# Restaurant card processing fees: Toast, Square and Clover compared

> Canonical: https://maple.inc/blog/restaurant-card-processing-fees

*By Maple Team · Published 2026-09-26*

What Toast, Square and Clover charge per card payment, how much goes to the card's bank, the surcharge rules, and a worked month on labeled inputs.

Square charges a restaurant 2.4% to 2.6% plus 15¢ for a tapped or dipped card, depending on the plan. Clover.com prints 2.3% plus 10¢. Toast prints only its American Express rate, 3.29% plus 15¢, and quotes Visa, Mastercard and Discover. A card typed in for a phone order costs more on all three.

This guide sets the three side by side, shows how much of each fee goes to the bank that issued the guest's card, covers the rules for passing fees on to guests, and prices one month. Plans, hardware and contracts sit in our pricing guides for [Toast](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-pos-pricing), [Square](https://maple.inc/blog/square-pos-pricing) and [Clover](https://maple.inc/blog/clover-pos-pricing), and in [Toast vs Square](https://maple.inc/blog/toast-vs-square).

## What do Toast, Square and Clover charge per card payment?

    How the guest pays Toast Square (Free / Plus / Premium) Clover.com restaurant bundles
  Card tapped, dipped or swiped Toast in person: Visa, Mastercard and Discover quoted; American Express 3.29% + 15¢ Square in person: 2.6% + 15¢ / 2.5% + 15¢ / 2.4% + 15¢ Clover in person: 2.3% + 10¢
  Card number typed in, as for a phone order Toast card not present: Visa, Mastercard and Discover quoted; American Express 3.89% + 15¢ Square manual entry or card on file: 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan Clover typed in: 3.5% + 10¢
  Card paid online Quoted Square online: 3.3% + 30¢ / 2.9% + 30¢ / 2.9% + 30¢ The typed-in rate, per Clover's FAQ
  When the printed rate stops applying Toast custom pricing above $500k a year in card sales Square custom pricing over $250,000 a year Banks and resellers set their own rates

Toast's rates are the footnotes on its [starter kit page](https://pos.toasttab.com/shop/bundles); its [pricing page](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing) offers "flat-rate processing" on the Point of Sale plan without printing the rate. Square's [fees article](https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5068-what-are-square-s-fees) says its fee applies to every card brand at the same rate and comes out of the whole payment, including tax and tip. Clover's [restaurant pricing page](https://www.clover.com/pricing/restaurant) prints its two rates, and its [pricing FAQ](https://www.clover.com/pricing) says the typed-in rate applies when the card is not present, "like an online sale or phone order."

## How much of each fee goes to the guest's bank?

Part of every card fee is interchange: a fee Visa and Mastercard set, which passes to the bank that issued the card. Visa's [fees page](https://usa.visa.com/support/small-business/regulations-fees.html) says merchants pay a "merchant discount" to their own bank or processor, and that it can include a range of processing services. Mastercard's [interchange page](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/support/merchant-interchange-rates.html) calls interchange one of many costs inside that rate.

Here is the interchange on one $40 restaurant payment with the card present, from [Visa's US table effective April 18, 2026](https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/download/merchants/visa-usa-interchange-reimbursement-fees.pdf) and [Mastercard's US table effective April 17, 2026](https://www.mastercard.com/content/dam/mccom/us/business/documents/merchant-rates-2026-2027-april2026.pdf). The dollar column is our arithmetic.

    Card Published rate On a $40 payment
  Debit card from a large bank, Visa or Mastercard Regulated debit: 0.05% + 21¢, or 22¢ with a fraud-prevention adjustment Regulated debit on $40: 23¢ or 24¢
  Debit card from a smaller bank, Visa or Mastercard Unregulated restaurant debit: 1.19% + 10¢ on both tables Unregulated debit on $40: 58¢
  Visa Traditional Rewards credit card Visa Restaurant 2: 2.10% (minimum 4¢) Visa Traditional Rewards on $40: 84¢
  Visa Signature or Infinite credit card Visa Restaurant 2: 2.60% (minimum 4¢) Visa Signature on $40: $1.04
  Mastercard World credit card Mastercard Restaurant: 1.85% + 10¢ Mastercard World on $40: 84¢
  Mastercard World Elite credit card Mastercard Restaurant: 2.00% + 10¢ Mastercard World Elite on $40: 90¢

On the same $40, Square Plus charges $1.15 and Clover.com charges $1.02, whatever the card. The Federal Reserve's [Regulation II](https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/regii-about.htm) sets the debit limit and exempts certain small issuers, which is why debit cards from smaller banks carry the higher rate. Each rate has conditions a sale must meet, and Visa sends questions about which ones you qualify for to your own bank or processor.

The gap is widest on debit. A flat rate charges the same whether interchange is 23¢ or $1.04. If many of your guests pay by debit, ask a processor to quote interchange passed through at cost plus a stated markup, and price both quotes on your own card mix.

## What would one month cost on each?

Every input here is made up: $48,000 in card sales (including tax and tips) across 1,200 payments at $40 each. Of those, 1,080 are tapped or dipped ($43,200) and 120 are phone orders typed in ($4,800). Toast does not print its Visa, Mastercard or Discover rate, so its row uses an assumed quote of 2.49% + 15¢ in person and 3.5% + 15¢ typed in, with 10% of payments on American Express at Toast's printed rates.

    Processor In person (1,080 payments) Typed in (120 payments) Card fees for the month
  Square Plus Square in person: $1,242.00 Square typed in: $186.00 Square total: $1,428.00, or 2.98% of card sales
  Clover.com Clover in person: $1,101.60 Clover typed in: $180.00 Clover total: $1,281.60, or 2.67% of card sales
  Toast, assumed quote plus printed American Express Toast in person: $1,272.24 ($1,113.91 assumed quote, $158.33 American Express) Toast typed in: $187.87 ($167.40 assumed quote, $20.47 American Express) Toast total: $1,460.11, or 3.04% of card sales

On Square Free the month would be $1,471.20, and on Square Premium $1,384.80. The plan fees sit on top: Square Plus is $49 a month, Toast's Point of Sale plan starts at $69 a month, and Clover's full-service Starter bundle is $179 a month for 36 months with the hardware included.

The typed-in phone orders are 10% of sales and about 13% of Square's and 14% of Clover's fees in this month. Had those 120 cards been tapped at the counter, Square Plus would have charged $138.00 for them and Clover $122.40. If phone orders are a large share of your sales, ask how each processor prices a card read out over the phone, a card on file and a payment link sent by text.

## Can a restaurant pass card fees on to guests?

Only on credit cards, and only within the card brands' limits and your state's law. Neither brand allows a surcharge on debit or prepaid cards, even when the guest runs the debit card as credit. This summary is not legal advice.

    Rule Visa Mastercard
  Cards you may surcharge Credit only Credit only
  Most you may add Visa cap: your merchant discount rate for that card or 3%, whichever is lower Mastercard cap: your average effective merchant discount rate for Mastercard credit, up to a 4% maximum
  Notice before you start At least 30 days to your acquirer At least 30 days to Mastercard and your acquirer
  What guests must see Notice at the entrance and at the point of sale, and the surcharge on every receipt Notice at the point of interaction, and the dollar amount of the surcharge on the receipt

The Visa column comes from Visa's [merchant surcharge Q&A](https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/merchant-surcharging-qa-for-web.pdf) and the Mastercard column from Mastercard's [surcharge rules page](https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/support/merchant-surcharge-rules.html). Visa's Q&A also says a cash discount must show the card price, or the card and cash prices side by side. A card fee added to the final bill may be treated as a surcharge.

Toast's [credit card surcharging FAQ](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Credit-Card-Surcharging-FAQ), updated August 2026, gives the state picture as Toast understands it:

- Merchants in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts cannot use Toast's surcharging, because those states prohibit it.
- Oklahoma removed its ban on November 1, 2025, and caps surcharges at 2%.
- In New York, the surcharge has to be built into the listed price of each item.
- For a phone order, staff must tell the guest about the surcharge before the payment goes through and let the guest choose another way to pay.
- A service charge must apply to every payment method equally; dropping it for cash turns it into a surcharge on debit cards.

Toast lets most US merchants surcharge up to 3%, and says the rate should not exceed your processing cost. Check your state's rules with a lawyer before you post a sign.

## How do you check what you really pay?

1. Add up every card fee on last month's statement and divide by card sales. That is your effective rate; compare it with the rate you were quoted.
2. Split in-person and typed-in sales. A rising typed-in share raises the effective rate with no change in rates.
3. Count payments as well as dollars: the cents per payment weigh most on small checks.
4. Find your American Express share if your processor prices it apart, as Toast does.
5. Get every rate in writing before you sign, and note the notice period for rate changes in your agreement.
6. Before you surcharge, work out your cost of acceptance for credit cards from the statement; both brands cap the surcharge at that figure.

If you take phone orders, ask any phone-ordering service how the card is taken and which rate your processor then applies. Maple Pro, which takes phone orders into supported POS systems, lists secure payment over the phone on its [pricing page](https://maple.inc/pricing) at $350 a month billed monthly or $220 a month billed yearly. The [restaurant POS cost guide](https://maple.inc/blog/restaurant-pos-cost) adds hardware and exit costs to these fees over three years.

*Published by Maple, which sells AI phone answering and ordering to restaurants. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast, Square and Clover's own pricing and help pages, Visa and Mastercard's published US interchange tables and surcharge rules, and the Federal Reserve's Regulation II page with an original worked month. Every sales figure and the Toast card rate in the example are assumptions. It is not legal advice and does not include a quote from any processor.*

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