2026 Restaurant & Retail Card Fee Report (US)
A sourced compendium of what restaurants and retailers actually pay to accept cards in 2026 — Visa's published interchange schedule, combined sales tax across 15 metros, surcharge legality state by state, published POS processing rates, and delivery-app commission tiers. Every figure below is footnoted to a primary source with the date it was checked. Nothing here is CELER's own survey data.
Author: CELER Merchants Research. Licence: CC BY 4.0 — free to reuse with attribution. Jump to methodology and sources or how to cite this report.
Key findings
- Visa's US schedule effective April 18, 2026 prices a card-present debit restaurant sale (CPS/Restaurant, exempt issuer) at 1.19% + $0.10 — cheaper than the general CPS/Retail debit rate on the same card type only when the sale is card-present; keying the same card moves it to CPS/Retail Key Entry at 1.65% + $0.15.1
- The same restaurant's card-present consumer credit sale (Restaurant 2) is priced at 2.10% (min. $0.04) for Traditional Rewards and most other products, rising to 2.60% for Visa Infinite and Visa Signature Preferred — a wider spread than the debit side.1
- Chicago's combined sales tax rose to 10.5% on August 1, 2026, the highest of the 15 metros in this report; Boston's general 6.25% state rate carries no local sales-tax add-on and is the lowest.2
- Credit card surcharging is prohibited by statute in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico, and allowed with a state-specific cap in six more states — Colorado (2%), Kansas (disclosure-only, no numeric cap), Minnesota (5%), New Jersey (actual cost), New York (actual cost) and Oklahoma (2%, since November 1, 2025).3
- Florida's surcharge ban (Fla. Stat. 501.0117) is still on the books but was held unconstitutional by the 11th Circuit in 2015, with the US Supreme Court denying review in 2017 — the statute has not been repealed, so its status is unresolved rather than settled.3
- Among POS vendors that publish a per-transaction card rate at all, Square's published in-person rate ranges from 2.4% + 15¢ to 2.6% + 15¢ depending on plan; Toast, Clover, TouchBistro and NCR Voyix Aloha publish no public processing rate and quote it per account instead.4
- DoorDash is the only major delivery platform that publishes a public commission rate card: 15% (Basic), 25% (Plus) or 30% (Premier) on delivery orders, with pickup orders flat at 6% on every plan. Uber Eats and Grubhub do not publish an equivalent public rate.5
Table 1 — Visa US interchange: CPS Restaurant vs. Retail vs. Keyed
Selected rows from Visa's US interchange schedule effective April 18, 2026, showing how the same card is priced differently by channel. These are interchange reimbursement fees paid between financial institutions; Visa states merchants do not pay them directly and instead pay a merchant discount rate to their own acquirer that is built on top of them.
| Fee program | Channel | Card type | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPS/Restaurant, Debit (exempt issuer) | Card present | Debit | 1.19% + $0.10 |
| CPS/Retail, Debit (exempt issuer) | Card present | Debit | 0.80% + $0.15 |
| CPS/Retail Key Entry, Debit (exempt issuer) | Keyed | Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| CPS/Card Not Present, Debit (exempt issuer) | Card not present | Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| Restaurant 2, All Other Products / Traditional Rewards | Card present | Consumer credit | 2.10% (min. $0.04) |
| Restaurant 2, Visa Infinite / Signature Preferred | Card present | Consumer credit | 2.60% (min. $0.04) |
| Restaurant 1, All Other Products / Traditional Rewards | Card not present | Consumer credit | 2.20% (min. $0.08) |
| Restaurant 1, Visa Infinite / Signature Preferred | Card not present | Consumer credit | 2.70% (min. $0.08) |
| Small Merchant Restaurant 1 & 2 (under $280,000/yr Visa credit) | Either | Consumer credit | 2.10%–2.60% (min. $0.04) |
| Non-Qualified Consumer Credit | Any | Consumer credit | 3.15% + $0.10 |
About this table: Visa is the only card network that publishes a public US merchant interchange schedule, so this table is Visa-only. Mastercard, American Express and Discover do not publish an equivalent public US merchant schedule; their rates are not shown or implied here.
Chart — card-present rate by program, all-other-products credit
Simple bar comparison built from the percentage column above (fixed per-item fees omitted from the bar length for readability; see table for the full figure).
Table 2 — Combined sales tax across 15 metros, ranked
Combined state, county and city sales tax on a general retail sale, as published by each jurisdiction's own revenue department, ranked highest to lowest. Restaurant meal taxes can differ from the general rate — flagged where a metro's own rules make that distinction, with the detail on that metro's card-processing page.
| Rank | Metro | Combined rate | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chicago, IL | 10.5% | Rose from 10.25% on 1 August 2026 |
| 2 | Seattle, WA | 10.55% | No general state income tax; combined rate is a general retail figure |
| 3 | New York, NY | 8.875% | State law also requires the total card price to be posted where a surcharge is added |
| 4 | Los Angeles, CA | 9.75% | Los Angeles County; varies by district add-on elsewhere in CA |
| 5 | Phoenix, AZ | 8.6% | Combined rate drops above a per-item threshold in Arizona's transaction privilege tax structure |
| 6 | Denver, CO | 9.15% | State + RTD + city + SCFD components |
| 7 | Atlanta, GA | 8.9% | General rate; Georgia sets rate charts quarterly |
| 8 | Las Vegas, NV | 8.375% | Clark County rate, uniform across the county |
| 9 | Philadelphia, PA | 8% | 6% state + 2% local (Philadelphia is one of the few PA cities with a local add-on) |
| 10 | Houston, TX | 8.25% | Texas caps combined local add-ons at 2% above the 6.25% state rate |
| 11 | Washington, DC | 7% | General rate rises from 6% on 1 October 2026; restaurant meals are taxed separately at 10% |
| 12 | Miami, FL | 7% | 6% state + 1% Miami-Dade transit surtax, which stops accruing above the first $5,000 of a sale |
| 13 | Boston, MA | 6.25% | No local sales-tax add-on; restaurant meals reach a combined 7% under the separate local-option meals tax |
| 14 | San Francisco, CA | Not stated in source page | Our SF page covers the Health Care Security Ordinance surcharge rule, not the district sales tax rate — see CDTFA for the current figure |
| — | Toronto, ON (Canada) | 13% HST | Harmonized Sales Tax, not a US sales tax — shown for reference, not ranked against US metros |
Chart — combined rate, highest to lowest (US metros)
San Francisco omitted from the chart — its source page does not publish a district sales-tax figure (see table note).
Table 3 — Surcharge legality by state
Every state's status is drawn from a statute or a state agency page, cited in the methodology section. Card network rules (credit cards only, 3% Visa cap, 30 days' notice, disclosure at entry/sale/receipt) apply everywhere surcharging is not separately banned. States with "no confirmed statewide restriction found" are governed only by network rules, not a state law we could verify — that is a statement about what we could confirm, not proof no rule exists.
| State | Status | Cap / key condition |
|---|---|---|
| Connecticut | Banned | No surcharge on any transaction; cash/check/debit discounts allowed with notice |
| Maine | Banned | No surcharge on credit or debit; limited government-entity exception |
| Massachusetts | Banned | No surcharge for paying by credit card instead of cash/check |
| Puerto Rico | Banned | No surcharge for any non-cash/check payment method, including debit |
| Florida | Restricted (disputed) | Statute bans it; 11th Circuit found it unconstitutional (2015), cert. denied (2017); statute not repealed |
| Colorado | Restricted | 2% cap or actual discount fee; statutory sign wording required; credit cards only |
| Kansas | Restricted | Disclosure at point of entry/sale required; no numeric cap in statute; effective 1 Jan 2025 |
| Louisiana | Restricted | Debit surcharging banned since 1 Aug 2026; statute silent on credit surcharges |
| Minnesota | Restricted | Up to 5% of purchase price; verbal + posted disclosure required |
| New Jersey | Restricted | May not exceed actual processing cost; multi-channel disclosure required |
| New York | Restricted | May not exceed what the card company charges; total card price must be posted |
| Oklahoma | Restricted | 2% cap or actual cost, whichever is less; effective 1 Nov 2025 |
| All other states + DC | No confirmed statewide restriction found | Network rules apply: credit only, 3% Visa cap, 30 days' notice |
Full state-by-state table (all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico) lives on our surcharge laws by state guide, updated 16 September 2026.
Table 4 — POS processing rates by vendor (published only)
Rates and prices each vendor publishes on its own site, checked 17 September 2026. "Not published" means the field did not appear on the vendor's public pricing page or terms on that date — not that the vendor has no rate. Ask the vendor directly for anything marked not published.
| Vendor | Published card-present rate | Published monthly software price |
|---|---|---|
| Square | 2.6% + 15¢ (free plan) to 2.4% + 15¢ (paid plans) | $0 (free plan); paid tiers not published statically |
| SpotOn (All-In) | 2.79% + $0.20 (card present); 3.79% + $0.20 (keyed) | $0 per station |
| SpotOn (POS Essentials / Terminal) | 2.45% + $0.15 (Amex 3.19% + $0.15) | $25–$55 per station |
| Lightspeed Retail | Not published on pricing page | $89 / $149 / $289 |
| Clover | Not published — quoted per account | From $349 device + monthly software, or bundled over 36 months |
| Toast | Not published — quoted per restaurant | Not published; hardware/implementation quoted per package |
| TouchBistro | Not published | From $89 (POS) / $99 (Essentials Bundle); Custom on request |
| Heartland Retail | Not published | Promoted $0 start; standard price not published |
| Epos Now | Not published on US pricing page | $399 up front + $84/mo (campaign) or $0 + $99–$129/mo (terms Appendix 1) — two different published figures |
| NCR Voyix Aloha | Not published — no public pricing page | Not published; quoted through a sales order |
Table 5 — Delivery-app commission tiers
| Platform | Delivery commission | Pickup commission | Monthly fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| DoorDash — Basic | 15% | 6% | $0 |
| DoorDash — Plus | 25% | 6% | $0 |
| DoorDash — Premier | 30% | 6% | $0 |
| Uber Eats | Not publicly published — quoted per restaurant plan | Not published | Not published |
| Grubhub | Not publicly published — quoted per restaurant plan | Not published | Not published |
DoorDash's commission is separate from — and stacks on top of — the interchange and processor markup on the card the diner used to pay the platform. Your merchant account never touches that transaction: the diner pays the platform, and the platform pays you a net deposit. Running online ordering through your own POS or a branded site instead moves that order back onto your own merchant account at your own card rate, with no delivery commission.
Chart — DoorDash commission by tier
Methodology and sources
Every figure in this report traces to one of the primary sources below, compiled from the sourced data already published on this site's Visa interchange guides, 15 metro card-processing pages, surcharge-by-state guide, POS comparison pages and restaurant industry guide. Access dates are the dates those underlying pages were checked and are kept as originally recorded, not bumped to today. No number in this report is survey data or a CELER-collected statistic. Where a network or vendor does not publish a figure, this report says "not published" rather than estimating one.
- Visa interchange schedule. Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, effective 18 April 2026 (accessed 17 September 2026); Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules, public edition (accessed 17 September 2026); Visa — Small Business Regulations & Fees (accessed 17 September 2026).
- Combined sales tax by metro. Texas Comptroller, City sales and use tax rates (Houston, accessed 17 Sep 2026). NYS Dept. of Taxation and Finance, Publication 718 (New York City, accessed 17 Sep 2026). CDTFA, California sales and use tax rates (Los Angeles, accessed 17 Sep 2026). Illinois Dept. of Revenue, sales tax rate files (Chicago, accessed 17 Sep 2026). Colorado Dept. of Revenue, Local government sales tax; City and County of Denver, Tax Guide Topic No. 70 (Denver, accessed 18 Sep 2026). DC Office of the CFO, Tax rates and revenues; DC OTR, Restaurant and Bar Notice (Washington, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Florida Legislature EDR, Local Discretionary Sales Surtax Rates (Miami, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Georgia Dept. of Revenue, Sales & Use Tax Rates (Atlanta, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Pennsylvania Dept. of Revenue, Local Sales Tax (Philadelphia, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Massachusetts DOR, Massachusetts tax rates; TIR 09-13 (Boston, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Nevada Dept. of Taxation, Clark County rate sheet (Las Vegas, accessed 18 Sep 2026). Arizona DOR, TPT rate table (Phoenix, accessed 18 Sep 2026). City of Seattle FAS, Tax rates and classifications (Seattle, accessed 18 Sep 2026). CRA, Charge and collect the tax: which rate to charge (Toronto HST, accessed 17 Sep 2026).
- Surcharge legality by state. Full citation list — one statute or state agency page per state — is published on our Credit Card Surcharge Laws by State (2026 Guide), updated 16 September 2026. Network rules: Visa Merchant Surcharging Considerations and Requirements (v. 08142023, accessed 16 Sep 2026); Mastercard Rules 5.11.2 and US Merchant Class Settlement Merchant Surcharge FAQ (accessed 16 Sep 2026).
- POS processing rates. Square — Our fees; SpotOn — Pricing and SpotOn — Point of sale terms; Lightspeed — Retail pricing; Clover — Restaurant pricing; Toast — Pricing; each accessed 17 September 2026. TouchBistro, Heartland, Epos Now and NCR Voyix pricing/terms pages, each accessed 17 September 2026 — full citations on the individual POS comparison pages.
- Delivery commission. DoorDash for Merchants — Pricing, accessed 18 September 2026.
Suggested citation
CELER Merchants Research. (2026). 2026 Restaurant & Retail Card Fee Report (US). CELER Merchants. Retrieved from https://celermerchants.com/reports/2026-card-fee-report/
Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Text and data are free to copy, adapt and republish, including commercially, with attribution to CELER Merchants Research and a link back to this page. This report is not the outcome of CELER's own research or a survey of CELER merchants — it compiles figures already published by Visa, government revenue departments, state legislatures and named vendors, each cited above.
Frequently asked questions
CELER Merchants Research, the research desk of CELER Merchants, an independent US and Canadian merchant services agent. The report compiles figures already published by Visa, state and city revenue departments, and named vendors, with a source and access date on every figure. It is not a survey and contains no CELER-collected data.
Yes. The text and data are released under CC BY 4.0 — copy, adapt and republish with attribution, including commercially. See the citation box below for the wording we ask you to use.
Visa is the only US card network that publishes a public merchant interchange schedule. Mastercard, American Express and Discover do not publish an equivalent public US merchant fee schedule, so this report does not quote figures for them and says so wherever it would otherwise be tempting to guess.
No. This is a compendium of third-party published data — network schedules, government tax tables, state statutes and vendor pricing pages — not a comparison that favors CELER. CELER's own rates are quoted per merchant statement, not published as a rate card.
Visa republishes its US interchange schedule twice a year, in April and October. We plan to refresh the interchange and sales-tax tables after each publication and note the new effective date and access date at that time.
Each metro's combined rate is drawn from the state or city revenue department's own published rate table or tax guide, cited in the methodology section with the URL and the date we checked it.
No. It is banned in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico; allowed with state-specific caps or disclosure rules in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma; unresolved in Florida after a federal court found the state's ban unconstitutional; and governed only by card network rules (3% Visa cap, 30 days' notice, credit cards only) in states with no confirmed statewide restriction. See the full table below.
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