Square fees for restaurants, next to Payzium's published rate.

Square column: its published in-person card (tap, insert, swipe), free plan at 2.6% + $0.15 [1]; online and invoice, free plan at 3.3% + $0.30 [2]. Payzium column: interchange and network assessments at cost, the published margin at the tier for that volume, the per-transaction fee and the monthly account fee. A positive difference means Square costs more.

Average ticket sets the competitor's per-transaction count. Payzium's per-transaction line is counted at the $50 sitewide ticket assumption the calculator uses.

The Payzium column is the calculator's engine, so the calculator's disclosure applies here as written:

Calculator output is an estimate. Final pricing depends on your actual card mix, current network rates effective on the date of your transactions, and any optional add-ons. The model assumes an average transaction value of $50. Visa and Mastercard revise their US interchange schedules twice a year; this calculator reflects schedules effective April 2026.

Restaurants pay for cards in a way that flat-rate pricing hides well. Almost every transaction is card-present, which is the cheapest kind of card to accept, yet a blended flat rate charges the same percentage on a tapped debit card as on a keyed corporate rewards card. Tickets are small and frequent, so a fixed per-transaction fee matters more here than in almost any other trade: a few cents on every coffee adds up faster than a fraction of a percent on a large invoice. Tips are the other quiet cost. A tip added after authorization is settled at the adjusted amount, and on some plans the difference between the authorized and the settled amount is charged at the higher keyed or non-qualified rate.

Interchange-plus pricing shows each of these as its own line. The wholesale interchange for a tapped debit card at a quick-service counter is far below the interchange for a rewards credit card at a white-tablecloth dinner, and a published margin sits on top of both without averaging them together. That is why the difference between a flat rate and a published margin widens as a restaurant's volume grows: the flat rate is priced for the merchant's worst mix, not the actual one.

Two things to check on any restaurant quote. First, how the processor treats tip adjustments and whether they trigger a downgrade. Second, whether the point-of-sale system is bundled with the processing, because a bundled system that is cheap to lease is often paid for through the rate. The table above uses a typical full-service ticket and a card-present share that reflects dine-in and takeout; a delivery-heavy restaurant with more keyed and online orders will see a higher effective rate on both sides.