Calculate Square fees for every transaction type — in-person, online, invoice, and manual entry.
In-person, online & invoice · 2026
✓ Verified against Square official pricing · June 2026
Square built its reputation on transparent, predictable pricing aimed squarely at small businesses and in-person retailers — a free hardware reader, no monthly minimums, and rates that are simple to explain to a first-time business owner. While Stripe has become the default for purely online businesses, Square remains the stronger choice for anyone with a meaningful in-person sales component, from coffee shops to craft fair vendors.
Square's 2.6% + $0.10 in-person rate is meaningfully cheaper than its 2.9% + $0.30 online rate — a pattern that holds across most payment processors, since card-present transactions carry lower fraud risk than card-not-present online purchases. For businesses straddling both channels, this means tracking which percentage of sales come through each method matters for accurate financial forecasting, and it's worth encouraging in-person payment methods where genuinely convenient for your customer base.
Picture a vendor selling handmade soap at weekend markets, averaging $600 in sales across 40 transactions per event. At Square's in-person rate, fees total $600 × 2.6% + (40 × $0.10) = $15.60 + $4.00 = $19.60 for the day — about 3.27% of revenue. If that same vendor also took some online pre-orders processed at the higher 2.9% + $0.30 online rate, those specific transactions would cost proportionally more, making it worth encouraging customers toward in-person payment whenever both options are genuinely available.
Square Plus, at $29/month, primarily reduces the invoice processing rate and adds team management features. For businesses sending frequent invoices rather than processing card-present sales, the reduced invoice rate can offset the subscription cost relatively quickly — but for vendors whose business is almost entirely in-person card transactions, the free plan typically remains the more economical choice since invoicing represents a small fraction of their volume.
Both processors land at nearly identical online rates (2.9% + $0.30), making the choice between them less about pure cost and more about your business model. Square's integrated hardware ecosystem — readers, terminals, point-of-sale software — creates a smoother experience for physical retail than assembling a comparable setup around Stripe. Stripe, conversely, offers deeper API flexibility for businesses building custom checkout experiences or complex subscription models. Many hybrid online-and-offline businesses end up using Square specifically for in-person sales while running their website through Stripe, capturing each processor's relative strength.
| Payment Type | Rate | Fixed | On $100 | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In-person (tap / chip / swipe) | 2.6% | $0.10 | $2.70 | $97.30 |
| Cash App Pay | 2.6% | $0.10 | $2.70 | $97.30 |
| Online / eCommerce | 2.9% | $0.30 | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| Invoice | 3.3% | $0.30 | $3.60 | $96.40 |
| Manual card entry | 3.5% | $0.15 | $3.65 | $96.35 |