Square fees: what you'll really pay

The bottom line

On Square’s Free plan, every in-person card sale costs 2.6% + 15¢, and there’s no monthly fee. A month with $10,000 in card sales over 400 payments costs about $320. A month with no sales costs nothing.

The paid plans lower your rates, but they charge a monthly fee for each location. For most small shops, Free is the cheaper plan until sales get fairly high.

Square fees at a glance

Visit Square

Pricing model

flat

Contract

No contract

Payouts

Next business day free (payments before 5 PM PT); faster for a fee

Monthly cost to take cards

$0 (Free plan)

True cost: first year at $10,000/month in card sales (est.)

$3,899 (12 months of processing at 400 payments a month, plus the listed monthly cost, plus the Square Reader for contactless and chip at $59)

Payment type	Rate	Source
In person (card present)	2.6% + 15¢	squareup.com
Online	3.3% + 30¢	squareup.com
Keyed in	3.5% + 15¢	squareup.com
ACH	1%	squareup.com

Monthly fees and plans

• Square Free: $0/month
• Square Plus: $49/month
• Square Premium: $149/month
• Square KDS app (add-on): $30/month
• Square Kiosk app (add-on): $99/month

Checked October 19, 2026 on squareup.com. Prices change, so confirm with Square before you sign.

The rates in the table are for Square Free. Here is how the three plans compare, as listed on Square’s pricing page:

Plan	Monthly fee	In person	Online
Square Free	$0	2.6% + 15¢	3.3% + 30¢
Square Plus	$49 per location	2.5% + 15¢	2.9% + 30¢
Square Premium	$149 per location	2.4% + 15¢	2.9% + 30¢

Typed-in and card-on-file payments are 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan.

Who it’s for

• New and seasonal businesses. Square Free is $0 a month, so a slow month doesn’t cost you a fee.
• Owners who want to try it cheaply. Square lists its contactless and chip reader at $59.
• Anyone who wants no contract. Square says there are “no hidden fees or locked-in contracts” and you can cancel or switch anytime.
• Shops that want their money fast. Square says payments taken before 5 PM PT land the next business day, free.

Who should skip it

• Businesses that type in a lot of cards. Phone orders and saved cards cost 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan.
• Shops with lots of small sales. The 15¢ per sale adds up. On a $5 coffee, it’s 3% of the sale before the 2.6%.
• Owners with several locations on a paid plan. Plus and Premium are charged per location, so three stores on Plus cost $147 a month in plan fees.
• Larger, steady businesses. At high volume, an interchange-plus provider may cost less. Compare your own statement before you assume a flat rate is cheaper.

The catch

The free plan has the highest rates. Free costs 2.6% + 15¢ in person and 3.3% + 30¢ online. Plus and Premium are lower, but you pay a monthly fee per location to get them.

Online sales cost a lot more on Free. At 3.3% + 30¢, a $40 online order costs $1.62 in fees.

Fast cash costs extra. Instant and same-day transfers cost 1.95% of the amount you move.

Refunds don’t return the fee. Square says the processing fee on a refunded payment isn’t refunded to you.

Invoice bank payments have no cap on Free. Square lists ACH invoice payments at 1% with a $1 minimum. Plus and Premium show a $10 fee cap. Free shows no cap.

Add-ons cost more. Square lists its KDS app at $30 a month per device on Plus and Square Kiosk at $99 a month per device on Plus.

What it costs at your size

These are estimates. They use Square’s published rates and assume every payment is a card tapped, dipped or swiped in person at one location.

Example 1: Square Free, $10,000 a month in person, 400 payments.

• Rate: 2.6% × $10,000 = $260
• Per-sale fee: 400 × 15¢ = $60
• Monthly fee: $0
• Estimated total: $320 a month, an effective rate of 3.2%

Example 2: the same month on Square Plus.

• Rate: 2.5% × $10,000 = $250
• Per-sale fee: 400 × 15¢ = $60
• Monthly fee: $49
• Estimated total: $359 a month, $39 more than Free

Plus only pays off when its lower rate saves more than $49. The in-person rate is 0.1% lower, so you’d need about $49,000 a month in in-person card sales at one location to break even. The online rate is 0.4% lower, so about $12,250 a month in online sales would do it.

Want to check your own month? Try the Square fee calculator, or compare providers side by side in the fee calculator.

Compared with

• PayPal POS: 2.29% + 9¢ per in-person card sale with a free POS app and no monthly fee. Watch its chargeback fees and its terms that let it raise rates.
• Helcim: interchange-plus with a published markup of 0.40% + 8¢ in person, no monthly fee and no contract. Your total changes with the cards your customers use.