--- title: "Block's Square prices its AI kiosk at $1,999 plus $99 a month as Toast falls 3.37%" description: "Block's Square began selling a voice-ordered restaurant kiosk on October 14, 2026, for $1,999 plus $99 per device each month, with card fees on top. Toast, which runs software and payments for about 180,000 locations, now faces a rival that bills the terminal, the software and the processing as three separate lines." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Hardware" published: 2026-10-15T01:16:42.404Z modified: 2026-10-15T01:16:42.404Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/block-s-square-prices-its-ai-kiosk-at-1-999-plus-99-a-month-as-toast-falls-3-37 language: en keywords: "Payments, Restaurants, Hardware, AI" --- # Block's Square prices its AI kiosk at $1,999 plus $99 a month as Toast falls 3.37% > Block's Square began selling a voice-ordered restaurant kiosk on October 14, 2026, for $1,999 plus $99 per device each month, with card fees on top. Toast, which runs software and payments for about 180,000 locations, now faces a rival that bills the terminal, the software and the processing as three separate lines. ## A kiosk with three price tags Square, the point-of-sale and payments brand of [Block](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/block) (NYSE: XYZ), [began selling Square Kiosk on October 14, 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/introducing-square-kiosk-reimagining-self-160000799.html): a 21.5-inch terminal for quick-service restaurants whose voice layer reads a seller's full menu, answers questions and takes the order by speech [1][2]. The device carries a [published price list](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/kiosk): $1,999 for the hardware, $99 per device each month for software, and a required Square Plus plan at $49 per location per month, or Premium at $149 [1]. Card fees of 2.5 percent plus 15 cents sit on every tap or dip [3]. Square also shipped multi-account tools that let franchise operators manage menus, reporting and gift cards across whole networks [1]. [Toast](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/toast) (NYSE: TOST), the restaurant software and payments platform, fell more than 4.5 percent in midday trading and closed down 3.37 percent, taking its 2026 decline to 17 percent; Block slipped 1.31 percent [4]. ## Two ways to bill one restaurant Toast sells hardware at a loss and earns on the money moving through it; the new kiosk instead charges for the terminal, the software and the swipe. Toast's [second-quarter filing](https://investors.toasttab.com/news/news-details/2026/Toast-Announces-Second-Quarter-2026-Financial-Results/default.aspx) shows the split: hardware and services lost $68 million at the gross line, while financial technology, mostly payments, delivered $1.57 billion of its $1.908 billion revenue [5]. Toast's [public pricing](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing) quotes restaurant plans at $0 and $69 a month and lists no kiosk on the page; hardware arrives as kits and add-ons [6]. Square just published the per-device number instead. ## The incumbent enters at speed Toast's second quarter, reported August 4, showed no crack [5]. Revenue rose 23 percent to $1.908 billion, net income rose 93 percent to $154 million, and gross payment volume, the dollars run through its platform, grew 22 percent to $60.7 billion [4][5]. *Chart: **Toast has strung together nine straight quarterly profits** Line chart of Toast's quarterly net income, from a loss of $83 million in Q1 2024 to a profit of $154 million in Q2 2026.* *Quarterly net income in US$ millions, Q3 2023 through Q2 2026, from Toast's SEC filings. Toast has been profitable since the quarter ended June 2024. [11]* Toast added a record 9,500 net locations to reach roughly 180,000, and raised its full-year outlook for adjusted EBITDA, a profit measure that excludes items such as stock-based compensation, depreciation and taxes, to a range of $805 million to $825 million [5]. The fight is mutual: on April 14, Toast [launched Toast Drive-Thru with AI voice-ordering partners](https://investors.toasttab.com/news/news-details/2026/Toast-Launches-Unified-Drive-Thru-Solution-to-Modernize-Enterprise-Quick-Service-Restaurant-Operations/default.aspx), aimed at chains of 15 or more locations [8]. *Chart: **Toast's revenue has grown at least 21 percent year over year for twelve straight quarters** Line chart of Toast's quarterly revenue rising from $1.03 billion in Q3 2023 to $1.91 billion in Q2 2026.* *Quarterly total revenue in US$ billions, Q3 2023 through Q2 2026, from Toast's SEC filings. Growth rates are year over year. [10]* ## One device against 180,000 counters The kiosk ships in English only, in the United States only [3]. Square's previous kiosk, sold for about two years, was an iPad stand without voice, and the new device is Square's first that takes a voice order [7]. Toast's own counter kiosks remain touchscreen order-and-pay devices [4]. None of Toast's reported numbers include a day of competition from the new terminal, and [coverage of the drop noted investor concern about added competition](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tost-stock-tumbles-square-rolls-191731315.html) rather than any lost account [4]. ## The count that settles it Toast had not set a third-quarter report date as of October 15; it reported the first quarter on May 7 and the second on August 4, a cadence that points to early November [9]. The metric to watch is net location additions, which Toast reports every quarter. The kiosk becomes a story the day that count slows. ## Takeaway Square has published a price for what Toast bundles: $1,999 for the terminal, $99 a month per device, plus plan and card fees. Toast enters the fight profitable and growing, so its net location additions in early November are the number to watch. ## Sources 1. [Business Wire via Yahoo Finance, "Introducing the New Square Kiosk: Reimagining Self-Service with Intelligence," 14 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/introducing-square-kiosk-reimagining-self-160000799.html) 2. [The Verge, Jay Peters, "Square's new kiosk lets you talk to AI for help with your order," 14 October 2026](https://www.theverge.com/tech/1009086/square-kiosk) 3. [Square (Block), Square Kiosk product and pricing page, accessed 15 October 2026](https://squareup.com/us/en/hardware/kiosk) 4. [StockTwits via Yahoo Finance, Anan Ashraf, "TOST Stock Tumbles As Square Rolls Out AI Voice Kiosk Aimed At Restaurants," 14 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/tost-stock-tumbles-square-rolls-191731315.html) 5. [Toast, Inc., "Toast Announces Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results," 4 August 2026](https://investors.toasttab.com/news/news-details/2026/Toast-Announces-Second-Quarter-2026-Financial-Results/default.aspx) 6. [Toast POS, official restaurant pricing and plans page, accessed 15 October 2026](https://pos.toasttab.com/pricing) 7. [Digital Transactions, Kevin Woodward, "Square Injects AI and a Larger Display into its Kiosk POS Device," 14 October 2026](https://www.digitaltransactions.net/square-injects-ai-and-a-larger-display-into-its-kiosk-pos-device/) 8. [Toast, Inc., "Toast Launches Unified Drive-Thru Solution to Modernize Enterprise Quick-Service Restaurant Operations," 14 April 2026](https://investors.toasttab.com/news/news-details/2026/Toast-Launches-Unified-Drive-Thru-Solution-to-Modernize-Enterprise-Quick-Service-Restaurant-Operations/default.aspx) 9. [Toast, Inc. investor relations, news index, accessed 15 October 2026](https://investors.toasttab.com/news/default.aspx) 10. [Toast, Inc., quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001650164) 11. [Toast, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001650164) --- Block's Square prices its AI kiosk at $1,999 plus $99 a month as Toast falls 3.37% — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/block-s-square-prices-its-ai-kiosk-at-1-999-plus-99-a-month-as-toast-falls-3-37