Toast Fee Increases: The Dated Record, and the Exit Right Written Into Your Contract

Key takeaways

• The dated record: card processing up 0.15% effective December 1, 2022; a $0.99 fee on online orders of $10 or more that went live July 10, 2023 and was withdrawn nine days later; card-present rates up 0.05% to 0.23% effective September 1, 2024; and in 2026, two trade-press reports of further increases, the latest a proposed 20 basis points.
• None of that is a surprise if you read the earnings calls. In May 2024 Toast's CFO told investors to expect "an ongoing cadence of small steady changes in price."
• Section 6.2 of Toast's own merchant agreement requires thirty days' written notice with an effective date. If the change is to card processing rates or the core tablet subscription, you can elect in writing to terminate, and the early termination fee does not apply. Keep using Toast past the effective date and you have accepted the change. One catch the summaries skip: the agreement says notice to Toast goes by registered mail to its Boston headquarters, not by email.
• We read the twelve pages that rank for this question. None of them cites that exit right, and one says the early termination fee may still apply. The agreement says otherwise for rate changes.

Toast's pricing page is clearer than most in this category, and we said so in our Toast pricing breakdown. This page is about the part that is not on the pricing page: what happens to the rate after you sign. Everything below is dated and sourced, and the contract language is quoted from Toast's own merchant agreement, the version last updated September 10, 2025, read on September 2, 2026. One disclosure up front: Dinevate does not sell a register and does not compete with Toast for one. We sell the guest-facing side, and we get to that at the end.

The dated record

Two things about that table. First, the 2026 rows are thinner than the earlier ones. One outlet is reporting them, the February piece is paywalled, and Toast itself has published no notice we could find, so if you are on Toast the only authoritative source for your rate is the notice in your own inbox. Second, the pattern is not hidden. It was announced to investors in May 2024, and the phrase "small portion" in Toast's own 2024 statement is the shape of it: not every merchant, not all at once. In November 2024 the CFO described the September change as "targeted payment pricing changes for a small cohort of customers" and said Toast was "building a motion for ongoing small targeted price adjustments."

One line worth reading twice. In October 2024 a Toast spokesperson told Payments Dive that "for the past 12 years, we've never increased card processing rates for customers." Toast's own July 2023 letter had put it more narrowly: "no broad-based price increases" in twelve years. Both sit awkwardly next to the December 2022 change documented by Merchant Cost Consulting and Reforming Retail, which came with a surcharge option. We print all three and let you weigh them.

What thirty days' notice actually means

Trade press summarizes the exit right; the agreement itself is more specific and, on one point, more generous than the summaries. Section 6.2 of Toast's merchant agreement says:

"Toast reserves the right to change (i) Card processing rates and other non-Software Fees at any time during the Term upon thirty (30) days' prior written notice to Merchant, and (ii) any Fees at the beginning of, or at any time during, a Renewal Term upon thirty (30) days' prior written notice to Merchant. In each case, such notice will include the effective date of the change(s)."

So the notice must be written and must carry a date. Software fees are a separate matter: "Merchant's Fees for Software will remain unchanged during the Initial Term of this Agreement." Processing rates and other non-software fees can move mid-term; the software subscription cannot, until renewal.

Then the part nobody ranks for. The agreement splits your response by what changed. For an increase in a non-software fee, or in a software module other than the core POS tablet subscription, clause (a) lets you remove that product or module, and nothing more. For "a change in Card processing rates or in the Fee for Toast's monthly POS core tablet subscription," clause (b) lets you respond that "Merchant has elected to terminate this Agreement," and the agreement adds: "In the event of a termination by Merchant pursuant to clause (b) of this Section 6.2, the Early Termination Fee under Section 8.4 shall not apply (other than the processing fee for Software financing)." That fee, per Section 8.4, is the remaining software subscription fees for the rest of the term, or $150 for each remaining month on a pay-as-you-go subscription. A rate notice is the one moment it disappears.

Read the conditions carefully, because they are where people lose the right. The election has to be in writing and has to reach Toast before the effective date in the notice; keep using the system past that date and, in the agreement's words, "Merchant shall be deemed to have accepted such change(s)." And "in writing" has a definition. Section 14.2 says notices to Toast "must be sent via registered mail, postage prepaid, return receipt requested, to Toast, Inc., 333 Summer Street Boston, MA 02210, Attn: General Counsel." An email to your account manager is a courtesy copy, not the notice. Prepaid amounts stay non-refundable, and if you financed hardware through the plan, the processing fee on that financing still applies.

One more reason to read your own copy: the clause has narrowed. The 2023 version, quoted by Reforming Retail that July, let a merchant terminate over any fee or rate change. The September 2025 version limits termination to card rates and the core tablet fee and routes everything else to clause (a). We could not pin down when the wording changed, and your agreement may be a different version than the one we read, so check your copy before you rely on any of this. The agreement also renews automatically for one-year terms unless either side gives thirty days' notice, and each renewal picks up the then-current version.

The thirty-day checklist

The notice is the clock. Here is what to do with it.

Find the effective date and work backwards. The agreement requires the notice to include it. Put a reminder ten days before, because the election has to be in writing and received before that date, not sent on it.

Put a dollar figure on the change. Multiply the increase by your monthly card volume. KoronaPOS did the math for the 2024 change: 0.23% on $100,000 a month is $230 a month and $2,760 a year. On the reported 2026 figure of 20 basis points, the same volume is $200 a month. Your own statement gives you the volume.

Ask two questions in writing. Which transactions does the new rate apply to (the September 2024 increase was card-present only, per Merchant Cost Consulting), and what your all-in effective rate will be after it. A rate notice is the one moment the account rep has a reason to answer precisely.

Decide with the leverage you have. The election right is leverage even if you never use it. Three honest outcomes: accept it because switching costs more than $200 a month; negotiate, since the notice is the one time Toast has a contractual reason to keep you; or elect to terminate: a registered letter to the Boston address in Section 14.2, citing Section 6.2(b), mailed early enough to arrive before the effective date, with the return receipt kept. Email your rep the same day, but the letter is the notice. If you go the third way, plan the register migration before the date, because the exit right ends the agreement, not the hardware financing.

Watch the surcharging prompt. Toast's own help article on Credit Card Surcharging says you "may be prompted to accept new card processing rates in order to use" the feature, and that if you turn surcharging off later "you will remain subject to whatever pricing was in effect at that time." Turning on a feature can carry a rate change with it; read that prompt as a notice.

The fee that lands on the guest

The 2023 episode is the one to remember, because it shows where fees go when a restaurant will not absorb them: to the guest, at checkout. Toast added $0.99 to online orders over $10, restaurants found out from their customers, and the company reversed it in nine days. The 2022 change offered the same move as an option: eat 15 basis points or surcharge the guest $0.99.

That is the part of the bill we work on. Dinevate builds the guest-facing stack, the website, online ordering, and the branded app, so the direct-order channel runs on terms you set rather than on a processor's rate card. It runs alongside whatever register you keep, Toast included, and it does not change the rate Toast charges at your counter; we would rather say that plainly than imply otherwise. The shape of the price is the opposite of a cadence: $499 one time, a set onboarding price covering the website, online ordering, the branded mobile app, loyalty, local SEO content on your own domain, email marketing, and the Order Manager tablet (loaned, Dinevate property), then one ongoing arrangement quoted per restaurant, a per-order service fee or a flat monthly, with no contract and no cancellation penalty. Something always recurs; we say so up front. The line-by-line is in the Dinevate vs Toast comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Did Toast raise its fees in 2026? Trade press reported increases in February and August 2026; the August figure, 20 basis points, comes from a single outlet and Toast described it on its earnings call only as "small targeted pricing moves." No Toast-published notice is public, so the authoritative source for your rate is the written notice the agreement requires Toast to send you.

How much notice does Toast have to give before raising rates? Thirty days' written notice including the effective date, under Section 6.2 of the merchant agreement (version last updated September 10, 2025). Software fees cannot change during the initial term; processing rates and other non-software fees can.

Can I cancel Toast without an early termination fee after a rate increase? For a change to card processing rates or the core tablet subscription fee, yes: elect to terminate in writing before the effective date and Section 6.2 says the early termination fee under Section 8.4 does not apply, except the processing fee on any software financing. The notice has to go by registered mail to Toast's Boston headquarters under Section 14.2. Prepaid amounts are not refunded, and for any other fee the remedy is dropping the affected module, not terminating. Check your own version of the agreement.

What was the $0.99 Toast fee? A fee on online orders of $10 or more, charged to the guest, that went live July 10, 2023 and was withdrawn July 19, 2023 after restaurants objected. Some pages still describe it as current; it is not.

Does Dinevate replace Toast? No. Dinevate is not a point of sale. It runs the guest-facing side, direct online ordering, the website, and the app, next to the register you keep, and prices that side at $499 once plus one quoted ongoing arrangement with no contract.