If you've ever tried to answer "what does Toast actually cost per month?" and ended up with eight tabs open, you're not alone. Toast prices like an enterprise SaaS — the headline number is small, the real number is 3–5x bigger, and most of it lives in line items you don't see until month two.
We've audited dozens of Toast contracts over the past year, including renewals, cancellations, and POS migrations. Here's what an independent restaurant actually pays in 2026, broken down by line item, with the traps that cost owners money at renewal.
1. Software tiers: the base plan
Toast sells three core software tiers. As of early 2026:
- Starter Kit: $0/month for the software (hardware sold separately). Requires Toast processing. Single terminal only.
- Point of Sale: $69/month per terminal. Adds online ordering, basic reporting, and branded website.
- Build Your Own: custom pricing starting around $165/month, scaling with modules.
The "free" Starter Kit is where a lot of independents land, and it's genuinely useful for a tight counter-service concept with one terminal. The catch: most growing restaurants add a second terminal within six months, and the moment they do, they're on a paid tier.
2. Add-on modules: the real cost center
This is where the monthly bill actually gets built. Each of these is a separate line item on your Toast invoice:
| Module | Typical monthly cost |
|---|---|
| Online ordering (branded) | Included in POS tier, but commission applies |
| Toast Delivery Services (TDS) | $49/month + per-delivery fee |
| Loyalty | $25–$50/month |
| Gift cards | $25/month + transaction fees |
| SMS marketing (Toast Marketing) | $75/month + per-message fees |
| Kiosk | $25/month per kiosk + hardware |
| Inventory (xtraCHEF) | $99–$249/month |
| Kitchen display system (KDS) | $25/month per display |
| Payroll + scheduling | $39/month base + $5–$8 per employee |
| Reporting Pro | $49/month |
A typical full-service independent restaurant using Toast ends up at somewhere between $350 and $650 per month in software fees alone — before counting payment processing, hardware, or the processing markup.
3. Payment processing: the biggest number no one asks about
Toast requires you to process payments through Toast Processing. Their published rate is "interchange-plus" but the plus is the interesting part. Typical Toast processing:
- Card-present: 2.49% + $0.15 per transaction (on a Standard plan)
- Card-not-present (online, phone): 3.50% + $0.15
On a restaurant doing $80,000/month in revenue with a 70/30 card-present/card-not-present split, that's roughly $2,100–$2,400 per month in processing fees. Which is more than the software, hardware, and add-on modules combined.
4. Hardware: buy, lease, or "free"
Toast offers three hardware paths:
- Buy outright: ~$1,600 per terminal (Toast Flex), $1,400 per handheld, $450 per KDS, $1,200–$2,500 per kiosk.
- Lease (36 or 60 months): $75–$150/month per terminal. Total cost over the lease typically exceeds the outright price by 40–80%.
- "Free" with 3-year commitment: no hardware upfront, but higher processing rates (usually +0.10–0.25%) to recoup hardware. On $80K/month volume, that's $80–$200/month extra, indefinitely.
The "free" hardware path is almost always the most expensive over 3–5 years. Do the math before signing.
5. Hidden fees that show up on month two
Toast is not unique in charging these — most enterprise POS vendors do the same thing — but restaurant owners consistently report being surprised by them:
- PCI compliance fee: $9.95/month, auto-enrolled unless you opt out and provide your own attestation.
- Statement fee: $5–$12/month for receiving paper statements (usually waivable).
- Batch fee: $0.10 per daily batch settlement.
- Chargeback fee: $15–$25 per dispute (even if you win).
- Early termination fee (ETF): typically $495 plus remaining contract value. Contracts are usually 3 years.
- Price increases mid-contract: Toast's contract generally permits annual price increases of up to 5–10%. Many owners renewing in 2026 are seeing 15%+ jumps vs. 2023 signed pricing.
6. The real all-in number
Here's what a typical 1-location, full-service independent restaurant with $80,000/month in revenue actually pays Toast in 2026:
| Line item | Monthly |
|---|---|
| Software (POS tier + 2 terminals) | $138 |
| Loyalty module | $50 |
| SMS marketing | $75 |
| Gift cards | $25 |
| KDS (2 displays) | $50 |
| Reporting Pro | $49 |
| Payroll (7 employees) | $74 |
| Hardware lease (3 terminals, 5 years) | $225 |
| Payment processing | ~$2,200 |
| PCI + statement fees | $15 |
| Total | ~$2,900/month |
That's roughly $34,800 per year, or 3.6% of revenue. On a restaurant with a 7% operating margin, Toast is eating half of every dollar of profit.
7. What to compare against
The point of this post isn't "Toast is bad." Toast is a capable platform, and for some multi-location operators it's genuinely worth the money. The point is: most restaurant owners don't see the full number until we add it up for them, and they should.
When comparing Toast to alternatives, the only honest comparison is all-in monthly cost at your actual volume, not the headline software fee. That means:
- Software + every module you need
- Processing at your actual card mix
- Hardware amortized over realistic useful life
- All the fees you just read about above
When you stack it that way, consolidated platforms that bundle the full stack — POS, online ordering, kiosk, SMS, loyalty, AI phone, payments — as one bill often come in substantially cheaper, because they're not stacking 10 module fees on top of a base software price.
If you want to see your specific numbers, our savings calculator runs the comparison based on your volume and card mix. It takes 90 seconds and doesn't require a sales call.
Bottom line
Toast is not the $69/month product it advertises. For a typical independent restaurant, the all-in number lands between $2,500 and $3,500/month, with half of that being processing fees. Before you renew, do the math — and make sure you're comparing against platforms that bundle the same functionality, not just the same software tier.