Toast pricing: plans, card rates and one month worked out

Toast’s pricing page shows $0 and $69 a month, but its Starter Kit checkout has the full list. On Pay-as-you-Go you pay nothing for the kit or the software and 3.09% to 3.69% + 15¢ per card payment. On Traditional you pay $1,153 for the countertop kit, $69, $219 or $578 a month in software, and 2.49% + 15¢ in person, 3.50% + 15¢ online. A $40,000 month on Core, the cheapest pack with online ordering, costs about $1,560 to $1,600 either way.

What are Toast’s plans and prices?

These are the prices on Toast’s own pages on November 7, 2026.

Toast limits Starter Kit pricing to new customers and single locations. Online ordering, the Toast website, loyalty, email marketing and gift cards are all marked as add-ons on the pricing page’s chart, with no price shown.

What does the Starter Kit cost on each plan?

Toast’s Countertop Starter Kit checkout sells the kit in three feature packs. Core adds online ordering, delivery and the DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub integrations. Growth adds gift cards, loyalty, SMS and email marketing, websites, and catering and events.

You own the kit hardware on both plans; Toast says it is not a lease. The checkout notes a 2-year software agreement and says recurring charges start the day you go live.

Extra devices cost the same with either plan selected:

• An extra 14-inch Toast Flex terminal with counter stand: $749 + $50 a month.
• A Toast Go 3 handheld (Wi-Fi): $599 + $50 a month.
• A 14-inch kitchen screen: $749 + $35 a month. Our kitchen display system cost comparison prices the other KDS options.
• A receipt printer $329, a kitchen printer $339, a cash drawer $99.

You set up the kit and enter your menu yourself unless you pay Toast: $250 for it to build the menu, $250 for a virtual-led install, and $225 for first-day support.

What does a month on Toast cost?

Say a counter-service restaurant takes $40,000 a month in card payments, all at $25 a ticket: $30,000 at the register (1,200 payments) and $10,000 in online orders (400). We left out tax, tips and American Express.

Over the 2-year agreement, Core costs $38,304 on Pay-as-you-Go and $38,497 on Traditional with the kit. Growth costs $41,184 on Pay-as-you-Go and $47,113 on Traditional, so Pay-as-you-Go saves $5,929 there.

A restaurant with no online orders on Basic, $30,000 at the register, pays $1,107 a month on Pay-as-you-Go and $996 on Traditional. Over two years Traditional saves $1,511 after the kit.

When does Traditional pricing pay off?

The 15¢ per payment is the same on both plans, so only the percentages and the fixed costs decide it. With a quarter of sales online, as above:

Traditional charges 3.50% on online orders and American Express cards. On Basic and Core that is above the Pay-as-you-Go rate, so more of either pushes the break-even up. On Growth it is below 3.69%, so more of either brings the break-even down.

Do guests pay a Toast fee?

None of the Toast pages we read on November 7, 2026 lists a fee that Toast charges guests. Its online ordering page says “No commissions. No hidden fees.” In 2023 Toast added a 99¢ fee for guests on online orders of $10 or more and removed it days after it went nationwide.

You can pass card costs on yourself. Every Toast plan includes credit card surcharging. Toast Dual Pricing, for eligible new US customers only, shows guests in the store a card total and a cash total that is 4% lower by default, and Toast recommends raising menu prices 4% to help offset card costs. Our restaurant credit card processing guide compares Toast’s rates with Square, Clover, Stripe and Helcim.

How does Toast pricing compare?

Our Toast vs Square and Toast vs Clover comparisons put Toast’s rates next to the prices Square and Clover publish, on a counter-service month. For the delivery fees Toast charges per order, see the Toast online ordering cost breakdown.

Where Expresso fits

Expresso is not a POS, so it does not replace Toast. If you start on Toast’s Basic pack and want online ordering, moving to Core adds $150 a month on Traditional plus $410 in online card fees on the 400 orders above, or $560 in all. On Pay-as-you-Go the higher rate adds $90 on counter sales plus $399 online, or $489. These are Starter Kit prices for new customers; a restaurant already on Toast adds online ordering through the Digital Storefront add-on, which shows no price on the pages we read.

Expresso on the same 400 orders at $25 costs the restaurant $448 a month and guests $250. The restaurant pays 3.2% + 30¢ on the order total, and guests pay a 2.5% convenience fee on the food subtotal, shown at checkout. Counting the guest fee, the 400 orders cost $698 in all on Expresso, against $560 or $489 on Toast, and Expresso’s first month adds the $149 kitchen tablet. There is no monthly fee and no contract. Toast’s Core pack keeps online orders in the same system, adds delivery and lists no guest fee. Expresso costs the restaurant less, but guests pay the fee and orders arrive on a separate tablet. Expresso has no delivery and no loyalty program, only promo codes. Our comparison of online ordering systems prices the other options.