Toast pricing: plans, processing and the real monthly total

No monthly software fee. Katalyst describes it as US$0 with a processing markup: you pay for the software through a reported 3.09% + US$0.15 on every in person sale instead of through a bill.^[2][4]

Reported at US$69 a month by Katalyst and UpMenu, with the in person rate falling to 2.49% + US$0.15 when the hardware is bought upfront. That trade is the heart of the break-even below.^[2][3][4]

Build Your Own is priced by quote, and UpMenu reports custom quotes for multi location groups.^[2][3] With no public price to anchor on, a group should ask for the plan fee, the card rate for each card type and the term in a single written quote.

The two reported in person rates differ by 0.60 of a point, or US$60 on every US$10,000 of card sales. The US$0.15 per payment is the same on both plans, so it never changes which one is cheaper.^[4]

Reported at 3.50% + US$0.15, about a point above the Point of Sale in person rate. If you key in phone orders or sell a lot online, model this rate on that share of sales rather than averaging it in.^[4]

In practice, yes. Toast's 2025 annual report says that, apart from a small subset of customers, businesses cannot subscribe to the platform without also using Toast's payment processing.^[5] That is why the card rate, not the plan fee, decides most of what you pay over a contract: in the worked month below, processing is about 96% of the Point of Sale total.

KORONA POS, citing NerdWallet, reports starter hardware kits at US$1,113 to US$1,454 and the Toast Go 3 handheld at US$599, and notes that Toast does not publish device prices.^[4] Toast's annual report lists Easy Pay hardware leasing among its financial products.^[5] The Go 3 is built for service: drop resistant to 1.5 metres and rated IP65.^[14]

Katalyst lists these four add-ons. Taken together at one location they come to US$200 a month, nearly three times the Point of Sale plan fee.^[2] Toast Tables, the reservations and waitlist module, has two tiers: up to 25 reservations a month, or unlimited on Toast Tables Plus. Its help page lists no prices, and it does not run on Toast Flex or Toast Go devices.^[12]

Yes, Toast charges for assisted onboarding and publishes the fees. In the US an on site day costs US$1,000 and a remote day US$800. Work outside standard hours is US$500 a day per resource, cable termination US$50 each, and a late cancellation US$300 a day per resource. Self service onboarding is also offered.^[8]

Toast Delivery Services uses Uber Direct and DoorDash Drive drivers. In the US, fees per order start at US$6.99 through Uber Direct and US$7.49 through DoorDash Drive, with regulatory fees in California, New York City and Seattle and an automatic US$3.99 delivery service charge. DoorDash and Uber Eats marketplace listings are set up separately.^[9]

Charging a meal to a hotel room needs a separate Hotel PMS Integration subscription bought in Toast Shop, and its price is not shown. Toast names 12 PMS systems, including Opera Cloud, Mews, Cloudbeds and Stayntouch, and room charge does not work offline.^[10] Other partner integrations connect in Toast Web; Toast says some are free and some carry a fee.^[11]

At US$60,000 the Point of Sale plan is US$69, plus 2.49% of US$60,000 (US$1,494), plus 1,500 payments at US$0.15 (US$225): US$1,788. The Starter Kit plan is 3.09% of US$60,000 (US$1,854) plus the same US$225: US$2,079. Processing is US$1,719 of the US$1,788, about 96%.^[4][2]

The Point of Sale plan costs US$69 more a month and saves 0.60 of a point on each in person sale. 69 divided by 0.006 is 11,500, so on fees alone the two plans cost the same at US$11,500 of monthly card sales, and above that the Point of Sale plan is cheaper.^[4][2]

The lower rate is reported with hardware bought upfront, though. Spread a US$1,113 to US$1,454 kit over 36 months, the longest standard term, and the plan carries US$30.92 to US$40.39 more each month. The line then moves to about US$16,650 to US$18,230 of monthly card sales.^[4][5]

Before processing, the Point of Sale plan's first year is US$828 of plan fees, US$800 of onboarding and US$1,113 to US$1,454 of hardware: US$2,741 to US$3,082. With US$20,628 of card fees at this volume, the year comes to US$23,369 to US$23,710, against at least US$25,748 on the Starter Kit.^[2][4][8] Benvo's column leaves out card fees, which are the largest cost on any system at this volume.^[25]

The estimator below reads the plan cards at the top of this page. Enter your monthly card sales and it applies the reported in person rates; add US$0.15 for each card payment you take.^[4]

Square for Restaurants publishes Free at US$0, Plus at US$49 and Premium at US$149 per location a month, with in person rates of 2.6%, 2.5% and 2.4% + 15 cents. Plus and Premium come with a 30 day free trial and can be cancelled or switched anytime.^[15] At US$60,000 Square Free is US$1,785; at US$120,000 Premium becomes the cheapest Square plan at US$3,479, against US$3,507 on Toast's Point of Sale plan as reported.^[15][4][2]

SpotOn POS Essentials is US$55 per station a month, month to month, at 2.45% + US$0.15 in person (Amex 3.19% + US$0.15). With two stations at our volume that is US$110 + US$1,470 + US$225 = US$1,805, before implementation costs that SpotOn does not publish.^[16] All-In has no monthly fee and includes hardware, but charges 2.79% + US$0.20, which comes to US$1,974 here, with a processing minimum and a two year term. SpotOn does not let venues use their own hardware or tablets.^[16]

Lightspeed Restaurant lists US plans at US$69, US$189 and US$399 a month and does not publish card rates, setup fees or contract length, so Essential can only be shown as at least US$189.^[17] Lightspeed Payments is generally required for eligible customers, and existing third-party terminals cannot be used with it.^[18][19] More on Lightspeed POS pricing and Toast vs Lightspeed.

Lightspeed also publishes a US transaction fee table: US$400 a month for US$35,000 to US$99,999 of monthly volume, which covers our example. The table does not say when the fee applies; a February 2025 third-party review of the UK product describes it as the fee for using a non integrated processor.^[21][22]

Benvo POS is US$379 per venue a month and needs Menus and beverage list at US$69, so US$448, billed in US dollars, with no setup fee and a 14 day trial per module. Loyalty is US$149, and POS Connect, for venues that keep another till, is US$59.^[24] Each venue chooses KPay, Adyen or Stripe for card payments in person and online, Benvo shows the pros and cons of each, and a paid custom option connects another provider with a compatible API. Card fees are billed by that processor and Benvo adds nothing on top. That makes the month at least US$448 plus your processor's rate, so we do not claim Benvo is cheaper on processing.^[25]

Benvo sells no hardware: the POS runs on iPads and phones you own, and kitchen and receipt printers connect through a print bridge on the venue network. It is built for clubs, hotel outlets and groups, with member recognition at the table, charges to a member account and group comparison reports. From the third venue, each venue saves 10%, and from the fifth, 20%.^[25][24] See the hotel POS system, the bar POS system and Benvo pricing.

At US$60,000 of card sales a month, every tenth of a point is worth US$60 a month, or US$720 a year. A 0.10 point cut is worth almost as much as the whole reported US$69 plan fee.^[2] Ask for the rate on each card type in writing, including Amex, keyed and online payments, because Toast does not publish them.^[4]

Katalyst reports Mobile Order and Pay at US$25 per location; ask whether the other add-ons are priced the same way.^[2] If all four were charged per location, the US$200 a month at one site would become US$1,000 across five. Add the Toast Tables tier, the Hotel PMS subscription and any paid partner integrations before comparing totals.^[12][10][11]

With terms of 12 to 36 months, the cheapest moment to change anything is the run-up to the end date.^[5] Put a reminder in the calendar 90 days ahead, which leaves time to pull a year of card reports, ask for a better rate and price other systems before the notice window closes.