Square QR code ordering: cost and limits

Square’s QR code ordering is part of its online ordering: each table gets a code that opens the venue’s Square ordering page, the guest orders and pays on their phone, and the order lands on the Square POS and the kitchen printer or kitchen screen. As of October 2026, Square’s US plan chart shows it on Square Plus ($49 a month per location) and Square Premium ($149), not on Square Free, and card payments made online cost 2.9% + 30¢ on those two plans. If Square is already your till, start there.

Below: Square’s own words, the sums, and how QR ordering from another company can sit beside a Square till. The best QR code ordering systems compares nine.

How Square’s QR ordering works

Square’s help article for website QR ordering: you build an ordering page in Square Online, using the “Order Online” template, because “QR code ordering only works with the Order Online ordering page template”. Each item you want on it is marked for self-serve ordering. Then you create ordering stations (tables, seats, parking spots) and print the codes.

A unique code at each station is “great for smaller food venues and restaurants”; one code everywhere, with guests typing where they are, is “best for large-scale events and stadiums”.

The guest scans, and Square says customers “select items, add special requests, and pay” from their phone. Then “the order will appear on your point of sale, and feed directly to your kitchen ticket printer or kitchen display system (KDS).” Staff can run the order out, or the page can tell guests where to collect it.

Two more settings: you can charge “an optional service fee on QR code orders”, which you keep “minus standard processing fees”, and you can cap the number of alcoholic items in one order.

What it costs

Square’s US restaurant price list and plan chart, as of 12 October 2026:

Feature	Square Free	Square Plus	Square Premium
Monthly, per location	$0	$49	$149
QR code ordering	No	Yes	Yes
Card paid online	3.3% + 30¢	2.9% + 30¢	2.9% + 30¢
Card in person	2.6% + 15¢	2.5% + 15¢	2.4% + 15¢
Kitchen display app, per device a month	Not available	$30	$20
Take orders tableside	No	Yes	Yes
Card issued outside the US	+1.5%	+1.5%	+1.5%

Square offers “a free 30-day trial” on Plus and Premium, “and you can cancel or switch plans anytime”. Prices in other countries differ, and Square takes cards in eight: the US, Canada, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Spain.

Which rate applies to a QR order? Square’s help article says “everything is processed online”, and the price list puts card payments “made online or through an invoice” at the online rate. On that reading, a $60 table on Plus paying in one go from a phone costs 2.9% of $60, which is $1.74, plus 30¢: $2.04. If the four guests pay $15 each, every payment carries its own 30¢: 43.5¢ + 30¢ = 73.5¢, four times, $2.94. The same $60 tapped on a Square reader at the table costs 2.5% + 15¢: $1.65. The sums are ours. Ask Square which rate your account pays on a table order, and ask every vendor, Volio included, what a split bill costs in fees. What a QR ordering system costs runs the same sum across vendors.

Rounds, groups, tips: what the help pages say

QR code ordering needs Plus or Premium, so everything below does too:

• Tips. “You can set up tipping for pickup, local delivery, and QR code orders”: three default percentages, and “Customers can always change or remove the amount at checkout.”
• Group orders. Several guests add to one cart from their own phones. “Once the cart is complete, the cart owner can submit the order and pay.”
• Open tabs. “Open tabs lets customers place multiple in-person orders during a single visit and pay once at the end of their tab.” Customers “scan a QR code at their table” and pre-authorise a credit card, debit card, Cash App Pay or Google Pay. The hold is “the greater of the configured minimum or the customer’s initial order total”, and you set the minimum between $1.01 and $250.00. Staff can “add items to a customer’s tab from the POS”. “Multiple customers can open separate tabs at the same station”, and “Customers can’t switch stations while a tab is open.” Tabs are switched on under Online selling, QR Codes, in Square Dashboard, not in the website settings above.
• Scan to Pay. For checks rung up on the POS, a QR code printed on the bill lets the guest pay on their phone. Square lists it for Plus and Premium with its advanced restaurant features added.

What the pages leave open. On the POS, a check splits “by items or seats”, or into equal payments. The help pages listed below do not describe one guest paying only for their own dishes from a shared QR order: the group order is paid by the cart owner, and the published way to pay apart is a separate tab for each guest. The QR ordering pages also do not mention menus in the guest’s language. Ask Square to show you both.

Who should choose Square

Square fits better than a second system when:

• You already run Square. QR orders land on the till you have, in the same reports, with no second system to match at close.
• You want hardware from the same company. Square Handheld is “IP54-rated to withstand water splashes and dust” and takes cards itself.
• You want card payments when the internet drops. Square publishes offline payments, with the rule that they “will be declined if you do not reconnect to the internet within 24 hours of taking your first offline payment”.
• You want a tab that holds a card. The pre-authorised open tab above, which staff can add to from the POS.
• You want one company for more. Delivery-app orders in one place, a checking account and loans come from Square too, and Premium has 24/7 phone support.

It does not fit outside its eight countries, or if you want QR ordering without moving your till to Square: the orders go to Square’s POS.

Where Volio differs

Volio is one system for any venue: guests scan a code at the table, order together from several phones, add a round later, and each guest pays their own part with Apple Pay, Google Pay or a card, with the tip set before paying. The menu opens in the guest’s language, translated by machine, every line editable. It runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers you own, and every plan has unlimited tables, staff, phones and screens, so a second kitchen screen adds nothing to the plan.

Volio can sit beside a Square till, but it publishes no connection to Square. Instead the back office has “Paid at the table”, a list of each phone payment with its table, amount and time, and whoever cashes up enters them on the till at close. That is two systems to match at close, and a POS that works beside your till explains how it runs. Volio’s own POS can replace the till instead.

What Square has and Volio does not: a free POS plan, hardware and card readers, one account for till and card payments, a tab that holds a card, delivery, and years in the market. Volio is new (it launched in October 2026) and promises no offline mode. Payments go to the venue’s own account with the payment provider. Volio takes a small fee on a bill paid by phone. Guests see it before they pay, or the venue switches to covering it. Nothing when a guest pays cash or the waiter.

Every plan starts with 30 days of Pro, free, and a venue that cancels keeps its QR menu online, free: see the plans and prices. Volio launched in October 2026.

Sources

Read on 12 October 2026. Prices are Square’s US prices on that day.

• Square: QR code ordering
• Square: Restaurant POS pricing, US (plans, plan chart, rates, trial, offline payments, support)
• Square Support: Set up and manage QR code ordering for your website
• Square Support: Manage checkout options for your website (tips, group ordering)
• Square Support: Set up open tabs for your online selling profile
• Square Support: Checkout with Scan to Pay
• Square Support: Accepted cards (countries)
• Square: Square Handheld