Key Takeaways:
- Square charges 2.6% + 15¢ per in-person card payment on its Free plan, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus, and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium.
- Online card payments cost 3.3% + 30¢ on Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium. Manually keyed payments and saved cards cost 3.5% + 15¢ on every plan.
- Square replaced 18 separate subscriptions with three plans in October 2025. If you never switched, you are on legacy rates that do not match Square’s current published table.
- The flat 15¢ matters more than the percentage when your tickets are small. A $12 sale costs you 3.85% all in on the Free plan, not 2.6%.
Square charges a flat rate on every card payment. That rate depends on two things: how the card was accepted and which of Square’s three plans you pay for. In-person payments start at 2.6% plus 15 cents. Online payments start at 3.3% plus 30 cents. Manually keyed payments cost 3.5% plus 15 cents regardless of what you pay Square each month.
Every figure below comes from Square’s published fee schedule as of August 2026. Rates change, so check your own Square Dashboard under Settings, then Account & Settings, then Pricing & subscriptions for what your account is actually being charged.
Square Transaction Fees by Plan
| Payment type | Free $0/mo | Plus $49/mo per location | Premium $149/mo per location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap, dip, or swipe (in person) | 2.6% + 15¢ | 2.5% + 15¢ | 2.4% + 15¢ |
| Online or invoice | 3.3% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Online API | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Hand-keyed or card on file | 3.5% + 15¢ | 3.5% + 15¢ | 3.5% + 15¢ |
| ACH by invoice | 1%, $1 min | 1%, $1 min, $10 cap | 1%, $1 min, $10 cap |
| ACH by API | 1%, $1 min, $5 cap | 1%, $1 min, $5 cap | 1%, $1 min, $5 cap |
| Afterpay | 6% + 30¢ | 6% + 30¢ | 6% + 30¢ |
| EBT (SNAP items) | 1.8% + 5¢ | 1.8% + 5¢ | 1.8% + 5¢ |
| Gift card load | 2.5% | 2.5% | 0% |
| Cash or check | Free | Free | Free |
Square is waiving the EBT fee while the feature is in open beta, which runs through fall 2026. Bitcoin payments are 0% until the end of 2026, then 1%.
What Each Payment Type Means
- Tap, dip, or swipe is any payment where the card or phone is right there at the counter. Chip, swipe, tap, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Tap to Pay on iPhone or Android all cost the same.
- Hand-keyed or card on file is Square’s most expensive card rate at 3.5% plus 15 cents. You pay it when you type in a card number, take a payment over the phone, or charge a card saved to a customer’s profile. Square charges more because the card and the customer are not in front of you.
- Online or invoice is 3.3% plus 30 cents on the Free plan. It used to be 2.9% plus 30 cents. If you sell $10,000 a month through a Square site, that increase costs you about $40 more per month.
- Online API is 2.9% plus 30 cents on all three plans. It applies when you take payments inside your own app or website using Square’s code, not through a site Square built for you.
Old Square Plans Have Different Rates
In October 2025, Square combined 18 separate subscriptions, including Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants, into Free, Plus, and Premium. If you never switched, you are still on the old pricing.
Old plans list more payment types than the new ones. Cash App Pay with no card present is 3.3% plus 30 cents. Payment links you text from Virtual Terminal are 3.3% plus 30 cents. In-person payments stay at 2.6% plus 15 cents. If you opened your account before the change, the table above is not your rate sheet.
Other Fees Square Charges
Your processing rate is not the only thing coming out of your sales. Here’s what else happens:
- Add-on apps: the Square KDS app costs $30 per device per month on Plus and $20 on Premium. Square Kiosk costs $50 and $30. Neither one is available on Free.
- Instant and same-day transfers: 1.95% per transfer. Standard next-business-day transfers are free. You need a $25 balance for an instant transfer, and new sellers can only do one a day, up to $2,000.
- Cards issued outside the US: an extra 1.5% on top of your normal rate. This applies in person, online, and through the API on every plan.
- Gift card loads: 2.5% of the amount you load on Free and Plus, and nothing on Premium. No fee applies when a customer redeems a gift card.
- Bitcoin conversions: 1% on Free and Plus, 0.5% on Premium.
- Text message marketing: Plus includes 500 texts, then 3 cents each. Premium includes 2,500, then 1.5 cents each.
- Add-on apps: the Square KDS app costs $30 per device per month on Plus and $20 on Premium. Square Kiosk costs $50 and $30. Neither one is available on Free.
What Square Doesn’t Charge For
Square does not charge chargeback or dispute fees. That is rare in payments, and it helps if you sell big-ticket items or sell online. There is also no activation fee, no PCI compliance fee, no monthly minimum, no early termination fee, and no fee for leaving the account idle.
Refunds work differently. Square keeps the processing fee on refunded sales. If you ring up a sale and then refund it, you still paid the fee on it.
How to Figure Out What You Pay
The rate Square advertises is not the rate you pay. The flat 15 cents is what changes your real cost, and it hits small tickets hardest.
What 2.6% + 15¢ really costs at different ticket sizes
| Average ticket | What you actually pay |
|---|---|
| $8 | 4.47% |
| $12 | 3.85% |
| $20 | 3.35% |
| $28 | 3.14% |
| $45 | 2.93% |
| $100 | 2.75% |
A convenience store selling $8 snacks pays close to 4.5% on card sales. A furniture store with $400 tickets pays close to 2.6%. Same rate, very different result. Run your own numbers through our credit card processing calculator.
When a Paid Plan Saves You Money
Plus drops your in-person rate by 0.1% and costs $49 per location. You need about $49,000 a month in in-person card sales before that pays for itself. Online, the drop is bigger, from 3.3% to 2.9%, so about $12,250 a month in online sales covers the $49.
Premium is harder to justify on fees alone. It saves another 0.1% in person and costs $100 more per month, so you need about $100,000 a month in in-person card sales. Free gift card loads and 24/7 phone support might be worth it before then.
In Practice:
Take Marisol, who runs a liquor store. She does $60,000 a month in card sales, all in person, at a $32 average ticket. On Free she pays about $1,841 a month. On Plus she pays $1,830. On Premium she pays $1,870, which is more than Free. The plan with the lowest advertised rate is not always the cheapest one.
When Flat-Rate Pricing Costs You More
Flat-rate pricing works well for new stores and low-volume stores. You get one number, no statement to decode, and nothing to negotiate. The catch is that Square bundles two costs into that one number: the interchange fee that Visa and Mastercard set, and Square’s own markup.
Interchange-plus pricing splits them apart. You pay the real interchange fee plus a markup you can see. It usually beats flat rate once your volume grows, or when a lot of your sales are debit. Debit interchange is capped by law, but flat-rate pricing charges the same 2.6% on a debit tap as on a rewards credit card. If most of your sales are debit, you are paying for the gap.
PRO TIP!
Square does negotiate, but only above a certain size. If you process more than $250,000 a year, you can ask its sales team about custom rates. Below that, you pay the published rates.
Two Bigger Problems With Square
Square is both your POS software and your payment processor. That is why setup is fast. It is also why you cannot change one without changing the other. If Square raises rates, as it has before, you either absorb the increase or replace your whole system.
The second problem hits some stores harder than others. Square is a payment aggregator, which means all its merchants share one big merchant account instead of each having their own. Aggregators manage risk with automatic holds, and stores selling age-restricted or high-risk products get flagged more often. If you sell CBD or hemp, our post on Square’s CBD requirements covers the restrictions and the higher rates that come with them.
Processor Agnostic Systems Can Help
This is where a processor-agnostic POS changes the math. KORONA POS is not a payment processor, so you keep your software and shop for merchant services separately. If a processor raises rates or will not take your business type, you switch processors and keep your system. You can compare KORONA POS and Square side by side.
You do not always have to switch systems to pay less, either. Steering customers toward debit, cutting down on hand-keyed payments, and checking whether cash discounting or surcharging is legal in your state all bring the number down.
Payment processors giving you trouble?
We won’t. KORONA POS is not a payment processor. That means we’ll always find the best payment provider for your business’s needs.
FAQs
How much does Square charge on a $100 sale?
On the Free plan, a $100 in-person card sale costs you $2.75. That is $2.60 for the percentage plus 15 cents. Keyed in by hand, the same sale costs $3.65.
Does Square charge a monthly fee?
The Free plan has no monthly software fee, so you only pay when you take a payment. Plus is $49 a month per location and Premium is $149 a month per location. Hardware, payroll, and the KDS and Kiosk apps cost extra.
Why is my Square rate higher than 2.6%?
Three common reasons. The 15 cent flat fee raises your real rate on small tickets. Keyed-in and online payments cost more than in-person ones. Cards issued outside the US add 1.5%. Your plan matters too, since 2.6% is the Free plan rate.
Does Square charge chargeback fees?
No. Square does not charge anything for chargebacks or dispute handling, though it holds the disputed money until the case is settled. Most processors charge $15 to $100 per dispute, so this is a real point in Square’s favor.
Can you negotiate Square’s transaction fees?
Only if you are big enough. Square offers custom pricing to businesses processing more than $250,000 a year, and you have to go through its sales team. Below that, you pay the published rates.
What does Square charge for instant transfers?
Instant and same-day transfers cost 1.95% per transfer, on top of your processing fees. Standard next-business-day transfers are free. You need at least $25 in your balance, and new sellers are limited to one transfer a day up to $2,000.
