Restaurant Payment Processing: The Complete Cost Guide

The programs a restaurant sale actually lands in

Visa's US schedule does not have one restaurant rate; it has several, and which one applies turns on the card and the channel rather than on anything you negotiate. Two points about reading the table below. First, the consumer credit rows carry a minimum rather than a fixed per-transaction amount, which is unusual in the schedule and matters on small tickets: Restaurant 2 is 2.60% with a minimum of $0.04, so a very small sale is charged the minimum rather than the percentage. Second, in Visa's consumer credit tables the card-present rows are the ones numbered 2 and the card-not-present rows are numbered 1, which is the opposite of what the numbering suggests. These are interchange reimbursement fees paid between financial institutions; Visa states that merchants do not pay them, and your merchant discount sits on top.

Under $280,000 in Visa credit sales? There is a separate table

This is the part of the schedule most restaurant operators have never been shown. Visa publishes a Small Merchant Fee Program with its own consumer credit rates, and the Small Merchant Category Volume Maximum is stated in the schedule as $280,000 in gross Visa consumer credit sales, based on 12 months of Visa system activity ending September 30, 2024. Small Merchant Restaurant 1 & 2 is listed at 2.60% (min. $0.04) for Visa Infinite, Visa Signature and Visa Signature Preferred and 2.10% (min. $0.04) for Traditional Rewards and all other products. Because that row covers 1 and 2 together, the card-not-present step up to 2.70% and 2.20% in the standard table does not appear. The schedule adds a footnote worth knowing: a small merchant transaction that disqualifies for the Small Merchant Fee Program will be assessed at the next applicable rate. Visa points to its U.S. Interchange Reimbursement Fee Rate Qualification Guide for the complete conditions, and that guide is not among the public documents we checked. So treat this as a question to put to your processor in writing rather than a rate to assume: are our sales being submitted for the Small Merchant Fee Program, and if not, what disqualifies them?

Online ordering has published incentives attached to it

If you are pushing guests towards first-party online ordering, the schedule contains a reduction most merchants never ask about. Visa lists Card Not Present Incentive Types 1, 2 and 3 at -0.05%, -0.10% and -0.15% respectively, applied against the card-not-present rate. EMV Token transactions qualify for Type 1, Digital Commerce Authentication Program (DCAP) transactions qualify for Type 2, and DCAP plus EMV Token transactions qualify for Type 3. The schedule states that these incentives require CPS qualification and are subject to change, and it excludes Charity 1 and CPS/Utility. The practical reading for a restaurant is that tokenised, authenticated online orders are priced better than untokenised ones, and whether your ordering platform sends the data that earns the incentive is a question for the platform and the processor. You cannot see any of it on a blended statement.

Tips and timing

The authorise-then-adjust flow downgrades transactions when batches close late. Pay-at-table with the tip captured at authorisation removes the problem and shortens table turns at the same time. The tolerance you are working inside is published. Effective 21 February 2026, Table 7-10 of the Visa rules permits a difference of up to 30% between the authorisation amount and the clearing amount in the US region for MCC 5811 (Caterers), 5812 (Eating Places and Restaurants) and 5814 (Fast Food Restaurants), up from the 20% that applied through 20 February 2026. The amounts must always match following a partial authorisation response, which is the case a busy service is most likely to get wrong. Our tip adjustment guide works through the timing rules and the wage and tax side in full.

Card fees on credit card tips

The US Department of Labor's Fact Sheet #15 says that where tips are charged on a credit card, the employer may pay the tipped employee the tip less the percentage of the credit card processing fee, but may not deduct more than the actual fee charged on that transaction. The same fact sheet says the tip must be paid to the employee no later than the regular pay day, and may not be held back while the employer waits for the card company to pay. If you pass a share of the card fee through to servers, base it on your actual fee for the transaction, keep the calculation on file and check state wage law, which can be stricter. This is general information, not legal advice (September 17, 2026).

Card tips are cash tips for tax purposes

The IRS says cash tips include tips paid by check, credit card, debit card and gift card, so a tip on the card slip is reported the same way as tip money on the table. Employees must give their employer a written report of tips unless the tips they receive with that employer total less than $20 in a calendar month. Employers operating a large food or beverage establishment file Form 8027 each year to report food and beverage receipts and the tips employees reported. Your POS tip report is the starting point for that record, so make sure tips are attributed to the right server before the batch closes. This is general information, not tax advice (September 17, 2026); confirm details with your accountant.

Menu prices and card fees

The FTC's rule on junk fees, announced December 17, 2024, applies to live-event ticketing and short-term lodging, not to restaurants. The FTC notes that businesses in other industries are still prohibited from deceiving consumers about fees and pricing under longstanding law. If you add a credit card surcharge, cash discount or dual pricing, check your state's rules and card network rules first and disclose the fee before the guest pays.

Delivery apps are a separate conversation

Commission on third-party delivery dwarfs card processing. Track them separately, and treat first-party online ordering as the lever with real margin behind it. Two bookkeeping habits make the comparison honest. Separate the marketplace commission line from the card processing line in your chart of accounts, because a single "payment costs" figure that blends them will make your card pricing look far worse than it is and will hide the delivery number that actually deserves a negotiation. And record first-party online orders against the card-not-present programs above rather than against your card-present blended rate, so that the margin you gain by moving a guest off a marketplace is measured against the right cost.

About the rate tables on this page: Visa is the only card network that publishes a public US merchant interchange schedule, so the rate tables on this site are Visa-only. Mastercard, American Express and Discover do not publish an equivalent US merchant schedule, and their rates are neither shown above nor implied by these figures. Ask your processor for the rates that apply to each network on your account.