Square: point of sale software platform

Square publishes the whole rate card, and the detail that decides most deals is that the software fee is per location: $0/mo. on Square Free, $49/mo. on Square Plus and $149/mo. on Square Premium, checked 16 October 2026. In person processing runs 2.6% + 15 cents down to 2.4% + 15 cents. Buy it if you want a cost you can model today.

Rajat GuptaEditorial LeadReviewed 16 October 2026Pricing checked 16 October 2026 against the Square pricing page

Square in brief

Square publishes the whole rate card, and the detail that decides most deals is that the software fee is per location: $0/mo.

Price: $0/mo. per location on Square Free; $49/mo. and $149/mo. per location on the paid tiers · Software fee per location, plus published card processing rates
Best for: Single and multi-site merchants who want a cost they can model without a sales call
Watch out for: You give up per-company pricing, and for a multi-site operator this is the finding that matters most.

The short answer

Buy Square if you want to know what a point of sale costs before you speak to anyone, and if your business runs on card payments where a published rate beats a negotiated one you cannot verify. Square Free has no monthly fee at all, so a single site can start taking card payments and pay only when a sale happens, and the paid tiers buy both features and a lower processing rate.

Skip it if you run several locations and were counting on one subscription, because the $49/mo. and $149/mo. fees apply to each location you run. Skip it if your kitchen needs many screens or kiosks, since that software is charged per device on top of the plan. And skip it if you process enough that a negotiated rate would beat the published one: above $250,000 per year Square itself points you to a custom quote.

Where Square fits

Square's position is unusual in this category: it is a payments company that gives away a usable point of sale and charges for the depth above it. Square Free is listed at $0/mo. per location and includes the POS app for any payment type, an online ordering profile or basic website or booking site, an item library with inventory and sales tracking, invoicing with estimates and contracts, booking, and checking and savings accounts. You pay 2.6% + 15 cents when you take a card in person and nothing when you do not. For a market stall, a small salon or a new shop, that is a complete setup at no subscription cost.

What the paid tiers buy is two things at once, and buyers often price only one of them. Square Plus at $49/mo. per location adds advanced POS features built for food and beverage, retail, appointments and invoicing, a loyalty rewards program, email marketing with 500 texts included per month per account, and staff management with shift scheduling and attendance. It also cuts in-person processing to 2.5% + 15 cents and online to 2.9% + 30 cents. Square Premium at $149/mo. per location cuts in person again to 2.4% + 15 cents, adds 24/7 priority phone support, advanced reporting, 2,500 texts a month and no gift card load fees.

The per-location rule is the structural fact to carry into any comparison. Square states explicitly that on Plus and Premium the monthly fee applies to each location you run, so a three-site operator on Plus pays the $49/mo. fee three times. Any evaluation that treats Square as a single flat subscription understates a multi-site cost by the number of sites, and that is the most common mistake in a Square business case. Count locations first, then pick a tier.

Devices are the second multiplier, and they sit outside the plan. The Square KDS app is $30/mo. per device on Plus and $20/mo. per device on Premium, and it is not available on Square Free at all. Kiosk software is $99/mo. per device for Square Kiosk on both paid plans, with Kiosk Lite for iOS at $50/mo. per device on Plus and $30/mo. per device on Premium. A kitchen running four screens and a lobby with two kiosks is therefore a materially different bill from the plan card, and the arithmetic is yours to do with your own device count.

Where Square stops is the high end of a single trade. There is no custom contract on the published tiers, no negotiated rate and no account management until you cross into Square Pro, which Square offers to businesses processing over $250,000 per year and which comes with custom pricing and processing fees, hardware discounts, onboarding and implementation support, technical specialists and account management. Below that line you take the list price, which is the deal: Square says there are no hidden fees and no locked-in contracts, and you can cancel or switch plans any time.

Square pricing

Square publishes a full rate card, and this is one of the few products in this category where you can build an accurate first-year cost without a sales call. One technical caveat on how these figures were read: the pricing page is rendered client side and the plan cards carried no prices in the fetched text on 16 October 2026, so every figure here comes from the page's own feature and fee comparison tables, which did render and which name Square Free, Square Plus, Square Premium and Square Pro along with each fee.

What Square publishes

Square Free: $0/mo. per location (No monthly fee, pay per payment)POS app for any payment type, an online ordering profile or basic website or booking site, item library with inventory and sales tracking, invoicing, estimates and contracts, booking, and checking and savings accounts. In person processing at 2.6% + 15 cents.
Square Plus: $49/mo. per location (Monthly, per location)Everything in Square Free, plus advanced POS features for food and beverage, retail, appointments and invoicing, a loyalty rewards program, email marketing with 500 texts a month, and staff management. In person at 2.5% + 15 cents, online at 2.9% + 30 cents.
Square Premium: $149/mo. per location (Monthly, per location)Everything in Square Plus, plus 24/7 priority phone support, advanced reporting, 2,500 texts a month and no gift card load fees. In person at 2.4% + 15 cents.
Square Pro: Get custom pricing (Custom contract)For businesses processing over $250,000 per year. Custom pricing and custom processing fees subject to eligibility, hardware discounts, onboarding and implementation support, technical specialists and account management.

As published on 16 October 2026. The monthly fee on Square Plus and Square Premium applies to each location you run.

The list price is real, and four things still decide what you pay.

Your location count, because the plan fee repeats for each one. Square is explicit that the $49/mo. and $149/mo. figures apply per location, so price your whole estate rather than one site before you compare Square with a vendor that charges per company.
Whether the rate cut pays for the tier. Moving from Free to Plus takes in-person processing from 2.6% to 2.5% and costs $49/mo. per location. Divide the monthly fee by the one-tenth of a point you save to find the card volume where it breaks even, then do the same sum for Premium at 2.4%. For a busy site the upgrade can pay for itself out of the rate alone; for a quiet one it will not.
Kitchen screens and kiosks, which are priced per device. The KDS app is $30/mo. per device on Plus and $20/mo. per device on Premium, and kiosk software is $99/mo. per device with Kiosk Lite at $50/mo. per device on Plus and $30/mo. per device on Premium. None of that is available on Square Free, so a food business with screens is choosing between the paid tiers from the start.
Your payment method mix, which moves the effective rate more than most buyers expect. Manual entry or card on file is 3.5% + 15 cents on every plan, ACH by invoice is 1% with a $1 min and a $10 fee cap on the paid tiers, ACH via API is 1% with a $1 min and a $5 fee cap, Afterpay is 6% + 30 cents, EBT is 1.8% + 5 cents, cash and check are free, and an extra 1.5% applies to cards issued outside the United States.

What costs extra

Square KDS app: $30/mo. per device on Square Plus, $20/mo. per device on Square Premium. Not available on Square Free.
Kiosk software: $99/mo. per device for Square Kiosk on Plus and Premium, with Kiosk Lite for iOS at $50/mo. per device on Plus and $30/mo. per device on Premium.
Gift card load fee: 2.5% on Square Free and Square Plus, 0% on Square Premium.
Text message marketing beyond the included allowance: 500 texts a month per account on Plus then 3 cents per text, 2,500 texts on Premium then 1.5 cents per text. Not available on Square Free.
Bitcoin conversions at 1.0% on Free and Plus and 0.5% on Premium, with bitcoin payments at 0% until 2027 on all plans.
Hardware, sold separately with published list prices and installment options, for example $899 or $44/mo. over 24 months and $149 or $14/mo. over 12 months.

Implementation and commercial terms

What the pricing page confirmed on 16 October 2026, including two things it did not say.

Unit of pricing: Per location. The monthly fee on Plus and Premium applies to each location you run.
Implementation fee: None published. Square says there are no hidden fees and no locked-in contracts.
Onboarding support: Listed under Square Pro custom pricing rather than as a priced service.
Free trial: Square lists a trial on Plus and Premium, but the length did not render on the page pulled on 16 October 2026, so none is recorded here. Confirm it with Square.
Contract: Cancel or switch plans at any time.
Hardware: Not required to take payments. Sold separately with installment options.
Custom pricing threshold: Over $250,000 per year processed, by Square's own invitation.

Budget Square as three lines you can fill in yourself. First the plan fee, multiplied by your locations. Second the processing, modelled on your own card and payment mix rather than the headline in-person rate, because manual entry at 3.5% + 15 cents and Afterpay at 6% + 30 cents behave very differently from a tap. Third the per-device software: kitchen displays and kiosks, counted as devices. Then, if you process over $250,000 per year, get the Square Pro quote before you sign up for a published tier, because that is the one place Square will negotiate. For a direct comparison of two published rate cards, run it against Helcim, which charges no monthly fee and prices interchange plus a margin that falls with volume.

Source: the Square pricing page, checked 16 October 2026. Confirm current prices with the vendor before you budget.

What Square gives up

You give up per-company pricing, and for a multi-site operator this is the finding that matters most. Square charges the plan fee per location, so the comparison against a vendor quoting one subscription for the business is not like for like until you have multiplied. An older evaluation that recorded Square as a single flat subscription is wrong by the number of sites you run, and the error grows every time you open a shop.

You give up a negotiated rate unless you are large. Below $250,000 processed per year you take the published figures, which is honest and also inflexible: there is no volume discount to ask for and no account manager to ask it of. Square's own answer is to point businesses above that line to custom pricing and processing fees under Square Pro, which also carries the hardware discounts, onboarding and implementation support, technical specialists and account management. If you are near the threshold, the published tiers are the wrong starting point.

You give up kitchen and kiosk software on the free tier entirely. The KDS app and both kiosk products are listed as not available on Square Free, so a quick-service operator cannot build a kitchen workflow without moving to a paid plan and then paying per device on top of it. Four screens and two kiosks is a four-figure annual line before you have counted a single card fee, and that is the calculation to do before the free tier wins you over.

You give up implementation help as a priced, scoped service. Square publishes no setup or implementation fee, which sounds like a saving and means you are doing the menu build, the item library and the staff training yourself. For a single till that is a weekend; for a restaurant with a thousand menu items and modifiers it is a project with no vendor on the hook for it. Vendors that charge for implementation, such as SpotOn and TouchBistro, are selling something Square does not include below Square Pro.

You give up certainty about the trial. Square lists a free trial on Square Plus and Square Premium, but on the page pulled on 16 October 2026 the number of trial days did not render: the template placeholder was served instead of a figure. Rather than guess at a length, treat it as a question for Square and get the answer in writing with the start and end dates. Square Free needs no trial, since it carries no monthly fee in the first place.

How Square compares

The useful comparison here is between rate cards, because Square, SumUp and Helcim all publish one and they are built on different ideas: a tiered software fee that cuts the rate, a flat rate with feature-priced plans, and no software fee at all with a margin that falls as volume rises. Shopify POS is in the table as the retail platform alternative. Every price comes from that vendor's own pricing page, checked on 16 October 2026.

Tool	Best for	Price	Where it breaks
Square	Businesses that want a published software fee and a published card rate on day one	$0, $49 or $149/mo. per location	The fee repeats per location, and kitchen and kiosk software is charged per device
SumUp	Small merchants who want one card rate regardless of which plan they are on	$0, $49/month or from $99/month	The subscription buys features only: the rate never falls, and loyalty is a separate subscription
Helcim	Higher-volume merchants who want interchange passed through and no monthly fee	No monthly fee; interchange plus 0.40% and 8 cents in person, falling to 0.15% and 6 cents	The published figure is a margin, not an all-in rate, so your card mix decides the real cost
Shopify POS	Retailers whose online store is already on Shopify	Plans ₹1,499 to from ₹175,000 /mo, POS Pro ₹7,000 /mo per location	No card rate published, and the pricing page localises its currency by country

What to test in a Square trial

Square lists a free trial on Square Plus and Square Premium, though the length did not render on the page we pulled, so confirm it before you start. You can also simply open a Square Free account and pay nothing, which is the better way to test the product itself. Use the time on the five things that decide the tier.

Model your own effective rate before you test anything. Take a month of real takings, split it by how the money actually arrives, tap and chip in person, online, manual entry or card on file, ACH, Afterpay, EBT and cash, and apply the published rate to each. Manual entry at 3.5% + 15 cents and Afterpay at 6% + 30 cents will move the blended figure further than the tier choice does.
Work out the tier break-even with your location count in it. The step from Free to Plus is $49/mo. per location for one-tenth of a point off in-person processing; Premium is $149/mo. per location for another tenth plus support and reporting. Multiply by sites, then see which tier your volume justifies.
Build your real item library or menu, including modifiers. This is the work Square does not charge for and does not do for you, so find out how long it takes on your own catalogue. Price it in hours, because on a restaurant menu that effort is the implementation fee you are not paying anyone else.
Count devices and price the per-device software. Add up kitchen displays at $30/mo. per device on Plus or $20/mo. per device on Premium, and kiosks at $99/mo. per device or Kiosk Lite at $50/mo. and $30/mo. per device. If any of them matter to you, Square Free is already out of the running.
Settle the two commercial questions the page leaves open. Ask Square to confirm the trial length in writing, and if you process over $250,000 per year, ask for the Square Pro quote covering custom processing fees, hardware discounts and onboarding support before you commit to a published tier.

Frequently asked questions about Square

How much does Square POS cost per month?

As of 16 October 2026 Square publishes three software tiers charged per location: Square Free at $0/mo., Square Plus at $49/mo. and Square Premium at $149/mo. Square Pro is custom priced for businesses processing over $250,000 per year. Card processing is charged separately on every tier.

What are Square's card processing fees?

In person, Square charges 2.6% + 15 cents on Square Free, 2.5% + 15 cents on Square Plus and 2.4% + 15 cents on Square Premium. Online is 3.3% + 30 cents on Free and 2.9% + 30 cents on the paid tiers. Manual entry or card on file is 3.5% + 15 cents on all three.

Can you use Square POS for free?

Yes. Square Free is listed at $0/mo. per location and includes the POS app, an online site, an item library with inventory tracking, invoicing, booking and checking and savings accounts. You pay only when you take a payment, at 2.6% + 15 cents in person. Kitchen display and kiosk software are not available on it.

Does the Square monthly fee cover all my locations?

No. Square states that on Square Plus and Square Premium the monthly fee applies to each location you run, so a three-site operator on Plus pays the $49/mo. fee three times. Price your whole estate before comparing Square against a vendor that charges one subscription per company.

What are the hidden fees with Square?

Square says there are no hidden fees or locked-in contracts, and the extras are published rather than hidden: gift card loads at 2.5% on Free and Plus, Afterpay at 6% + 30 cents, EBT at 1.8% + 5 cents, an extra 1.5% on cards issued outside the United States, and texts beyond the included allowance at 3 cents each.

How much is Square's kitchen display and kiosk software?

They are charged per device on top of the plan. The Square KDS app is $30/mo. per device on Square Plus and $20/mo. per device on Square Premium. Square Kiosk is $99/mo. per device on both paid plans, with Kiosk Lite for iOS at $50/mo. per device on Plus and $30/mo. per device on Premium.

Is there a free trial of Square Plus or Square Premium?

Square lists a free trial on both paid plans, but the trial length did not render on the page pulled on 16 October 2026: the template placeholder was served instead of a number. Ask Square to confirm the length and the dates in writing. Square Free has no monthly fee, so it needs no trial.

What is the downside of using Square?

Three things. The monthly fee repeats per location, so multi-site costs scale with sites. Kitchen display and kiosk software are charged per device and are unavailable on the free tier. And below $250,000 processed per year there is no negotiated rate: you take the published figures as they stand.

When does upgrading a Square plan pay for itself?

Work it from the rate cut. Moving from Free to Plus costs $49/mo. per location and takes in-person processing from 2.6% to 2.5%; Premium costs $149/mo. per location for 2.4%. Divide the monthly fee by the fraction of a point you save to find the card volume that covers it, then multiply by locations.

Does Square charge an implementation or setup fee?

No setup or implementation fee is published, and Square says there are no hidden fees or locked-in contracts. The trade is that you build the item library, menu and staff setup yourself. Onboarding and implementation support appear under Square Pro custom pricing rather than as a priced service on the published tiers.