QR code ordering: what it costs a restaurant in 2026

QR code ordering lets guests scan a code at the table, order and pay on their own phone, and sends the order to your kitchen with the table number. Most systems lock it behind a paid plan: Square needs Plus at $49 a month, ChowNow needs Grow at $319, and Toast sells it as an add-on it does not price. Clover includes it but needs Clover hardware. On 600 table orders a month at $40, the published options cost $791 to $1,201 a month.

How does QR code ordering work?

You print a code for each table, window or parking spot. A guest scans it with a phone camera, which opens your menu in the browser with no app to install. They pick items and pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The order prints or rings in the kitchen with the table attached, and your staff run the food instead of taking the order.

The systems handle tabs and tips differently. Toast lets servers and guests start and add to the same tab. Square combines orders from the same table into a single ticket. Clover can give the tips on a Scan to Order check to the server who printed the QR code.

Which plan includes QR ordering?

These are the plans and rates on each company’s own site on October 19, 2026.

Square’s support article lists QR code ordering for Square Plus and Premium subscribers only, and its restaurant pricing chart shows a dash for it under Free. A Square restaurant can add an optional service fee to QR orders and keep it, less processing.

Toast’s pricing chart marks Mobile Order & Pay as “available with add-on; additional fees may apply” on its paid plans and leaves the Starter Kit column empty. The product page sends you to a demo for the price.

Clover’s Scan to Order page says there are no extra fees for it. It does not work on the Payments Plus, Register or Register Lite plans, and Clover does not say which card rate applies when a guest pays from a phone.

ChowNow’s blog says its QR ordering adds no cost for the guest.

What does a month of table orders cost?

Say a restaurant takes 600 QR orders a month at $40 of food each, or $24,000, and compare before tax and tip. We used the online card rate where one is published and both of Clover’s rates where it is not.

At 200 orders a month the ranking changes: Square Plus is $341, Clover $383 to $479, ChowNow Grow $613 and Expresso $322, with $200 in guest fees. Square Plus costs the restaurant less than Expresso above about 322 orders a month at $40. Below that, Square’s $49 fee is the bigger cost.

Clover’s $179 pays for a full POS station, cash drawer and printer, not only QR ordering. If you were buying that POS anyway, the QR orders cost you only the card processing.

Which one fits your restaurant?

• You already run Square Plus or Premium. Turn on QR ordering in Square Online. It costs nothing more than the online card rate, and orders go straight to your POS and kitchen printers.
• You run Square Free. QR ordering means moving to Plus at $49 a month. Below about 322 table orders a month at $40, Expresso costs you less than that move. Plus also lowers your other Square card rates (online 3.3% to 2.9%, in person 2.6% to 2.5%), so count those savings against the $49.
• You run Toast. Mobile Order & Pay lets guests add to an open Toast tab. Ask for the add-on price and the online card rate before you sign, since neither is published.
• You are choosing a POS now and want table ordering included. Clover’s Restaurant Growth bundles include Scan to Order, at $179 a month for 36 months for Starter, or $1,799 up front plus $89.95 a month.
• You want email and text marketing in the same bill as QR ordering. ChowNow Grow adds marketing tools to it, from $319 a month.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso takes table and online orders for an independent restaurant and runs beside whatever POS you have, including none. Print a QR code for each table and orders come in with the table number, ringing on Expresso’s kitchen tablet ($149 once), with tickets on a Star Micronics printer if you add one.

There is no monthly fee and no contract. Card processing is 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total, and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal, shown at checkout. Expresso is not a POS: it does not ring up counter sales or take cash, and each table order is paid when it is placed, with no open tab.

If you run Square on Plus or Premium, its own QR ordering is cheaper at volume and lands in your POS, so start there. If you run Square Free, Toast, Clover’s Register plans or no POS, Expresso adds table ordering with no monthly fee. The same rates apply to pickup and curbside; our comparison of online ordering systems prices those, and how restaurant service fees are taxed covers adding a fee of your own to table orders.