How to Audit the Square 2026 Fee Increase on Your Statement

Find your exact Square processing rates by signing into the Dashboard and navigating to Settings > Account & Settings > Pricing & subscriptions. This screen displays the irrefutable percentage and per-transaction fees currently assigned to your account across in-person, online, and keyed payments.

Auditing these rates directly in your dashboard matters because Square deducts payment processing fees from the total transaction amount before funds hit your bank account. That gross total includes sales tax and customer tips. Your actual fee per ticket is calculated on the total collected dollar value, not just the base price of goods sold. Check this screen regularly to audit a Square merchant statement for rate creep and ensure parity between advertised and actual rates before taking payouts.

Effective January 13, 2026, Square increased online card processing fees for Free plan accounts from 2.9% + $0.30 to 3.3% + $0.30 per transaction. On the same date, online processing for Premium plan subscribers increased from 2.6% + $0.30 to 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

These online adjustments followed a prior merchant account rate change on November 4, 2025. Square raised its in-person card-present per-transaction fee from $0.10 to $0.15 while keeping the percentage rate at 2.6%.

Currently, the Square Free plan carries a $0 per month subscription with 2.6% + $0.15 in-person and 3.3% + $0.30 online processing. Square Plus costs $49 per month per location, offering 2.5% + $0.15 in-person and 2.9% + $0.30 online. Square Premium costs $149 per month per location, featuring 2.4% + $0.15 in-person and 2.9% + $0.30 online processing rates.

For a merchant processing $10,000 per month across 200 transactions at a $50 average sale, processing costs range from $3,240 per year on Premium card-present up to $4,200 per year for online transactions. At $10,000 per month, Square Premium card-present flat rates cost $270 per month or $3,240 per year, representing a 2.7% all-in effective rate. On Square Plus card-present, processing costs $280 per month or $3,360 per year for a 2.8% all-in effective rate. On Square Free card-present, costs reach $290 per month or $3,480 per year for a 2.9% all-in effective rate.

Online processing across all three tiers hits $350 per month or $4,200 per year at $10,000 per month in volume. This yields a 3.5% all-in effective rate and creates a $960 annual spread between the cheapest and most expensive options. Merchants should review the impact and true costs for retailers to understand how this hits margins.

At $25,000 per month across 500 transactions at a $50 average sale, Square Premium card-present costs $675 per month or $8,100 per year for a 2.7% effective rate. Square Plus card-present costs $700 per month or $8,400 per year for a 2.8% effective rate, and Square Free card-present costs $725 per month or $8,700 per year for a 2.9% effective rate. Online processing at $25,000 per month reaches $875 per month or $10,500 per year across all plans for a 3.5% effective rate. This results in a $2,400 annual spread between the cheapest Premium card-present rate and the online rate.

Peripheral fees like manually keyed transactions at 3.5% + $0.15, non-refundable processing fees, and ACH transfer fees quietly inflate merchant costs beyond the 2.78% blended effective rate Parity observes across online rate report observations. Manually keyed and card-on-file entries carry a steep flat rate of 3.5% + $0.15 across all Square service plans. This severely raises expenses if staff frequently type in card numbers.

Square does not refund the original payment processing fees when you issue a customer refund. Your business absorbs the processing cost for returned items entirely.

ACH bank transfers processed via invoice incur a 1% fee with a $1 minimum, capped at $10 per transaction for Plus and Premium plans. ACH transfers processed via API carry a 1% fee with a $1 minimum and a $5 cap.

US businesses processing over $250,000 annually qualify to contact Square sales for custom processing rates or should explore traditional interchange-plus providers. Square's lowest published in-person rate on the Premium plan is 2.4% + $0.15 per transaction. By comparison, Visa's published table shows base Visa Credit CPS Retail interchange sits at 1.51% + $0.10. This illustrates the significant markup Square collects on flat-rate card processing.

For high-volume merchants, flat-rate pricing retains a large margin above base network costs like Visa Credit CPS Retail at 1.51% + $0.10 or Mastercard Consumer Credit Merit III Core at 1.65% + $0.10. Reaching the $250,000 annual threshold provides the leverage needed to negotiate custom rates with Square or evaluate processors offering direct interchange-plus schedules. You can compare Chase Payment Solutions vs Square to see exact volume thresholds where interchange-plus undercuts flat-rate models.