Square POS Pricing 2026: Free, Plus, Premium and Card Fees

Square POS costs $0 a month on Square Free, $49 a month on Square Plus and $149 a month on Square Premium, each priced per location, plus 2.6% + 15¢ per tapped, dipped or swiped card on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium. Keyed-in cards carry a higher rate that is the same on every plan. Prices read on Square's fee page and plan page in October 2026.

Our take: for most single-store retailers the subscription is the wrong number to stare at. On Square Free, card processing is the whole bill, and the paid plans are worth buying for their features (stock intake, purchase orders, loyalty) far more often than for their rate cut. The one exception is a store that sells a lot online, where the Plus discount is four times larger than in person.

Toolradar data: among the 35 restaurant POS tools listed on Toolradar's POS statistics page as of October 18, 2026, 11 offer a free tier and the median entry paid plan is $50/mo across the 17 with a verified price. Square sits on the free side of that split, and its restaurant edition is listed as an alternative to 22 other tools in the category, fourth behind Toast, Lightspeed Restaurant and Revel. Toolradar is the software directory we run.

Square plans and card rates at a glance

Prices are monthly, in USD, from Square's US pricing, fee and retail POS pricing pages, read in October 2026. Square shows no annual billing option: the fee is charged monthly, and Plus and Premium each come with a 30-day free trial that can be cancelled or switched at any point.

Read the table by column, not by row, because the columns show where the plans really differ. The in-person gap between plans is a tenth of a point, while the online gap between Free and Plus is four tenths, and Premium charges the same online rate as Plus. A store with most of its revenue on the web is the buyer Plus was priced for.

How much does Square cost a retail store each month?

We worked out three shop profiles on the published rates. Each assumes every in-person card is tapped, dipped or swiped and every online order is paid by card through Square Online. The figures are our arithmetic, not a Square quote, and they leave out tax, refunds, international cards and keyed-in sales.

The boutique row is the one to remember. At $25,000 in person and $6,000 online a month, Plus costs exactly what Free costs: the tenth of a point saved in store is worth $25, the four tenths saved online is worth $24, and together they cover the Plus fee to the cent. Below that mix Free is cheaper on money alone; above it Plus is cheaper and also adds the inventory tools.

The two-store row shows how the per-location fee works. Premium's rate saves a tenth of a point over Plus, which is worth $60 a month on each $60,000 store, against an extra $100 per location in subscription. Square's Premium only beats Plus on processing once a single location passes $100,000 a month in card-present sales, so a chain of mid-size stores rarely gets there on rates. The case for Premium is cross-location returns, transfer orders and round-the-clock phone support, which matter more as the store count grows.

That same two-store business processes about $1.68 million a year, well past the $250,000 line where Square invites merchants to ask about Square Pro custom pricing. Any store above that threshold should request a quote before picking a plan, because a negotiated rate moves the totals more than any plan switch.

For the plain in-person break-even points on a single location, our Square POS review runs the numbers plan by plan.

What hardware does Square sell, and what does it cost?

You do not need Square hardware to start. Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android takes contactless cards on a phone at the plan's normal in-person rate. A store with a counter usually buys at least one device, and Square lists these prices on its hardware page in October 2026:

Financing is a credit sale from Block at a 15% APR, subject to credit approval, and is not offered to merchants in Alabama, Delaware, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire or Tennessee. At that APR, buying outright is cheaper whenever the cash is there. Square's hardware page also lists free 30-day returns and no long-term contract.

For a retailer the useful set is short. A boutique with one till runs well on a Register, or on an iPad in a Stand if it already owns the iPad. A shop that counts stock on the floor adds a Handheld. The Kiosk is built for food and beverage ordering and carries its own software fee, covered below.

Which Square fees are not in the plan price?

The plan fee and the card rate are the headline. These are the line items that show up on a statement later, all from Square's pricing page, its fee help article and its transfer options article, read in October 2026.

• Instant and same-day transfers: 1.95% per transfer. Next-business-day deposits are free; moving money sooner costs 1.95% of the amount, on top of processing. On $20,000 a month that is $390 for faster access to your own sales.
• International cards: 1.5% extra on any card issued outside the US, on every plan, in person or online.
• Gift card loads: 2.5% of each amount loaded on Free and Plus, and nothing on Premium. A store that sells $4,000 of gift cards a month pays $100 in load fees below Premium.
• Text marketing overage: Plus includes 500 texts a month, then 3¢ each; Premium includes 2,500, then 1.5¢ each. Free has no text marketing.
• Per-device software: the KDS app costs $30/mo per device on Plus and $20/mo on Premium. Square Kiosk software costs $99/mo per device on both, and Kiosk Lite on a Stand costs $50/mo on Plus or $30/mo on Premium. None of these run on Free.
• Afterpay: 6% + 30¢ per order on every plan, in person and online. Square pays you the full amount up front, and the customer pays in four installments.
• ACH bank transfers on invoices: 1% with a $1 minimum, capped at $10 per payment on Plus and Premium.
• EBT: 1.8% + 5¢ per SNAP payment, which matters to grocery, convenience and liquor stores that take benefits.

There are also fees Square says it does not charge: no activation fee, no chargeback fee, no PCI compliance fee, no inactivity fee and no early termination fee. That last one is the real contrast with bank-sold POS accounts, where the merchant agreement often carries a cancellation penalty.

Is Square cheaper than Clover or Shopify POS?

It depends on the transaction count. Square charges 15¢ per in-person sale on every plan, while Clover's retail pricing charges 10¢ and Shopify's POS pricing shows 10¢ on its in-person rates. A store with many small tickets pays that 5¢ gap hundreds of times a month.

Prices read on each vendor's own pricing page in October 2026. Clover's figures are its online-only prices: a bank or reseller can quote other rates and terms.

Here is what the 5¢ means in money. The market stall above makes 400 sales a month, so Clover's lower per-sale fee saves $20 a month against Square Free at the same 2.6%. The boutique's 625 in-store sales put the gap at about $31 a month. Square wins back ground on hardware and contract terms, with no plan fee to start, a $59 reader and no termination fee, which suits a new store that is not yet sure of its volume. For the full matchups, see our Clover pricing breakdown, Square vs Shopify POS and the Shopify POS pricing guide. Restaurants weighing Toast should read Toast POS pricing, and stores looking at a higher-end retail system can compare Lightspeed pricing.

Which Square plan should a retailer pick?

Stay on Free if you run one location, sell mostly in person and do not need stock intake or purchase orders. Free already includes the item library, discounts, refunds, sales reports and a basic online store, which covers a market stall, a pop-up or a small gift shop. Check the online share each month: once web sales grow, the Plus math changes fast.

Move to Plus when you count stock, order from vendors or want loyalty and staff scheduling, or when the boutique row above describes your mix. Plus is where inventory management, vendor profiles, purchase orders and cost of goods reporting live, the tools a clothing or homeware store uses daily. Our best POS for clothing boutiques ranking weighs Square against the other options for that buyer.

Choose Premium for several locations that move stock between stores or take returns from another branch, or when 24/7 phone support is worth paying for during long trading hours. Premium is a features plan, because the rate cut alone rarely pays for it.

If loyalty is the only reason you would upgrade, price a standalone app first in our cheapest loyalty program software guide, since Square only includes loyalty from Plus. For the wider field, our best POS systems list ranks Square against Clover, Shopify POS, Lightspeed and Toast, with category picks for coffee shops and liquor stores. Tool profiles live on Toolradar for Square, Clover and Shopify POS.

What about legacy Square for Retail plans?

Sellers who subscribed to the older individually priced products, such as Square for Retail, Square for Restaurants or Square Appointments, are on legacy plans until they switch. Square's plan switch article says a switch to Free, Plus or Premium cannot be undone, and some features moved between tiers. Use the comparison tool in the Square Dashboard before switching, and check that every feature you use today sits in the tier you pick.

How we built this page

We read Square's US plan page, fee page, retail POS pricing page, hardware page and three help articles on fees, transfers and plan switching in October 2026, then Clover's retail pricing page and Shopify's POS pricing page the same month. Category figures come from Toolradar's restaurant POS statistics, computed on October 18, 2026. We did not open a Square account or process payments for this page; the three store totals are our arithmetic on the published rates. We re-check the page when Square changes a plan, rate or fee. Louis Corneloup, who founded Toolradar and Dupple, edited it.

FAQ

How much does Square POS cost per month in 2026?

Square Free costs $0, Square Plus $49 and Square Premium $149 a month, each charged per location, as listed by Square in October 2026. Processing comes on top: 2.4% to 2.6% plus 15¢ per in-person card sale depending on the plan, and 2.9% to 3.3% plus 30¢ online.

What are Square's credit card processing fees?

In-person cards cost 2.6% + 15¢ on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium. Online and invoice cards cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on the paid plans. Keyed-in and card-on-file payments cost 3.5% + 15¢ on all three, and cards issued abroad add 1.5%.

Is Square POS really free?

The software is: Square Free has no monthly fee and includes the POS app, item library, sales reports and a basic online store. You still pay a processing fee on every card sale, and inventory management, loyalty and staff scheduling need a paid plan.

When is Square Plus worth it?

When you need its features, or when your sales mix pays for it. Plus cuts the in-person rate by 0.1 point and the online rate by 0.4 point, so a single store with $25,000 in card sales in person and $6,000 online breaks even on the fee. More online sales tip it further toward Plus.

Does Square charge a cancellation or contract fee?

No. Square lists no activation, early termination, chargeback or PCI compliance fee, and the paid plans can be cancelled or switched at any point. Hardware bought on financing is a separate credit sale from Block at a 15% APR.

How much does Square hardware cost?

The contactless and chip reader is $59, the Stand $149, the Terminal $299, the Handheld $399 and the second-generation Register $899, as listed in October 2026. The first magstripe reader is free, and the Kiosk costs $1,999 with a counter stand plus a monthly software fee.

Cite this: Retailpresso, "Square POS Pricing 2026: Free, Plus, Premium and Card Fees", October 2026.

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