Toast vs Square (2026): Cost to Get In and Cost to Get Out

3 November 2026 · 10 min read · SwitchYourPOS is published by KwickPOS, a restaurant POS company. Neither Toast nor Square is affiliated with this page.

Most Toast vs Square reviews compare features: menus, kitchen screens, online ordering. Those matter, and both systems handle a working restaurant. But the decision that costs owners the most money is rarely a missing feature. It's the price they didn't model and the contract they didn't read. This page compares the two on that: what it costs to get in, what it costs every month, and what it costs to get out, using each company's own published pages and agreement.

Getting in: what each one publishes

Sources: Toast pricing, Square for Restaurants pricing, Square fees, checked 3 November 2026.

Every month: the number to compare is the effective rate

A subscription price is the small number. Card processing is the big one. For a restaurant taking $40,000 a month in cards at an average ticket of $40 (1,000 transactions), Square Plus works out like this:

• Card fees: 2.5% × $40,000 + 15¢ × 1,000 = $1,000 + $150 = $1,150
• Software: $49
• Total: $1,199 a month, an effective rate of about 3.0% of card sales

Toast's side can't be filled in from public pages, because its card rate is quoted per restaurant. That's not a reason to rule it out; it's a reason to get the quote in writing, with every per-transaction and monthly fee, and run the same sum. Our sister site's effective rate calculator does it in a minute. Compare totals, not headline rates.

Getting out: what Toast's agreement says

Toast's merchant agreement (last updated September 10, 2025) is public. The parts that decide what leaving costs:

• Automatic renewal. After the initial term in your order, the agreement "shall automatically renew for successive one (1) year periods".
• Notice. Either party can stop renewal "by providing at least thirty (30) days' written notice of its intent not to renew prior to the end of the then-current Term."
• Early termination fee. Leaving early costs "the remaining Fees for Software Subscription Fees that would have otherwise been due for the remainder of the then-current Term", or for a Pay-as-you-go subscription "$150.00 multiplied by the number of months remaining".
• Price changes. Software fees stay fixed in the initial term, but Toast can change "Card processing rates and other non-Software Fees at any time during the Term" with 30 days' written notice. To refuse a card-rate change, you give written notice that you are terminating before it takes effect; keep using the service and you're deemed to accept it.
• Pay-as-you-go minimums. These subscriptions "may be subject to an inactivity Fee" if you don't meet card processing minimums.

Worked example: leaving early

Take a restaurant on a 24-month Toast order that wants to leave after month 8, with 16 months left. (Your order sets your real term and fees; these numbers only show the arithmetic.)

On Square, the same restaurant on Plus can cancel the plan. What it keeps paying for is nothing; what it has to replace is its card processing, because Square processing comes with Square POS.

Getting out: your data

A switch also needs your menu, customers and gift-card balances in a form the next system can import. As of our last check (1 October 2026):

• Toast exports items and orders as CSV, emails a guest report as a CSV link that "expires after 72 hours", and exports gift cards with "every active gift card with its Card Number and Current Balance" (export reference, guest report, gift card reports).
• Square exports the item library ("Actions > Export Library") and reports as CSV, but says "You cannot print or export cash drawer reports at this time"; its help pages show gift-card balances without an export step (export library, reports).

Export everything before you give notice, while your account is fully open.

Which one fits

• Choose Square if you're a counter-service shop, café or new restaurant that wants published prices, no term, and a free plan to start on.
• Choose Toast if you're a full-service restaurant that wants a restaurant-focused system on dedicated hardware and you're comfortable signing a term: get the card-rate quote and the order's term and fees in writing first.
• Look further if you want to keep your own card processor or agent. Neither lets you: Toast describes itself as "a payment facilitator that partners with processors", and Square processes its own payments.

For Clover alongside these two, see the Toast vs Square vs Clover comparison on our Restaurant POS Guide.

Before you sign either

1. Get every fee in writing: software per terminal and per module, card rates for in-person, online and keyed, hardware, and any monthly minimums.
2. Run the effective rate on three months of your real card volume.
3. Ask for the term, the renewal date and how notice must be sent.
4. Ask what leaving costs at month 6, 12 and 18.
5. Export a sample of menu, customer and gift-card data during the trial or demo.

KwickPOS works with your choice of card processor and is sold through local partners; if you want a third quote to compare, find a KwickPOS reseller and ask for the same list in writing.

Sources

• Toast: pricing and Merchant Agreement (last updated September 10, 2025)
• Square for Restaurants: pricing; What are Square's fees?
• Data export: Toast, Square

Prices and terms checked 3 November 2026 (data export 1 October 2026). Vendors change prices and terms; confirm before you sign. Not legal advice.