Toast Kiosk: features, cost and setup

Toast Kiosk is a self-ordering mode on a Toast terminal. Guests order and pay on the screen, and the order goes straight into Toast POS and on to your kitchen display or printer. Toast does not publish a kiosk price; you get one in a quote. Toast Customer Care has to switch Kiosk Mode on for your device.

Toast first announced self-serve kiosks in July 2016, in a press release that described kiosks built on Elo hardware. This guide covers the current product from Toast's own pages and support articles: what you buy, how setup works, what the kiosk can do with modifiers and upsells, and the limits Toast lists.

What does Toast Kiosk cost?

Toast prints no kiosk price on its restaurant kiosk page or its pricing page. Both send you to a demo or a quote. The pricing page does say what the upfront costs are made of, and its footnotes affect a kiosk.

Cost item	What Toast publishes	Ask for this on your quote
Kiosk terminal	No public price. Upfront costs are hardware and implementation, which vary by hardware package and installation needs.	The price of each kiosk terminal and its mount
Extra devices	Pricing includes the first hardware terminal subscription; additional charges apply for later devices.	The monthly charge for each kiosk you add
Card reader	In the U.S., Toast's setup guide uses a Toast Tap reader, on-counter or direct attach.	Whether a reader is included with each kiosk
Printer	Optional, but needed if guests will pay cash at the counter.	A printer per kiosk, if you take cash
Internet backup	Built-in cellular through Toast Router applies if the Cellular for Router Monthly Subscription is purchased.	The monthly cellular price
Financing	0% interest financing is available by application and subject to approval.	Term, monthly payment and total cost

You cannot bring your own tablet. Toast's pricing FAQ says its services work only on devices Toast identifies as compatible, and only on approved Toast hardware.

What hardware runs Toast Kiosk?

Toast's Kiosk Mode article says the mode applies to Toast POS on a Toast Flex or Elo terminal set up as a Self-Ordering Kiosk. It names the 22-inch Elo V4, the 22-inch Toast Flex and the 14-inch Flex sold as a kiosk. The kiosk page lists wall-mounted and freestanding setups.

For guests who are blind or have low vision, Toast supports the STORM Audio-Nav keypad with the JAWS screen reader, which Toast pre-installs. Toast's STORM setup article says a third party sells the device and counter mount through Toast Shop. The 14-inch Flex needs a USB-C to USB-A adapter for it.

How do you set up Toast Kiosk?

These steps follow Toast's get-started guide and Set Up Your Kiosk.

1. Ask Toast Customer Care to enable Kiosk Mode. It will not appear on the terminal until Toast turns it on.
2. Install the kiosk terminal, plus a printer if you want one. If you use Toast KDS, put the kiosk on the same network as the KDS so tickets keep flowing in Offline Mode.
3. Install the card reader.
4. In Toast Web, open Front of house > Mobile dining solutions > Kiosk setup. Set the welcome image, brand color and whether to show the order number.
5. Choose menu options: item descriptions, hiding sold-out items, special requests and a list of up to six upsell items.
6. Set payments: cash, gift cards, tipping screen, any service charges, and a void reason for timed-out orders.
7. Turn on dine-in, takeout or both. Decide whether to ask for a name, table number or phone number for an order-ready text (the text needs Toast KDS).
8. Pick a kiosk server for all kiosk checks. Toast describes a common setup: a user named "Kiosk Server" with a passcode staff share, so anyone can step in.
9. In each menu, set Visible To to In-store orders: Kiosk. Then put the terminal in Kiosk Mode from the Mode section of the POS menu.

What restaurant features does Toast Kiosk include?

• Modifiers: Toast's kiosk menu guide covers required and optional modifier groups, nested modifiers one level deep, and the same modifier chosen more than once (two BBQ sauces on wings). It suggests "No" options for removing ingredients and an optional allergy group.
• Special requests: guests can type extra instructions on an item if you turn this on.
• Upsells: you pick up to six items to offer before checkout.
• Order routing: the kitchen ticket shows the word Kiosk, with the dining option printed in red at the top. The kiosk page says orders flow to Toast POS and kitchen displays in real time.
• Loyalty: guests can sign up for Toast Loyalty and redeem rewards at the kiosk. Third-party loyalty check-in works in the U.S.
• Reporting: filter the sales summary by the Kiosk source.
• Offline: Toast says the new kiosk experience keeps working for guests in offline mode.

What limits does Toast list?

• Guests pay at the kiosk with credit, debit or gift cards. Cash and keyed cards go to a cashier using a printed receipt with a QR code, which needs a printer at the kiosk.
• Pre-modifiers are not supported on the kiosk.
• Only one level of nested modifiers works.
• New sign-ups are not supported for third-party loyalty on the kiosk.
• Scanners read only barcodes and QR codes, and are available only to U.S. restaurants.
• The Powered by Toast logo stays on screen and cannot be changed.
• Toast warns against using a 22-inch Elo in portrait on a tabletop mount, because the device may collapse.
• Leaving Kiosk Mode takes a manager or admin passcode and the 3.7 Void Items / Orders permission.

What should you check before you sign?

1. Your quote lists each kiosk terminal, mount, reader and printer separately.
2. The quote shows the monthly charge per added device.
3. You know whether you need the cellular subscription for internet backup.
4. Your menu names read well to guests; Toast notes the POS Name shows on the kiosk.
5. Every required modifier group is marked required, and no item depends on a pre-modifier.
6. You have a cash plan: a printer at the kiosk, or card-only ordering.
7. A kiosk server user exists and staff know the passcode.
8. Toast has enabled Kiosk Mode before your launch date.

Where do other ordering options fit?

Toast sells other guest ordering routes, such as Toast Mobile Order & Pay and online ordering, listed alongside the kiosk in its product menu. Voice kiosks are another route: the guest says the order at the counter.

Maple, which publishes this guide, writes phone orders into Toast through its Pro plan; see Maple's Toast integration. Its voice ordering kiosk is in early access with a small number of restaurants, is priced per unit, and has no public price.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast's own product pages, pricing page, press release and support articles with an original quote worksheet and pre-launch checklist. It does not report hands-on testing of Toast Kiosk, a Toast price, or any Toast customer result.