Toast pricing: what you'll really pay

The bottom line

Toast is a restaurant POS, and its price depends on one choice. Pay-as-you-Go costs 3.09% per card sale with no upfront hardware cost. Traditional costs 2.49% per card sale, but you buy the hardware and pay monthly for software.

On $10,000 a month in card sales, that gap is about $60 a month. Toast also locks you into its own hardware and doesn’t publish its online or keyed-in rates.

Toast fees at a glance

Visit Toast

Pricing model

mixed

Contract

Not published for restaurants; retail requires 12 months

Payouts

Not published

Payment type	Rate	Source
In person (card present)	2.49%	pos.toasttab.com

Monthly fees and plans

• Starter Kit: $0/month
• Point of Sale (restaurant): $69/month
• New restaurant POS + Payroll bundle: $69/month
• Build Your Own: price not published
• Point of Sale (retail): $90/month

Hardware

• Toast hardware (terminals, handhelds, kits): price not published

  Hardware discount, not the regular price: 60% off Toast hardware bought in your first order, applied once. Who: new US customers signing their first Toast order form: restaurants with fewer than 15 locations signing up through Toast's small and midsize business channels, or retail customers on a Toast Retail subscription with a minimum 12-month term. Ends: December 31, 2026. After: hardware at Toast's quoted price (not published). Offer terms

Checked October 19, 2026 on pos.toasttab.com. Prices change, so confirm with Toast before you sign.

The in-person rate in the table is Toast’s Traditional rate. Toast doesn’t say whether either rate carries a fixed fee per sale.

Who it’s for

• Restaurants. Toast says its payment processing is “built specifically for restaurants.”
• New restaurants short on cash. Pay-as-you-Go has no upfront hardware cost. Toast says the 3.09% “covers all costs, except for shipping and taxes,” and that you own the hardware from day one.
• Single-location spots with one or two terminals. That’s who Toast says the Starter Kit is for.

Who should skip it

• Owners who already have POS hardware. Toast runs only on approved Toast hardware.
• Restaurants with big online or phone order volume. Toast doesn’t publish those rates, so you can’t compare them before you talk to sales.
• Anyone who wants all the costs up front. Hardware and setup costs vary by package, and monthly prices are “starting at.”

The catch

Your hardware is locked to Toast. Toast says its services “may only be used on approved Toast hardware.”

The no-upfront option costs more every month. Pay-as-you-Go charges 3.09% on every sale, against 2.49% on Traditional.

Online and keyed-in rates aren’t published. Neither is any fixed per-sale fee.

Starting prices cover one terminal. Toast says “Additional charges apply for subsequent devices.”

Setup costs vary. Toast says upfront costs for hardware and implementation “vary depending on your specific hardware packages and installation needs.”

Toast isn’t the processor. Toast says it “is not a payment card processor, but it is a payment facilitator that partners with processors.”

Contract and payout terms aren’t published for restaurants. Retail customers sign up for at least 12 months, according to Toast’s hardware offer terms.

What it costs at your size

These are estimates. They use only the percentages Toast publishes for its Starter Kits. They leave out any fixed per-sale fee, since Toast doesn’t publish one.

Example: $10,000 a month in card sales.

• Pay-as-you-Go: 3.09% × $10,000 = $309 a month, with no upfront hardware cost
• Traditional: 2.49% × $10,000 = $249 a month, plus hardware up front and a monthly software fee

The difference is $60 a month, or $720 a year. At $30,000 a month, it’s $180 a month, or $2,160 a year.

So Traditional wins if the hardware and software you’d pay for cost less than that gap. Ask Toast to price both options for the same setup, then compare them in the fee calculator.

Leaving Toast

Already on Toast and thinking of switching? Here’s what decides the cost, from Toast’s own terms.

The processor goes with the POS. Toast says “You must use Toast’s processing services.” So you can’t move to a cheaper processor and keep Toast. Leaving one means leaving both.

Your term and exit fee. Toast’s hardware offer terms give retail customers a minimum 12-month term. Toast doesn’t publish a restaurant term or an early termination fee.

Money held back. Toast’s processing terms say it may delay payouts or hold a reserve to protect itself from losses.

Before you give notice, ask Toast in writing for three things: your term end date, any early termination fee, and when your last payout and any reserve will be released. Then price new hardware, and compare your options on our Toast alternatives page.

Compared with

• SpotOn: restaurant POS with a month-to-month Essentials plan at $55 a month per station and 2.45% + 15¢ in person. It also requires its own hardware.
• Clover: restaurant bundles at 2.3% + 10¢ in person, from $179 a month for 36 months or $175 for 48 months (depending on the offer Clover shows you). Watch the auto-extending subscription.
• TouchBistro: restaurant POS from $69 a month for software, or $119 with hardware. It works with other processors, but doesn’t publish its own card rates.
• Square: a $0 Free plan at 2.6% + 15¢ in person, or Plus at $49 a month per location at 2.5% + 15¢. Every rate is published and there’s no long-term contract.
• Lightspeed: Restaurant plans from $69 a month, for bigger rooms with many screens. It doesn’t publish a restaurant card rate.