We believe everyone should be able to make financial decisions with confidence. And while our site doesn’t feature every company or financial product available on the market, we’re proud that the guidance we offer, the information we provide and the tools we create are objective, independent, straightforward — and free.
So how do we make money? Our partners compensate us. This may influence which products we review and write about (and where those products appear on the site), but it in no way affects our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Here is a list of our partners.
Square Fees: Calculator and Pricing for 2024
Square fees range from 2.6% plus 10 cents for in-person transactions to 2.9% plus 30 cents for online ones.
Many, or all, of the products featured on this page are from our advertising partners who compensate us when you take certain actions on our website or click to take an action on their website. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
Updated · 5 min read
How is this page expert verified?
NerdWallet's content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. It undergoes a thorough review process involving writers and editors to ensure the information is as clear and complete as possible.
Hillary Crawford is a small-business writer at NerdWallet, with a special focus on business software products. Her previous roles include news writer and associate West Coast editor at Bustle Digital Group, where she helped shape news and tech coverage. Her work has appeared in The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Yahoo Finance and Entrepreneur, in addition to other publications. She is based in Traverse City, Michigan.
Ryan Lane Assigning Editor | Small business, student loans
Ryan Lane is an editor on NerdWallet’s small-business team. He joined NerdWallet in 2019 as a student loans writer, serving as an authority on that topic after spending more than a decade at student loan guarantor American Student Assistance. In that role, Ryan co-authored the Student Loan Ranger blog in partnership with U.S. News & World Report, as well as wrote and edited content about education financing and financial literacy for multiple online properties, e-courses and more. Ryan also previously oversaw the production of life science journals as a managing editor for publisher Cell Press. Ryan is located in Rochester, New York.
Kurt Woock started writing for NerdWallet in 2021. Prior to joining NerdWallet, Kurt was a writer and educator for Colorado PERA, a retirement system for public employees. Before that he was a legislative editor for the Colorado General Assembly. Kurt has a B.A. in music from Valparaiso University and an M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He lives in Detroit.
Square’s fees include payment processing costs, monthly software fees and hardware costs. Its payment processing fees follow a flat-rate pricing model and range from 2.6% plus 10 cents for in-person card transactions to 2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions.
In terms of software offerings, Square has both free and paid options, as well as a variety of paid add-ons. Businesses receive a free mobile card reader, but additional hardware costs anywhere from $59 to $799 depending on your setup.
Here’s a rundown of Square’s fees and plan offerings, along with a calculator for estimating your payment processing costs with the provider.
Advertisement
Featured card placement may be affected by compensation agreements with our partners, but these partnerships in no way affect our recommendations or advice, which are grounded in thousands of hours of research. Our partners cannot pay us to guarantee favorable reviews of their products or services. Here is a list of our partners.
Square fees usually fall into one of three categories: per-use fees for payment processing, a monthly subscription cost for software and the price of any Square hardware you buy. The basic Square POS app is free; hardware and additional software features cost extra.
Payment processing fees
2.6% plus 10 cents for in-person transactions.
2.9% plus 30 cents for online transactions.
3.5% plus 15 cents for manually keyed transactions.
3.3% plus 30 cents for invoices.
Monthly software fees
$0 for Square POS, Restaurant, Retail and Appointments Free plans.
$29 for Square Appointments Plus plan.
$69 for Square Appointments Premium and Square Restaurants Plus plans.
$89 for Square Retail Plus plan.
$165 for Square Restaurant Premium plan.
Custom pricing for Square Retail plan.
Hardware costs
$0 for Square magstripe-only card reader ($10 for each additional reader) or if using Tap to Pay for iPhone (iPhone not included).
$59 for Square Reader contactless and chip card reader.
$149 for Square Stand iPad POS or Square Stand Mount (iPad not included; monthly financing available).
$299 for Square Terminal mobile card reader with built-in printer (monthly financing available).
$799 for Square Register two-screen system (monthly financing available).
How do Square’s payment processing fees work?
Square’s payment processing fees use a flat-rate model, which means that fees consist of two parts: a set amount and a percentage of the transaction total. The fee varies depending on whether the customer uses the card in person, online or if the merchant entered the card manually without the customer present.
For instance, if a customer made a $100 purchase in person with their credit card, you’d pay $2.70 (2.6% of the transaction total — or $2.60— plus 10 cents) in processing fees.
Use the Square Payments fee calculator below to estimate how much you’ll pay in processing fees depending on your transaction total.
Here are some additional things to know about Square’s payment processing pricing structure:
Some premium Square software subscription levels come with cheaper in-person rates (2.5% plus 30 cents instead of 2.6% plus 30 cents).
Square provides custom rates to some businesses — generally those doing more than $250,000 in business with Square per year with an average sale of more than $15.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
NerdWallet's ratings are determined by our editorial team. The scoring formula incorporates coverage options, customer experience, customizability, cost and more.
All Square POS software subscriptions are month-to-month, and users can cancel at any time without penalty. Here are Square’s plan selections for retailers, restaurants and appointment-based businesses, along with their monthly fees and key features.
Retail POS plans: $0 to $89 and up.
Free plan: $0.
Basic inventory management tools, including low stock alerts.
E-commerce website.
Discounted shipping.
Social media selling.
Basic reporting.
Invoicing.
Refunds management.
Customer profiles.
Time tracking and scheduling for up to five employees.
Plus plan: $89.
The Plus plan includes all features in the free plan, plus some additional capabilities:
Discounted in-person transaction rates (2.5% plus 10 cents per transaction).
Advanced inventory tools, like smart stock forecasts.
Purchase order and vendor management.
Cross-location returns.
Additional reports on inventory and cost-of-goods-sold.
Time tracking and scheduling for more than five employees.
Premium plan: custom pricing.
The Premium plan includes all features in the Plus plan, in addition to the following:
Custom processing rates.
Advanced website tools, including a custom domain.
Custom add-on pricing.
Restaurant POS plans: $0 to $165 and up.
Free plan: $0.
Menu management.
Automated gratuity amounts.
Basic reporting.
Time tracking.
Inventory management.
$50 per month for each additional countertop POS device after the first.
$20 per month for each mobile POS device.
Plus plan: $69.
Square for Restaurants’ Plus plan includes all the features in the free plan, plus the following:
Seat management.
Course management.
Floor plan customization.
Ability to split checks.
Additional reports, including close-of-day.
24/7 phone support.
Reservation integrations.
Premium plan: $165 and up.
The Premium plan is similar to the Plus plan, but likely a better solution for larger restaurants with more than a handful of mobile POS devices, since it doesn’t charge extra for each of their POS apps.
Appointments POS plans: $0 to $69.
Free plan: $0.
Scheduling tools and staff calendars.
Text and email reminders for clients.
Booking website.
Invoicing.
Prepayments.
Low stock alerts.
Basic sales reporting.
Marketing campaigns.
Customer profiles.
Plus plan: $29.
The Plus plan includes all of the features that the free plan does, plus some additional ones:
Discounted in-person transaction fees (2.5% plus 10 cents per transaction).
Multiple location management.
Waitlists.
Google Calendar sync.
Text and email confirmations.
Cancellation fees.
Advanced reports on sales trends and future bookings.
Premium plan: $69.
Square Appointments’ Premium plan builds upon the Plus plan with the following capabilities:
Resource management tools, like room assignments.
Unlimited staff permissions.
Advanced staff scheduling and time tracking.
Service costs tracking.
Custom contract fields.
Square Online plans and pricing
Square’s POS plans come with a basic online e-commerce website, but you can layer higher-tier Square Online plans on top of your POS subscription for extra online capabilities. Here are Square Online’s monthly fees and features.
Free plan: $0.
Website builder with basic layouts.
Social media selling.
Multiple location management.
Order delivery and pick-up options.
Tax calculator.
Ability to accept donations.
SEO tools.
Plus plan: $29.
Square Online’s Plus plan includes everything the free plan does, plus additional tools for further customizing your website:
Website themes.
Custom domain.
Professional branding.
Customer accounts.
QR code ordering.
Abandoned cart emails.
Product reviews.
Subscriptions.
Site statistics.
Premium plan: $79.
The Premium plan includes everything the Plus plan does, in addition to the following:
Discounted online transaction fees (2.6% plus 30 cents per transaction).
Display real-time shipping rates.
24/7 phone support.
Square Invoices plans and pricing
Square’s POS plans already include basic invoicing features — these invoicing-specific plans are meant for businesses that don’t need a full POS system and transact almost entirely via invoice. Read on for a summary of Square Invoices’ plan options, fees and features.
Free plan: $0.
Send unlimited invoices.
Recurring invoicing.
Deposit collection.
Automatic payment reminders.
Late payment fees.
Customize invoices with brand logo and colors.
Customer directory.
Invoice reporting.
Plus plan: $20.
Square Invoices’ Plus plan includes all features in the free plan, plus the following:
Discounted online invoice rates (2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction).
Batch invoicing.
Custom invoice layouts.
Add custom invoice fields.
Edit invoice field names.
Automatically convert estimates to invoices.
Project invoicing tools.
Square add-ons pricing
In addition to its core POS system and payment processing offerings, Square also has a variety of add-on tools for small businesses — especially those with larger teams. Here are descriptions of its main add-on options, along with their monthly price ranges.
Square Shifts: $0-$4 per employee.
Square Shifts is free for up to five employees with monthly per-employee costs varying for larger teams:
1 to 10 employees: $4.
11 to 20 employees: $3.50.
21 to 50 employees: $3.
51+ employees: $2.50.
You can use it to publish schedules, make shift notes, set employees’ availability and track time and labor costs.
Square Team Communication: $2.50 per employee.
This add-on lets you and employees chat with each other online, send announcements and share files.
Square Payroll: $35 plus $6 per employee.
Square Payroll is broken up into two plan offerings: one for contractors only and the other for full-service payroll and HR tools. The contractor-only option is $6 per employee, but doesn’t come with a monthly fee.
Square Loyalty: $45-$105.
Square Loyalty allows customers to accumulate points and earn rewards to keep them coming back. Pricing is based on how many loyalty visits your business gets each month:
0 to 500 loyalty visits: $45 per location.
501 to 1,500 loyalty visits: $75 per location.
1,500 to 10,000+ loyalty visits: $105 per location.
Square Marketing: $15 and up.
Square charges separate fees for text marketing and email marketing. Text marketing itself costs $10 per month, with pricing then based on the number of marketing texts you send customers. The lowest tier (1 to 250 messages) is $10 per month. Email marketing has an all-in-one price that starts at $15 per month and depends on your business’s number of customer contacts.
