Square POS pricing for restaurants

Square charges a restaurant a monthly plan fee plus a fee on each card payment. Square Free is $0/mo., Square Plus is $49/mo. and Square Premium is $149/mo., each per location. A tapped, dipped or swiped card costs 2.6%, 2.5% or 2.4% plus 15¢, by plan. Hardware, kitchen screens and kiosks cost extra.

Square prints almost every price, so you can cost a setup before you talk to anyone. The figures below come from Square's US pricing page, its hardware pages and its help center. For a comparison with Toast, see Toast vs Square.

What do Square's plans cost, and what does each add?

Plan	Monthly fee	Restaurant features it adds	Phone support
Square Free	Square Free: $0/mo. per location	Online ordering profile, item library, menu sync across channels, third-party order management	6am to 6pm PT, Monday to Friday, for the first 90 days
Square Plus	Square Plus: $49/mo. per location	Split checks, preauthorized bar tabs, floor plans, tableside ordering, order-ready texts; the KDS and Kiosk apps for a fee	6am to 6pm PT, Monday to Friday
Square Premium	Square Premium: $149/mo. per location	Everything in Plus, plus course management, the drive-thru workflow and reservation integrations such as OpenTable and SevenRooms	24/7

Plus and Premium each start with a free 30-day trial. Square says there are no locked-in contracts and you can cancel or switch plans anytime.

What are Square's processing fees?

How the guest pays	Fee on Free / Plus / Premium
Card tapped, dipped or swiped	In person: 2.6% + 15¢ / 2.5% + 15¢ / 2.4% + 15¢
Card paid online or through an invoice	Online: 3.3% + 30¢ / 2.9% + 30¢ / 2.9% + 30¢
Card number typed in, or a card on file	Manual entry: 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan
Afterpay (the guest pays in four installments; you get paid up front)	Afterpay: 6% + 30¢ on every plan
ACH bank transfer through an invoice	ACH: 1% with a $1 minimum; capped at $10 on Plus and Premium
Card issued outside the United States	International cards: an extra 1.5% on every plan
Cash or check	Free

Square says Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover all cost the same. Money moves to your bank the next business day for free. Square's deposit options guide charges 1.95% per transfer for an instant or same-day transfer.

For phone orders, compare two rows. A card read out and typed in costs 3.5% + 15¢. A card paid through an invoice costs the online rate. On Plus or Premium, the two fees meet at a $25 order: above that, the invoice costs less; below it, typing the card in costs less. On Free, they meet at $75.

What does Square hardware cost?

Device	Price as Square prints it
Square Register (2nd generation), two screens	Register: $899, or $44/mo over 24 months
Square Handheld	Handheld: $399, or $37/mo over 12 months
Square Terminal, with a built-in receipt printer	Terminal: $299, or $27/mo over 12 months
Square Stand or Square Kiosk (each needs a compatible iPad)	Stand or Kiosk: $149 each, or $14/mo over 12 months
Square Reader for contactless and chip	Reader: $59
Kitchen Display System Touchscreen, 10.1, 15.6 or 21.5 inches	KDS screens: $699, $749 or $899
Impact Printer, for kitchen tickets	Impact Printer: $379
Receipt Printer	Receipt Printer: $319
Printer-driven cash drawer, 14 x 16 in.	Cash drawer: $99

Device prices come from Square's hardware page and accessories page. Block, Inc. issues the monthly plans as credit sales at a 15% APR, for purchases of $49 to $10,000, subject to credit approval. They are not offered in Alabama, Delaware, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire or Tennessee.

Which add-ons cost extra each month?

• Square KDS app: not on Square Free; $30/mo. per device on Plus, $20/mo. per device on Premium. Our KDS guide covers setup.
• Square Kiosk app: not on Square Free; $50/mo. per device on Plus, $30/mo. per device on Premium. See our Square Kiosk guide.
• Square Restaurant Inventory by MarketMan: $99/mo. per location on Plus or Premium, for customers new to MarketMan.
• Square Payroll: starting at $35 per month + $6 per person paid.
• Text marketing: Plus includes 500 texts a month, then 3¢ per text; Premium includes 2,500, then 1.5¢ per text.
• Gift cards: a 2.5% load fee on Free and Plus, and none on Premium.

When can you get custom pricing?

Square says a business that processes over $250,000 a year can talk to its team about custom pricing and processing fees. The same offer covers hardware discounts, onboarding help and account management. Square does not print the custom rates, so get the offer in writing and compare it line by line with the table above.

What would a month on Square cost? A worked example

The figures below are hypothetical. They describe one counter-service café on Square Plus with one kitchen screen and $35,000 a month in card sales: $28,000 in person across 1,750 payments, $5,000 online across 200 orders, and $2,000 in phone orders typed in across 80 payments. The example leaves out cash, tax, hardware, payroll, refunds and cards from abroad.

Line	Hypothetical input	Monthly cost
Plan	Square Plus, one location	Plan line: $49.00
KDS app	One device on Plus	KDS line: $30.00
In-person cards	$28,000 across 1,750 payments at 2.5% + 15¢	In-person line: $962.50
Online orders	$5,000 across 200 orders at 2.9% + 30¢	Online line: $205.00
Typed-in phone orders	$2,000 across 80 payments at 3.5% + 15¢	Typed-in line: $82.00
Total	$35,000 in card sales	Total: $1,328.50

Processing comes to $1,249.50, about 3.6% of card sales. The 15¢ on each of 1,750 small payments adds $262.50 by itself, so a low average ticket raises the rate you pay. The same month on Premium costs $1,390.50: $149 for the plan, $20 for the KDS app and $1,221.50 in processing. On Free, processing is $1,297.50 with no plan fee, but Free has no KDS app, so the kitchen would work from printed tickets.

Hardware is a one-time cost. In this example, a Square Register ($899), a 15.6-inch KDS touchscreen ($749) and an impact printer ($379) come to $2,027 before tax and shipping.

What should you ask before you sign up?

1. Which plan has the features you use every shift: split checks, bar tabs, coursing, a KDS, kiosks?
2. How many kitchen screens and kiosks do you need, and what is each app fee on that plan?
3. How do your card sales split between in person, online and typed in? Price each part at its own rate.
4. Do you process more than $250,000 a year? If so, ask Square for custom pricing in writing.
5. Will you pay for hardware over time? Check the APR and whether your state qualifies.
6. How often will you need instant transfers, at 1.95% each?
7. What will you use for delivery apps, payroll and phone orders, and what does each add?

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro sends them into Square. The Square integration page lists what to test with your own menu, and Maple's pricing shows its plans.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Square's own US pricing, hardware and help-center pages with an original worked example using hypothetical sales. It does not include a quote from Square or report hands-on testing of Square products.