Toast POS review for restaurants

Shortlist Toast if you run a busy restaurant and want restaurant-built hardware, handhelds with cellular, kitchen screens and 24/7 support from one company. Before you sign, know two things: Toast quotes your Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate and your hardware, and its merchant agreement charges the software fees left in your term if you leave early.

Below: what Toast's own pages say it does well, what it prints on price, the terms you agree to, the outage limits in its help center, and a test list for your demo. Prices are for the United States. For every fee and a worked month, see our Toast POS pricing guide.

Toast option	What Toast prints	What it is for	Start here if
Starter Kit	Starter Kit: starting at $0/month, 1 location, up to 2 terminals	A hardware kit with no upfront cost and cloud POS software	You open one small location and want to start without buying hardware
Point of Sale plan	Point of Sale: starting at $69/month, with flat-rate processing	Core POS software; you choose the hardware	You want core features and your own device mix
Build Your Own	Custom pricing	Adds modules such as payroll, inventory, scheduling and marketing	You want the wider Toast platform in one quote
Toast Go 3 handheld	Price not on the product page	6.52-inch handheld, IP65, 5-foot drop rating, 4G cellular on applicable models	Servers work patios, rooftops, curbside or events
Toast Flex 3	Price not on the product page	14-inch terminal that runs as a POS, kitchen screen or kiosk	You want counter, kitchen and kiosk on the same hardware

What does Toast do well for restaurants?

Toast builds its own hardware for kitchens and dining rooms. The Toast Go 3 page lists an IP65 rating against dust and water, a 5-foot drop rating, a battery rated for 24+ hours, and 4G cellular for applicable models. Toast picks the cellular carrier by the strongest signal where the device sits. The Toast Flex page says the 14-inch Flex 3 is tested against spills and heat up to 120°F, and has USB failover printing to keep receipts and tickets coming during short connection drops.

The Toast KDS page shows dine-in, takeout, delivery and curbside orders on one screen. It highlights allergens and prep notes, reports prep times, recalls finished tickets, and can text guests or alert a server's handheld when an order is ready.

For orders from outside, Toast's online ordering page says "No commissions. No hidden fees." It lists flat-fee delivery through Toast Delivery Services, Order with Google, and integrations with DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub.

Toast's pricing page says offline mode lets you keep placing orders, printing tickets and receipts, and taking cards until the connection returns. The same page says Toast Care support is included in every software subscription, 24/7/365, by phone or web messaging.

What does Toast cost?

Toast prints three plans: Starter Kit starting at $0/month, Point of Sale starting at $69/month, and Build Your Own at custom pricing. A POS and payroll bundle for new restaurants starts at $69/month + $9 per employee/month. Footnotes say the prices apply to new customers and single locations only, and include the first hardware terminal subscription.

Toast does not print its Visa, Mastercard or Discover rate. Its starter kit page prints American Express at 3.29% + 15¢ card-present and 3.89% + 15¢ card-not-present, with custom pricing above $500k a year. A card read out over the phone and typed in counts as card-not-present. Upfront costs are hardware and implementation, with 0% interest financing by application.

Our pricing guide covers add-ons, Easy Pay, instant deposits and how to read a Toast statement. To compare Toast's total with other systems over three years, see what a restaurant POS costs.

What contract do you sign?

Toast's merchant agreement, last updated September 10, 2025, sets these terms:

1. Term: your order sets the initial term. It starts on the contract start date or your go-live date, whichever comes first.
2. Renewal: the agreement renews for one-year periods unless either side gives 30 days' written notice before the term ends. Earlier promotions end at renewal.
3. Price changes: software fees stay fixed during the initial term. Card rates and other non-software fees can change on 30 days' written notice. If Toast raises your card rate or core POS fee, you can end the agreement before the change without the early termination fee.
4. Leaving early: you owe the software subscription fees left in the term, or $150 for each month left on a Pay-as-you-go subscription.
5. Toast leaving: Toast can end the agreement for any reason on 90 days' written notice.
6. Your data: ask within 30 days of termination to pull your data. After that, Toast may delete it.

Two hardware rules sit outside the agreement. The pricing FAQ says Toast works only on devices Toast approves. Toast's Product Lifetime Policy supports Toast hardware for three years after its warranty ends. After those three years, the device may no longer get new features or software, firmware, security and bug fix updates, and Toast recommends an upgrade.

What does Toast's help center say about outages?

Toast's guide to preparing for offline mode lists the setup and risks:

1. Offline mode starts on its own. After about 40 seconds offline, each device shows a banner.
2. Background card processing is on by default. You can only change it while fully online. You can set a limit per offline payment; a manager must override anything above it.
3. You are responsible for declined, expired or disputed payments taken offline. Card authorizations can expire as early as 24 hours after the sale in some cases.
4. Toast advises against writing down card numbers to key in later. If you must, you need the CVV and have to protect the data for PCI compliance.
5. Toast recommends 15 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload, one connection type per terminal, and a cellular backup.
6. A kiosk keeps sending tickets to the KDS offline only if both sit on the same network.

Toast's network requirements add that handhelds need a wireless access point, and that Toast Flex terminals, printers and the Toast Contactless Puck Reader need Ethernet. A Toast Go 3 with Wi-Fi and cellular uses Wi-Fi first when both are on.

What should you test in a Toast demo?

1. Get your Visa, Mastercard and Discover rate in writing, for a tapped card and a typed-in card.
2. Ask how long the initial term in your order runs, and what you would owe if you left in month 12.
3. Take a Toast Go 3 to your farthest table or patio. Turn off Wi-Fi and fire an order over cellular. Check your quote lists the cellular model.
4. Unplug the router. Ring an order, print a kitchen ticket, and take a card under and over your offline limit. Reconnect and find both payments in reports.
5. Send an online order and a delivery app order. Check each reaches the KDS with its modifiers and allergy notes.
6. Ask how long each device's warranty runs, since the three-year update window starts when it ends.
7. Get a written monthly total: plan, each device, add-ons, card rate, term and exit fee.

If you take phone orders, Maple Pro lists Toast among the POS systems it writes phone orders into. The Toast integration page lists what to test with your own menu.

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted review combines Toast's own US pricing, hardware, product, agreement and help-center pages with an original option table and demo checklist. It does not use third-party review scores, report a quote from Toast, or claim anyone tested Toast hardware.