Toast pricing, from every source except Toast
Toast has more than four thousand pages on its website and does not print a processing rate on any of them. Its own fees page says it builds a custom rate for each restaurant. Here is everything that can be sourced, labelled and dated, from its investor filings down to its add-on price list.
Judd Alsup and the Equip Payment Solutions team, who install and support restaurant POS systems nationwide and sell Shift4 Dine and Clover.Updated August 9, 2026. Sources and dates cited on every figure.
The short answer
Toast pricing in one box, every figure sourced:
- Processing reported 2.49% to 3.69% plus 15c depending on plan and add-ons; Toast publishes none of it, and its investor filings show a 2.58% blended average across all its restaurants in 2025.
- Software $0 Starter Kit to a reported $69 per terminal, with add-ons reported at $25 to $100 a month each.
- The catch on the entry tier, adding modules raises the processing rate on every order, not just the new channel.
- Contract reported one to three years with termination fees reported from $1,000 to above $5,000.
The rest of this page is the case for each line, with sources.
The number Toast gave its shareholders
Toast collected $5.04 billion in financial technology revenue on $195.1 billion of gross payment volume in 2025. That works out to 2.58% across every restaurant on the platform. The prior year was 2.55% and the fourth quarter was 2.60%, so the figure is stable and reproducible from published totals.
Toast will not quote you a rate, but it tells its investors exactly what it collects on average. If a rep will not put your number in writing, this is the benchmark to hold the conversation to. Source: Toast Q4 and full year 2025 results, 12 February 2026.
What third parties report, cross checked
Starter Kit, 3.09% plus 15 cents
Merchant Maverick and Expert Market agree exactly. This is the entry tier with $0 software.
3.39% once you add online ordering or delivery
And critically, the higher rate then applies to all orders, not only the online ones. This is the detail that changes the math for most restaurants.
3.69% with gift cards, loyalty, marketing or catering
The same mechanism again. Each module you add raises the rate on every transaction you take.
2.49% plus 15 cents on the Point of Sale plan
Which carries reported software of about $69 per terminal per month. Card not present is reported at 3.5% plus 15 cents by three sources.
Contract, hardware and what is genuinely unknown
Reported contract length is one to three years, with sources disagreeing on what is typical. An early termination fee exists; POSUSA observes figures from $1,000 to $5,000 and above, which we report as an observation rather than a rate card.
Hardware figures conflict badly between sources and we are not going to average them into a tidy number. Merchant Maverick reports a handheld at $494 and a kitchen display at $674 plus $35 a month. POSUSA reports handhelds at $609 to $627 and terminals at $799 to $999. We could not find a setup fee published anywhere.
Toast processing is mandatory and hardware is locked to Toast approved devices, both stated on Toast's own pages.
The add-on meter, reported and double sourced
Online ordering and delivery integration, $75 a month each
Merchant Maverick and POSUSA print identical figures for both modules independently. On the entry tier, remember, these also move the processing rate.
Loyalty and gift cards, $50 a month each
Same two sources, same agreement. A room running ordering, delivery, loyalty and gift cards has added $250 a month before email marketing at another reported $75.
Hardware, where the sources refuse to agree
A handheld is $494 or $609 to $627 depending on who you read; a countertop is $719 or $799 to $999. We print both because averaging them would be inventing a number, and because the spread itself tells you hardware is a negotiation.
The negotiation lever nobody uses
Toast's advertised pricing applies to new single locations only, by its own footnote, which means everything is negotiable at scale. Bring a competing written quote and the 2.58% investor figure, and ask for your number in writing. The worst case is you learn how they respond to informed buyers.
Questions owners ask
Is Toast a bad system?
No, and we say that on a site that sells against it. Toast is genuinely strong on kitchen operations and on its restaurant specific tooling, and for some rooms it is the right answer. What we object to is that you cannot find out what it costs without entering a sales process. See where Toast beats what we sell.
Why does the rate go up when I add features?
Because on the Starter Kit tier the modules are priced through the processing rate rather than as a subscription. The practical effect is that adding online ordering raises the cost of every in person swipe too.
What should I actually expect to pay Toast per month?
Take the reported rate for your tier, multiply it against your card volume, add 15 cents per transaction, add the reported per terminal software, then add every module you will run at the reported figures above. That construction is exactly what the calculator does with three of the tiers, and it is the honest answer to a question Toast's own pages decline to compute.
Does Toast ever discount?
At volume and at competitive moments, reportedly yes, which is the entire logic of unpublished pricing: room to move for buyers who push and margin from buyers who do not. Multi location groups and high volume rooms have the most leverage, and any buyer has more leverage with a competing written quote in hand than without one.
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