Toast (TOST)
Connects restaurant point of sale, payments, hardware, and operating software.
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Toast sells restaurants the touchscreen cash registers and software that run the front counter, then earns most of its money by taking a slice of every card payment that crosses them. The software wins the customer; the payment slice pays the bills. What is changing is who buys it: chains, hotel dining rooms, grocers, and restaurants abroad. An assistant that reads a restaurant's own sales now rides on the same screens.
Item facts: FY2025 · year ended Dec 31, 2025, from filings, earnings calls and company pages.
Judgment weights, not filed revenue
The band summarizes business focus and direction. ~ marks estimates.
7 in detail · 12 more below
Toast Payment Processing
Toast moves the card money for the restaurants on its system — $60.7B of tabs in the second quarter of 2026, billed at about 2.6%. Only roughly 50 cents per $100 stays with Toast. Spending per restaurant is flat, so growth means signing more of them.
Competes with Clover payments (Fiserv) · Square for Restaurants payments (Block) · SkyTab restaurant payments (Shift4)
In plain English
When you tap a card to pay for dinner, someone has to carry that money from your bank to the restaurant's account. At a Toast restaurant, that someone is Toast.
The restaurant hands over roughly two and a half cents on the dollar plus fifteen cents a swipe, and almost all of it goes straight back out to the bank that issued your card and to the card networks. What stays is about fifty cents per hundred dollars — thin, but it runs across tens of billions of dollars of restaurant tabs a quarter, and the cheaper plans oblige restaurants to use it. Adyen, a payments partner since 2021, does the processing behind Toast abroad and, since August 2026, in the United States.
Toast Point of Sale
The software half: $936M in FY2025, up 33% and growing faster than payments, and lately about two-fifths of what Toast keeps after costs. By mid-2026 the average location was paying roughly $540 a month, far above the price of a single screen.
Competes with Square for Restaurants (Block) · Lightspeed Restaurant (Lightspeed) · TouchBistro POS (TouchBistro)
In plain English
Picture the tablet a server taps to send your order to the kitchen. That is the product — cash register, order screen and back office in one, rented by the month instead of bought.
The cheapest plan costs nothing at all, with the cost buried in a higher card rate; the standard one runs $69 a month per screen, and each add-on carries its own fee: payroll, staff scheduling, kitchen displays, gift cards, online ordering, food-cost tracking. A busy restaurant ends up with several screens and several add-ons, which is why the typical location pays many times the headline price.
Toast IQ and Toast IQ Grow
Toast's AI layer, built on the sales data of the roughly 180,000 locations already on the system; about 40,000 use it weekly. The paid marketing tier costs $499 a month and pilot restaurants saw around 8% higher sales. How many buy it is undisclosed.
Competes with Square AI restaurant assistant (Block) · Olo Engage (Olo) · Popmenu marketing suite (Popmenu)
In plain English
Every order a Toast restaurant takes leaves a trace — what sold, when, and for how much. Toast IQ is the software that reads all of it and answers back: not a report to be studied, more a colleague who never stops watching the numbers.
The paid tier arrived in May 2026 at $499 a month and takes over the marketing: the restaurant's website, its online ordering page, its emails and its ads, run by a software agent with one human marketing manager attached. It is sold to restaurants that already pay Toast, so every sale is a raise on a bill that was already arriving.
Toast for Enterprise
The push above independent restaurants into chains and hotel dining rooms. Applebee's is the largest win by committed locations, roughly 1,500 of them; Hilton, Marriott, Choice and Best Western point franchisees at Toast. Chains pay less per location, and money arrives only as sites go live.
Competes with Hospitality Simphony POS (Oracle) · Brink POS (PAR Technology) · Chain digital ordering (Olo)
In plain English
A thousand-restaurant chain does not buy a cash register the way a neighbourhood diner does. It swaps out every location on a rollout schedule that takes years, and it expects a discount for the volume.
Toast built its business on independents; this is the effort to win the chains above them and the food-and-drink operations inside hotels. Applebee's, Topgolf, Firehouse Subs, Papa Murphy's and Potbelly have signed, and hotel groups now list Toast as an approved supplier, which puts it in front of franchise owners one at a time. Each location pays less per month than a typical independent — but a chain brings a great many locations.
Food & Beverage Retail
The same platform re-cut for grocers, convenience stores and bottle shops, with stock tracking built for shelves and acceptance of government food-assistance cards. Management says these shops pay more per month than the average restaurant. The location count is not broken out.
Competes with Clover retail bundles (Fiserv) · Square for Retail (Block)
In plain English
Not every business that rings up a card sale is a restaurant. A corner grocery with a deli counter, a convenience store, a wine shop — each needs a till, a way to know what is left on the shelf, and a payroll run on Friday.
Toast rebuilt its restaurant system for those shops. The payments, the loans, the payroll and the scheduling carry straight over; what it added is stock management suited to aisles rather than menus, plus acceptance of the government food-assistance cards shoppers pay with. Management's example of the opening: a grocery-deli-and-wine-bar hybrid that had been running two separate systems at once.
Toast Capital
Short-term loans to restaurants already on Toast — $1,000 to $300,000, repaid out of each day's card sales. About 3 cents of every revenue dollar, and the profit from it kept climbing through 2026. Watch defaults: bad debt has run near $30M a quarter this year.
Competes with Square Loans (Block) · Clover Capital (Fiserv)
In plain English
Banks are wary of lending to a twelve-table restaurant with nothing to pledge. Toast is less wary, because it can already see the money arriving: it handles every card sale the place makes.
So it offers a loan of a thousand dollars up to three hundred thousand, with no credit check, no personal guarantee and a single fixed fee. Repayment comes off the top of each day's card takings until it is done. A partner bank issues the loans and Toast buys them back — which is the catch, because when a restaurant stops paying, the loss lands on Toast rather than the bank.
Toast Hardware and Professional Services
Terminals, handhelds, kiosks and kitchen screens, sold at or below cost to land the location: $180M in FY2025, down 10%, and a drag on profit in the latest quarter. Memory-chip prices and tariffs made 2026 more expensive.
Competes with Square Register and Handheld (Block) · Clover devices (Fiserv) · Elo touchscreen terminals (Elo)
In plain English
The gear itself: the screen on the counter, the handheld a server carries to the table, the self-order kiosk by the door, the displays hanging over the kitchen line.
Toast would rather not make money here. The entry plan ships the equipment with nothing to pay up front and recovers the subsidy through a higher card rate — the old trick of the cheap printer and the expensive ink. The line shrank 10% in 2025 and ran at a loss in the second quarter of 2026. Then memory chips jumped in price and tariffs bit, so Toast bought memory ahead of the rises and leaned on older device designs.
Toast Payment ProcessingToast moves the card money for the restaurants on its system — $60.7B of tabs in the second quarter of 2026, billed at about 2.6%. Only roughly 50 cents per $100 stays with Toast. Spending per restaurant is flat, so growth means signing more of them.Toast moves the card money for the restaurants on its system — $60.7B of tabs in the second quarter of 2026, billed at about 2.6%. Only roughly 50 cents per $100 stays with Toast. Spending per restaurant is flat, so growth means signing more of them.
In plain English
When you tap a card to pay for dinner, someone has to carry that money from your bank to the restaurant's account. At a Toast restaurant, that someone is Toast.
The restaurant hands over roughly two and a half cents on the dollar plus fifteen cents a swipe, and almost all of it goes straight back out to the bank that issued your card and to the card networks. What stays is about fifty cents per hundred dollars — thin, but it runs across tens of billions of dollars of restaurant tabs a quarter, and the cheaper plans oblige restaurants to use it. Adyen, a payments partner since 2021, does the processing behind Toast abroad and, since August 2026, in the United States.
Competes with Clover payments (Fiserv) · Square for Restaurants payments (Block) · SkyTab restaurant payments (Shift4)
Toast Point of SaleThe software half: $936M in FY2025, up 33% and growing faster than payments, and lately about two-fifths of what Toast keeps after costs. By mid-2026 the average location was paying roughly $540 a month, far above the price of a single screen.The software half: $936M in FY2025, up 33% and growing faster than payments, and lately about two-fifths of what Toast keeps after costs. By mid-2026 the average location was paying roughly $540 a month, far above the price of a single screen.
In plain English
Picture the tablet a server taps to send your order to the kitchen. That is the product — cash register, order screen and back office in one, rented by the month instead of bought.
The cheapest plan costs nothing at all, with the cost buried in a higher card rate; the standard one runs $69 a month per screen, and each add-on carries its own fee: payroll, staff scheduling, kitchen displays, gift cards, online ordering, food-cost tracking. A busy restaurant ends up with several screens and several add-ons, which is why the typical location pays many times the headline price.
Competes with Square for Restaurants (Block) · Lightspeed Restaurant (Lightspeed) · TouchBistro POS (TouchBistro)
Toast IQ and Toast IQ GrowToast's AI layer, built on the sales data of the roughly 180,000 locations already on the system; about 40,000 use it weekly. The paid marketing tier costs $499 a month and pilot restaurants saw around 8% higher sales. How many buy it is undisclosed.Toast's AI layer, built on the sales data of the roughly 180,000 locations already on the system; about 40,000 use it weekly. The paid marketing tier costs $499 a month and pilot restaurants saw around 8% higher sales. How many buy it is undisclosed.
In plain English
Every order a Toast restaurant takes leaves a trace — what sold, when, and for how much. Toast IQ is the software that reads all of it and answers back: not a report to be studied, more a colleague who never stops watching the numbers.
The paid tier arrived in May 2026 at $499 a month and takes over the marketing: the restaurant's website, its online ordering page, its emails and its ads, run by a software agent with one human marketing manager attached. It is sold to restaurants that already pay Toast, so every sale is a raise on a bill that was already arriving.
Competes with Square AI restaurant assistant (Block) · Olo Engage (Olo) · Popmenu marketing suite (Popmenu)
Toast for EnterpriseThe push above independent restaurants into chains and hotel dining rooms. Applebee's is the largest win by committed locations, roughly 1,500 of them; Hilton, Marriott, Choice and Best Western point franchisees at Toast. Chains pay less per location, and money arrives only as sites go live.The push above independent restaurants into chains and hotel dining rooms. Applebee's is the largest win by committed locations, roughly 1,500 of them; Hilton, Marriott, Choice and Best Western point franchisees at Toast. Chains pay less per location, and money arrives only as sites go live.
In plain English
A thousand-restaurant chain does not buy a cash register the way a neighbourhood diner does. It swaps out every location on a rollout schedule that takes years, and it expects a discount for the volume.
Toast built its business on independents; this is the effort to win the chains above them and the food-and-drink operations inside hotels. Applebee's, Topgolf, Firehouse Subs, Papa Murphy's and Potbelly have signed, and hotel groups now list Toast as an approved supplier, which puts it in front of franchise owners one at a time. Each location pays less per month than a typical independent — but a chain brings a great many locations.
Competes with Hospitality Simphony POS (Oracle) · Brink POS (PAR Technology) · Chain digital ordering (Olo)
Food & Beverage RetailThe same platform re-cut for grocers, convenience stores and bottle shops, with stock tracking built for shelves and acceptance of government food-assistance cards. Management says these shops pay more per month than the average restaurant. The location count is not broken out.The same platform re-cut for grocers, convenience stores and bottle shops, with stock tracking built for shelves and acceptance of government food-assistance cards. Management says these shops pay more per month than the average restaurant. The location count is not broken out.
In plain English
Not every business that rings up a card sale is a restaurant. A corner grocery with a deli counter, a convenience store, a wine shop — each needs a till, a way to know what is left on the shelf, and a payroll run on Friday.
Toast rebuilt its restaurant system for those shops. The payments, the loans, the payroll and the scheduling carry straight over; what it added is stock management suited to aisles rather than menus, plus acceptance of the government food-assistance cards shoppers pay with. Management's example of the opening: a grocery-deli-and-wine-bar hybrid that had been running two separate systems at once.
Competes with Clover retail bundles (Fiserv) · Square for Retail (Block)
Toast CapitalShort-term loans to restaurants already on Toast — $1,000 to $300,000, repaid out of each day's card sales. About 3 cents of every revenue dollar, and the profit from it kept climbing through 2026. Watch defaults: bad debt has run near $30M a quarter this year.Short-term loans to restaurants already on Toast — $1,000 to $300,000, repaid out of each day's card sales. About 3 cents of every revenue dollar, and the profit from it kept climbing through 2026. Watch defaults: bad debt has run near $30M a quarter this year.
In plain English
Banks are wary of lending to a twelve-table restaurant with nothing to pledge. Toast is less wary, because it can already see the money arriving: it handles every card sale the place makes.
So it offers a loan of a thousand dollars up to three hundred thousand, with no credit check, no personal guarantee and a single fixed fee. Repayment comes off the top of each day's card takings until it is done. A partner bank issues the loans and Toast buys them back — which is the catch, because when a restaurant stops paying, the loss lands on Toast rather than the bank.
Competes with Square Loans (Block) · Clover Capital (Fiserv)
Toast Hardware and Professional ServicesTerminals, handhelds, kiosks and kitchen screens, sold at or below cost to land the location: $180M in FY2025, down 10%, and a drag on profit in the latest quarter. Memory-chip prices and tariffs made 2026 more expensive.Terminals, handhelds, kiosks and kitchen screens, sold at or below cost to land the location: $180M in FY2025, down 10%, and a drag on profit in the latest quarter. Memory-chip prices and tariffs made 2026 more expensive.
In plain English
The gear itself: the screen on the counter, the handheld a server carries to the table, the self-order kiosk by the door, the displays hanging over the kitchen line.
Toast would rather not make money here. The entry plan ships the equipment with nothing to pay up front and recovers the subsidy through a higher card rate — the old trick of the cheap printer and the expensive ink. The line shrank 10% in 2025 and ran at a loss in the second quarter of 2026. Then memory chips jumped in price and tariffs bit, so Toast bought memory ahead of the rises and leaned on older device designs.
Competes with Square Register and Handheld (Block) · Clover devices (Fiserv) · Elo touchscreen terminals (Elo)
Named in filings, launches and programs
- International (UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia)Segment · RampingIreland, the UK and Canada since 2021, Australia added in 2025. Fees per location run lower, and parts of the platform still need adapting for each country.
- Toast LocalEcosystem · RampingGuest app for booking and fee-free ordering, relaunched in 2026 with tables from Resy, American Express's reservation service — over 20,000 restaurants bookable.
- Toast Drive-ThruProduct line · RampingDrive-thru order screens built on Delphi Display Systems, bought in 2023; management calls the 2026 rollout its way into big fast-food chains.
- Toast Payroll SuiteProduct linePayroll and tax filing, from the 2019 StratEx purchase; it takes on ADP and Gusto for the same restaurant's paycheques.
- Team Management SuiteProduct lineShift scheduling and staff messaging, built on the 2022 Sling acquisition and sold as a monthly add-on to the main plan.
- Marketing SuiteProduct lineEmails, texts, loyalty points and gift cards — now fronted by the marketing agent inside Toast IQ Grow.
- Digital Storefront SuiteProduct lineThe restaurant's own website, ordering page and app; this is the ground where Toast meets Olo and ChowNow.
- Supplier & Accounting SuiteProduct lineReads supplier invoices and tracks what the food actually costs, from the 2021 xtraCHEF acquisition.
- Operations and Restaurant Management SuitesProduct lineKitchen display screens, multi-location controls and reporting; the enterprise edition is what ships at Applebee's.
- Toast AdvertisingService · RampingRestaurants pay Toast to drum up demand for them; still barely mentioned on earnings calls.
- Toast NowProductPhone app that lets an owner run the restaurant from their pocket; extended to the UK, Ireland and Canada.
- Toast CashCustomer program · AnnouncedA $5 guest credit launched in August 2026 with ordering through Google's Ask Maps, where orders carry no third-party commission.
International (UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia)Segment · Ramping
Ireland, the UK and Canada since 2021, Australia added in 2025. Fees per location run lower, and parts of the platform still need adapting for each country.
Toast LocalEcosystem · Ramping
Guest app for booking and fee-free ordering, relaunched in 2026 with tables from Resy, American Express's reservation service — over 20,000 restaurants bookable.
Toast Drive-ThruProduct line · Ramping
Drive-thru order screens built on Delphi Display Systems, bought in 2023; management calls the 2026 rollout its way into big fast-food chains.
Toast Payroll SuiteProduct line
Payroll and tax filing, from the 2019 StratEx purchase; it takes on ADP and Gusto for the same restaurant's paycheques.
Team Management SuiteProduct line
Shift scheduling and staff messaging, built on the 2022 Sling acquisition and sold as a monthly add-on to the main plan.
Marketing SuiteProduct line
Emails, texts, loyalty points and gift cards — now fronted by the marketing agent inside Toast IQ Grow.
Digital Storefront SuiteProduct line
The restaurant's own website, ordering page and app; this is the ground where Toast meets Olo and ChowNow.
Supplier & Accounting SuiteProduct line
Reads supplier invoices and tracks what the food actually costs, from the 2021 xtraCHEF acquisition.
Operations and Restaurant Management SuitesProduct line
Kitchen display screens, multi-location controls and reporting; the enterprise edition is what ships at Applebee's.
Toast AdvertisingService · Ramping
Restaurants pay Toast to drum up demand for them; still barely mentioned on earnings calls.
Toast NowProduct
Phone app that lets an owner run the restaurant from their pocket; extended to the UK, Ireland and Canada.
Toast CashCustomer program · Announced
A $5 guest credit launched in August 2026 with ordering through Google's Ask Maps, where orders carry no third-party commission.