Toast processing fees for a typical independent restaurant in 2026 run about 2.49% + 15¢ per in-person card payment and about 3.50% + 15¢ per keyed, online or QR payment, before any increase notices that hit your account. Toast does not publish a public rate card. It quotes custom pricing, and the figures above come from third-party reviews such as Merchant Insiders' 2026 Toast fee guide and NerdWallet's Toast vs Square comparison, which lists in-person rates of 2.49% to 3.69% plus 15¢.
The rate on your quote is only half the story. The other half is written into the Toast Merchant Agreement and the Payment Processing Terms: Toast can change processing rates with 30 days' written notice, QR payments bill at the keyed rate, and you lose the right to recover a processing error you do not report within 30 days. This guide covers all of it, with the primary sources linked.
How much does Toast charge per transaction?
Most restaurants pay a percentage plus 15¢ on every card payment, with a lower rate for tapped, dipped or swiped cards and a higher "keyed" rate for everything else. Toast's payment processing fees page says it builds "a custom rate specific to the characteristics of your restaurant," so treat any published number as a starting point, not your price.
| Transaction type | Commonly reported Toast rate | Where it shows on your statement |
|---|---|---|
| Card-present, paid software plan (swipe, dip, tap) | 2.49% + 15¢ | V/MC/D Swipe/Dip/Tap |
| Card-present, pay-as-you-go hardware plan | 3.09% + 15¢, up to 3.69% with add-ons | V/MC/D Swipe/Dip/Tap |
| Keyed, online ordering, phone, Toast Pay QR | 3.50% + 15¢ | V/MC/D Keyed |
| Amex, card-present | 3.29% + 15¢ (one owner's contract) | Amex Swipe/Dip/Tap |
| Amex, keyed | 3.89% + 15¢ (same owner) | Amex Keyed |
| Chargeback notification | $15 each, win or lose | Fees or adjustments |
Sources: Merchant Insiders and NerdWallet for plan rates; the Amex figures come from an owner of a four-year Toast account posting their contract rates in r/ToastPOS; the $15 chargeback fee is from Toast's Chargebacks FAQ.
Two things surprise owners. First, the 15¢ is charged on every transaction, so it hurts small tickets most. On a $40 check it adds 0.375 percentage points. On a $10 beer it adds 1.5 points. Second, the pay-as-you-go plan's higher rate applies to all your volume, not just the hardware, which is how a "free" terminal gets paid for many times over.
To see what you actually pay, Toast's support article on processing rates says to go to Reports, Payments, Processing statements in Toast Web and download the statement. Each rate you pay is listed in the Rate column. "Keyed rates indicate orders paid when a card was not present, such as online orders or Toast Pay," in Toast's words.
What is the Toast card-not-present rate, and why is it so much higher?
Toast's keyed rate is usually about a full percentage point above its card-present rate, while Visa's own interchange gap between the two is a tenth of a point. That difference is margin, not card-network cost.
Toast's explanation is that card-not-present payments "are higher than for card-present transactions due to the higher risk of fraud" (Toast). That is true of interchange in general. But look at Visa's published U.S. interchange schedule effective April 18, 2026:
| Visa consumer credit, restaurant category | Card-present ("Restaurant 2") | Card-not-present ("Restaurant 1") | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Rewards and base cards | 2.10% (min. $0.04) | 2.20% (min. $0.08) | 0.10 pts |
| Signature, Signature Preferred, Infinite | 2.60% (min. $0.04) | 2.70% (min. $0.08) | 0.10 pts |
| Typical Toast flat rate | 2.49% + 15¢ | 3.50% + 15¢ | 1.01 pts |
The same Visa schedule lists regulated debit (cards from banks over the Durbin threshold) at 0.05% + $0.21, plus a 1¢ fraud-prevention adjustment for eligible issuers under Regulation II. On a flat rate, you pay Toast the same 2.49% + 15¢ on that debit card as on a premium rewards card.
By the numbers
Worked example (hypothetical $40 ticket): Visa interchange on a regulated debit card is about $0.24 (0.05% of $40, plus $0.21, plus $0.01). Toast's 2.49% + 15¢ on the same $40 is $1.15. That is roughly $0.91 of spread on one debit tap, before card-brand network fees, which this sketch leaves out.
This is not a claim that Toast is overcharging you. Flat pricing is a product choice, and on premium cards and Amex Toast's spread is much thinner. It is a reason to know your card mix before you decide whether a flat rate is a good deal for you. We cover that math in how to negotiate Toast processing rates.
What does Toast charge for pay-at-table and QR payments?
Toast Pay, the QR code on your printed check, is billed at your keyed card-not-present rate on every payment. Toast's Get Started With Toast Pay page says it plainly: "All transactions through Toast Pay will be considered as Card Not Present rate, as outlined in your Toast Merchant Agreement." The same page adds "Transactions are charged at the Card Not Present rate, but no monthly fee exists."
The guest is sitting at your table. The card is in their phone. It still bills as keyed, because the payment is entered on a web page rather than read by your terminal.
An owner in r/ToastPOS who had negotiated a sub-2% card-present rate discovered their Toast Pay payments were running at about 3.5% + 15¢ and turned the feature off. Another owner in the same thread said that when they complained, Toast told them they had accepted the fee on a setup screen, which they said the Toast installer had clicked through on their behalf.
Toast's pitch for Toast Pay is real: its support page cites internal data showing guests tip 3.8 percentage points more and servers save 2.5 minutes per table. Whether that beats the rate gap is a math question.
Tip
Hypothetical: a restaurant moves $20,000 a month of table payments from terminal taps to Toast Pay. At a 1.01-point gap between 2.49% and 3.50%, that costs about $202 more per month, or $2,424 a year, in processing. Run your own numbers with the processing fee calculator before you print QR codes on every check.
Mobile Order and Pay, where guests order and pay from a table QR code, is a separate product. Reforming Retail published a 2021 Toast order form that processed those payments at the contracted card-not-present rate and added 0.5% on monthly volume above $14,000. That document is five years old, so ask for your current Mobile Order and Pay terms in writing.
Did Toast raise its processing fees? A verified timeline
Yes. Toast has raised processing rates on at least some accounts in September 2024 and again from March 2026, and a third round was reported in August 2026. Toast's increases go to cohorts of accounts, not every merchant at once, so your statement is the only reliable answer for your restaurant.
| Date | What changed | Size | Source and confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 1, 2022 | Processing increase, with an option to pass a 99¢ order fee to online guests | +0.15% | Merchant Cost Consulting. Conflicts with Toast's 2024 statement below. |
| May 7, 2024 | CEO on earnings call: "an ongoing cadence of small, steady changes in price" | n/a | Motley Fool transcript |
| Sept 2024 | Processing increase for "a limited number" of SMB customers | +0.05% to +0.23% | Payments Dive, confirmed by Toast |
| Oct 2025 | Software and services increases on some accounts | One owner reported 18% | r/ToastPOS owner post |
| Mar 1, 2026 | Processing increase on V/MC/D and Amex, swipe and keyed, plus software increases from March 20 | +0.10% | Owner-posted Toast notice |
| Aug 2026 | Proposed processing increase reported | +0.20% | Reforming Retail. Scope unconfirmed. |
A few notes on accuracy, because this topic is full of recycled numbers:
- The "0.30% in 2024" figure is not supported. Toast told Payments Dive the September 2024 change was between 0.05% and 0.23%, "less than a penny on a $1 purchase." Toast also said "for the past 12 years, we've never increased card processing rates for customers," which contradicts the 2022 report above. We list both and let you check your own statements.
- The March 2026 increase was not universal. The notice one owner posted read "This represents a fee increase of $0.10 per $100 in card sales," with an estimated $88 a month on their account, plus $78.50 a month in software increases. In a separate r/ToastPOS thread, commenters said it depended on the account, and one owner said Toast held their software pricing after they complained.
- Treat some Reddit posts with care. Several of the loudest "Toast raised rates again" posts in r/ToastPOS come from accounts that disclose they sell a competing POS. We cite owner posts and Toast documents, not sales reps.
What the Toast Merchant Agreement says about fee changes
Toast can change your card processing rates at any time during your contract with 30 days' written notice, and your software fees are locked only for the initial term. This is Section 6.2 of the Merchant Agreement (last updated September 10, 2025):
"Toast reserves the right to change (i) Card processing rates and other non-Software Fees at any time during the Term upon thirty (30) days' prior written notice to Merchant, and (ii) any Fees at the beginning of, or at any time during, a Renewal Term upon thirty (30) days' prior written notice to Merchant."
The same section gives you an exit, with strict timing. If you do not accept a change to card processing rates or the core POS subscription fee, you must give Toast written notice before the effective date that you are terminating. If you do, "the Early Termination Fee under Section 8.4 shall not apply (other than the processing fee for Software financing)." If you keep using the service after the effective date, you are "deemed to have accepted such change(s)."
| Contract term | What it says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Rate changes | 30 days' written notice, any time in the term | 6.2 |
| Fee-free exit | Written termination notice before the effective date | 6.2(b) |
| Early termination fee | Remaining software fees for the term, or $150 x months left on pay-as-you-go | 8.4 |
| Renewal | Auto-renews for 1-year terms; promos and special terms end at renewal | 8.1 |
| Non-renewal notice | At least 30 days' written notice before term ends | 8.1 |
| Processing errors | Report within 30 days or waive the right to the money | Payment Processing Terms |
That last row matters for anyone planning an audit. The Payment Processing Terms say: "Merchant's failure to notify Toast of a Payment processing error within thirty (30) days of when it first appears on Merchant's electronic transaction history will be deemed a waiver of any right to amounts owed to Merchant for such error." A 30-day clock is the reason to check statements monthly instead of annually. We walk through that monthly check in how to audit a Toast processing statement.
Watch out
This is not legal advice, and your signed order form can override the online terms. Read your own order form and the version of the Merchant Agreement in effect when your term started or renewed.
What you actually pay: effective rate, not headline rate
Your effective rate is total processing fees divided by total card volume, and on Toast it is usually well above the headline percentage. Here is a fully hypothetical month for a single full-service location:
| Line (hypothetical) | Volume | Transactions | Rate | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card-present | $85,000 | 2,125 | 2.49% + 15¢ | $2,435.25 |
| Keyed (online ordering, Toast Pay) | $15,000 | 375 | 3.50% + 15¢ | $581.25 |
| Chargeback notifications | n/a | 2 | $15 each | $30.00 |
| Total | $100,000 | 2,500 | $3,046.50 |
Effective rate: $3,046.50 divided by $100,000 = 3.05%, against a headline rate of 2.49%. The 15¢ fee alone is $375, or 0.375 points. Add the March 2026 increase and this restaurant pays another $100 a month, or $1,200 a year.
A restaurant owner in r/restaurantowners, quoted in a Sleft Payments roundup, put it this way: "Rarely do I see anybody actually under 2.5 percent of credit card sales. People say 1.8, but by the time you do the math, it's actually higher." Plug your own statement into the processing fee calculator to get your number.
For context on scale: Toast reported about 180,000 locations and $60.7 billion in gross payment volume for Q2 2026, with $1.57 billion of financial technology revenue in the quarter (Toast Q2 2026 results, SEC filing). That revenue works out to about 2.59% of payment volume. It includes interchange Toast passes through, so it is not Toast's margin, but it is a useful check against your own effective rate.
Surcharging and dual pricing on Toast
Toast offers automated credit card surcharging in eligible states, but you still pay your full processing rate on the gross amount and you cannot surcharge debit. Toast's surcharging FAQ says most merchants may surcharge up to 3%, "the maximum set by the card brands," and that "surcharging on debit and prepaid cards is prohibited for all U.S. merchants." Visa cut its surcharge cap to 3% effective April 15, 2023.
The catch owners report: enrolling can move you onto Toast's surcharge rate schedule. An owner in r/ToastPOS with a sub-2% negotiated rate asked about exactly that, and a multi-unit operator in the thread said Toast wanted their new locations to give up contracted rates to use it. Merchant Cost Consulting reported the surcharge program's rates from December 2024 as 2.91% + $0.10 on credit and 1.75% + $0.20 on debit. Toast's August 2026 product update also opened a waitlist for a dual pricing beta, per Toast's r/ToastPOS post.
Is Toast still worth it for processing?
For many restaurants, yes, but only if you watch the keyed share of your volume, respond to every rate notice inside its window, and renegotiate before renewal. Toast requires its own processing (Toast billing FAQ: "You must use Toast's processing services"), so the processing rate is really part of the price of the POS.
A short checklist for any Toast operator:
- Download 12 months of processing statements now. The Payment Processing Terms say Toast keeps bank account activity reporting for up to one year.
- Calculate your effective rate every month, not just your headline rate.
- Check your keyed share. If it jumped after you enabled Toast Pay or online ordering, price that choice.
- Calendar your renewal date and the 30-day non-renewal deadline before it.
- Treat any rate notice as a negotiation deadline. Your fee-free exit expires on the effective date.
- Flag errors within 30 days of when they appear, in writing.
If processing is only one of your leaks, the restaurant profit leak audit covers the rest, and if Toast is holding deposits, read what to do when a merchant processor holds your funds. For day-to-day matching of sales to deposits, see Toast sales vs bank deposits.