your restaurant?

Your situation	What to set up	Watch for
Almost every guest pays by card or phone	Card-only kiosks with a sign pointing cash guests to the register	Guests who order at the kiosk and then find no cash option
A steady share of cash guests	Kiosk cash option that sends the order to a cashier, with a printer at each kiosk	When the kitchen starts cash orders, and walk-aways
Store in New York	A register that takes cash, or an on-site cash-to-prepaid-card device	No surcharge on cash; ask your lawyer about your setup
Stadium, food hall or cashless venue	Cash-to-card kiosk, or a cash-enabled kiosk such as Glory's C27	Who empties and services the cash machine
Internet drops often	A kiosk that can take payments offline, or cellular backup	Square's kiosk app takes no offline payments; set a limit on Clover
Gift card program	Turn on gift cards in kiosk settings	Third-party gift cards that need a PIN (Toast supports PIN entry)

What should you test before launch?

1. Pay with a chip card, a tapped card and a phone wallet. Check each one reaches the POS as paid.
2. Place a cash order and time it from the kiosk to the food.
3. Walk away from a cash order and see what the kitchen and the POS show.
4. Unplug the internet and try a card payment.
5. Pay part with a gift card and the rest with a card.
6. Add a tip and check it lands on the right check.

Maple's voice ordering kiosk, in early access with a small number of restaurants, lets guests speak the order and writes it into the POS. Its page does not describe payment methods, so ask Maple's team how payment works at your counter. Maple Pro, the phone plan on Maple pricing, lists secure payment over the phone. For how kiosks compare on hardware and price, see the kiosk buyer's guide.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Square's, Toast's and Clover's kiosk help and pricing pages, kiosk and cash-machine makers' own pages, and New York City and New York State cash-law notices with an original decision table and fee arithmetic. It does not report a Maple test of any kiosk or give legal advice.