The short version
Toast sells a food truck two ways in 2026. The Starter Kit is $0 a month in software for one location and up to two terminals, open to new customers, with the hardware in the kit yours to keep and a card rate of 3.09% + 15¢ per transaction on the Basic package (3.39% on Core, 3.69% on Growth). The Point of Sale plan starts at $69 a month with a 2.49% card rate whose per-transaction cents Toast does not publish. Both come with a two-year software agreement that renews yearly. The reason to pick Toast over Square on a truck is the Toast Go 3 cellular handheld (4G built in, $20 a month) and the restaurant tooling behind it; the reason not to is the rate on the $0 plan and the contract.
Every figure on this page was read on October 13, 2026 on the vendor's own pricing, hardware or help pages (Toast's and Clover's sites block automated readers, so their pages were read through a rendering proxy of the same vendor URLs; nothing here comes from a review site). Where a number is not on a vendor page, we say so. Prices change; confirm the current figure on the linked page before you sign. For the three-way comparison with Clover, see Toast vs Square for a food truck; for Square alone, Square for food trucks; for the one-page verdict, best POS for food trucks.
What Toast costs
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| Plan | Software | In-person card rate | Who it is for | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Kit, Pay-as-you-Go, Basic | $0 a month | 3.09% + 15¢ | New customers, one location, up to two terminals | 2-year agreement |
| Starter Kit, Core | $0 a month | 3.39% + 15¢ | Adds the online-ordering tier | 2-year agreement |
| Starter Kit, Growth | $0 a month | 3.69% + 15¢ | More software included | 2-year agreement |
| Point of Sale (Toast calls it Traditional pricing) | Starting at $69 a month; hardware bought upfront | 2.49%, cents not published | Established operations | 12 to 36 months per Toast's annual report |
| Build Your Own | Custom pricing | Quoted | Multi-location | Quoted |
Three things the table cannot show:
- The cents on the paid plan are not on any Toast page we read. Review sites print "2.49% + 15¢"; Toast's own shop page says only "This option includes a 2.49% card processing fee." Until Toast publishes it, the paid plan's true per-ticket cost is unknown, and at an $18 ticket the cents matter: 15¢ on 8,333 transactions is $1,250 a year.
- Online, keyed-in and invoice rates are not published either. The food truck page says "custom built rates"; the pricing page says "Simple, flat rate" without a number.
- "$0 to own" means the first device. Toast's hardware page says "$0 applies to first device hardware only. Software and processing fees apply." A second Flex terminal in the kit flow is $749 plus $50 a month.
Hardware for a truck
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| Device | What it is | Price on Toast's pages | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toast Go 3, Wi-Fi only | Handheld terminal, 6.52 in screen | $0 to own in the Handheld Starter Kit | Battery 24+ hours, IP65, 5 ft drop rating |
| Toast Go 3, Wi-Fi + Cellular | Same handheld with 4G | $0 to own in the Cellular Starter Kit, plus $20 a month cellular subscription | Carrier selected automatically by signal strength |
| Toast Go 2 | Previous handheld, up to 24 hours battery | No price published; the Go 2 hardware page now serves Go 3 content | — |
| Toast Flex 14" with Counter Stand | Countertop terminal | $749 + $50 a month as a kit add-on | — |
| Toast Tap (On Counter) | Customer-facing card reader | $99 as a kit add-on | — |
| Toast Router, cellular backup | Router with built-in cellular service | $40 a month subscription | Toast's offline guidance recommends a cellular backup |
| Toast Flex for Kitchen (KDS) | Kitchen display | Not published; "customized to your kitchen's layout and order volume" | — |
| Install | Self-install included | Virtual-led install $250 | — |
For a truck the device that matters is the Go 3. It is the only handheld in this comparison with cellular built in (Square's Handheld is Wi-Fi only; Clover's Flex has LTE), it survives a 5-foot drop and a wet counter on paper, and the battery claim covers a double shift. The cost of that is the $20 a month plan and, if you want a second one, the second-device price.
Offline mode, in Toast's own words
Toast's help page on operating offline (updated October 12, 2026) is unusually plain about the risk, so here it is as written:
- Offline Mode begins "40 seconds after no Internet connectivity or during a Toast outage," and "after about 40 seconds offline, a banner appears at the top of each affected device."
- Cards keep working because "Background card processing is on by default."
- You may set a per-transaction limit: "In Offline Mode, managers must override any individual transaction over this limit." Toast publishes no default dollar figure and no fixed deadline to reconnect.
- The risk sits with you: "You are responsible for any declined, expired, or disputed payments taken in Offline Mode." Authorizations can expire "as early as 24 hours from when the transaction occurred in some cases," and "If a payment declines once you're back online, it can't be re-run."
- Toast's advice: "Consider a cellular backup solution to avoid declined payments caused by expired authorizations."
Gift cards, loyalty, text-to-pay and house accounts do not work offline. On a truck the practical reading is: run the cellular Go 3 or the router backup and treat Offline Mode as the last resort it is designed to be, not as the plan for a festival with no signal.
The contract
- Every Starter Kit page states: "Subscription to Toast software with a 2 year agreement."
- The Merchant Agreement (last updated September 10, 2025): the term "shall automatically renew for successive one (1) year periods" unless a party gives "at least thirty (30) days' written notice of its intent not to renew."
- Early termination: an "early termination fee equal to either (i) the remaining Fees for Software Subscription Fees that would have otherwise been due" for the current term, or "for a Pay-as-you-go subscription, one-hundred and fifty dollars ($150.00) multiplied by the number of months remaining in the then-current Term."
- Toast's 2025 annual report: "contract terms for our SaaS products generally range from 12 to 36 months."
- Hardware: "change of title and ownership, and risk of loss, shall transfer to Merchant at the point of shipment." You own it; it is not a lease.
Put the renewal date in your calendar with the notice window, the way you would a commissary agreement.
What a year of Toast costs a truck
At $150,000 of in-person card sales with an $18 average ticket (8,333 transactions), using only the rates Toast publishes:
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| Plan | Percentage part | Per-transaction part | Processing a year | Software a year | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Kit Basic, 3.09% + 15¢ | $4,635 | $1,250 | $5,885 | $0 ($240 with the $20 cellular plan) | $5,885 to $6,125 |
| Starter Kit Core, 3.39% + 15¢ | $5,085 | $1,250 | $6,335 | $0 | $6,335 |
| Starter Kit Growth, 3.69% + 15¢ | $5,535 | $1,250 | $6,785 | $0 | $6,785 |
| Point of Sale, 2.49% + unpublished cents | $3,735 | Not computable | $3,735 plus the unpublished fee | $828 ("starting at" $69 × 12) | Not computable from Toast's pages |
Square Free on the same sales is $5,150 (2.6% + 15¢), so the $0 Toast kit costs a truck about $735 a year more in processing than the $0 Square plan, before the cellular plan. The paid Toast plan would be cheaper than both on the percentage alone if its per-transaction fee is small; Toast does not say, so neither do we.
Who Toast fits
- A truck attached to a restaurant or commissary kitchen already on Toast. One menu, one kitchen display, one report.
- A line-busting operation. Staff taking orders down the line on cellular Go 3 handhelds, with the order hitting a Flex for Kitchen inside the truck.
- Operators who want the restaurant feature set (menu tooling, KDS, team management, payroll add-ons) and will sign a two-year agreement to get it.
A single truck that works markets and events with one register, keeps a phone hotspot in the window and does not want a contract is better served by Square; the numbers are on the Square for food trucks page. If you are choosing between the two, read Toast vs Square for a food truck.
Not published by Toast (as of October 13, 2026)
Standalone list prices for the Toast Go 3, Go 2 and Tap outside the kit flow; the per-transaction cents on the Point of Sale plan; online, keyed-in and invoice rates; the cellular plan price outside the kit ($20 a month is the in-kit figure); any fixed offline reconnect deadline. If you are quoted any of these, get them in writing in the order form.