Guide
Toast online ordering fees and pricing, explained
Toast is one of the best known restaurant POS and online ordering systems, but its pricing has several moving parts that make the true cost hard to see at a glance. This guide breaks down where Toast makes its money, software, payment processing, hardware, and online ordering, so you can compare it honestly to a flat low-fee option.
By Town · Reviewed July 2026 · ~10 min read
How Toast's pricing is structured
Toast is a full point-of-sale platform, so its cost is not a single number. It is a bundle of separate charges that add up differently for every restaurant. Broadly, you are paying in four places at once, and each one is priced on its own terms.
- Software subscription, a monthly per-location and often per-terminal SaaS fee for the POS and its modules.
- Payment processing, a percentage plus a few cents on every card transaction, which is where a large share of the real cost lives.
- Hardware, the terminals, handhelds, printers, and kitchen displays, paid up front or financed.
- Online ordering and add-ons, digital ordering, delivery, loyalty, email marketing, and similar modules, each with its own fee.
Verify before you sign
The figures here are typical structures, not a quote. Toast sets and updates its own rates, bundles change, and processing is often negotiated. Always confirm current pricing on Toast's site and in your own proposal before deciding.
Where online ordering fits in
Toast's online ordering is a module on top of the POS. Depending on the plan you choose, it can carry its own monthly fee, and orders still run through Toast's payment processing. That is the part owners often miss: even a "commission-free" ordering module is not free, because the processing percentage applies to every online order the same way it applies in-house.
The real monthly math
To understand your true cost, add the pieces for a normal month: the software subscription, plus processing on your total card volume, plus the monthly cost of any modules, plus the amortized hardware. For a small restaurant, the processing line alone often dwarfs the subscription. That is why comparing platforms on the monthly software fee alone is misleading, the transaction percentage is where the money moves.
When Toast makes sense, and when it does not
Toast is a strong fit for larger operations that need deep POS features, extensive hardware, and are comfortable managing a bundled platform. For an independent focused mainly on taking more direct online orders without a heavy hardware footprint, the all-in cost can be higher than expected, and the online ordering is only one part of a system you may not fully use.
A flat, low-fee alternative for direct orders
If your goal is your own branded ordering, a website you control, and delivery on real driver networks without a large bundled POS, Town is built for exactly that. It is a 0% commission $300/mo, with delivery dispatched on the same DoorDash Drive and Uber Direct drivers, and no per-terminal software tax. See Town vs ChowNow and Online Ordering for how the direct-ordering model compares.
Key takeaways
- Toast pricing has four parts: software subscription, payment processing, hardware, and add-on modules.
- Even commission-free online ordering still runs through Toast's payment processing on every order.
- The processing percentage, not the monthly software fee, is usually the biggest real cost.
- Toast fits larger, hardware-heavy operations; lighter independents often overpay for unused modules.
- For direct online orders, a flat low per-order fee can be simpler and cheaper.