Square for Drive-Thru

Square for Drive-Thru is Square's drive-thru package for quick-service restaurants, announced in May 2026. Built on Square for Restaurants, it links order entry at the menu board, kitchen display routing and a customer order confirmation screen with the Square point of sale and reporting. Menu boards and signage come through partners The Howard Company and Nanonation. It launched in an early access program.

Last reviewed

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Best for
Multi-location quick-service restaurants, Drive-thru-first coffee and fast-food concepts
Pricing
Quote only
Runs on
iOS, Android

Who it is for

  • Multi-location quick-service restaurants

    Square says the product is built for QSR operators with high-volume drive-thru lanes that want order capture, kitchen and handoff in one workflow.

  • Drive-thru-first coffee and fast-food concepts

    Franchisees of PJ's Coffee and Steak Escape are quoted using it in the launch announcement.

What it does

  • Order confirmation screen

    Orders placed at the menu board appear on a screen where guests can see their full order, including modifiers.

  • Kitchen display routing

    Sends orders directly to the right kitchen station through Square KDS.

  • Automatic order numbering

    Labels each order so staff know which order goes to which car.

  • Car identifiers and tracking

    Assigns car identifiers and tracks each order from placement to pickup.

  • Payment at the window

    Takes payments at the window to keep cars moving.

  • Service time reporting

    Order entry and service time data are used to adjust staffing and throughput.

  • Menu boards and signage

    Digital menu boards, confirmation screens and installation come from partners The Howard Company and Nanonation, with preferred pricing through The Howard Company.

  • Combos and upsell pricing

    Announced alongside it: combos with required item or category slots and built-in upsell pricing for the Square restaurant POS.

  • Reporting API

    Square opened its Reporting API so multi-location operators can pull dashboard-level data into their own tools.

  • Self-service kiosk

    Square Kiosk can be added for self-service ordering.

Pricing

Pricing model
Quote only

No price is published for Square for Drive-Thru itself. It is built on Square for Restaurants, whose plans are sold separately (Square KDS is $30 a month per device on Plus and $20 on Premium), but those are prices for a different product and are not shown here. The drive-thru page offers Get Started and Contact Sales, and the press release says it is available through an Early Access Program.

Works with

Accounting
Restaurant365
Delivery
ChowNow
Inventory
MarketMan
Loyalty
Paytronix
Other
The Howard CompanyNanonation
Reservations
OpenTable
Scheduling
7shifts

The Square for Restaurants partners page lists these partners for the wider Square restaurant platform, which Square for Drive-Thru is built on; the vendor does not publish a list specific to drive-thru. The drive-thru page says there are 100+ app integrations and the press release says open APIs let operators keep their preferred tools.

Where and how it runs

Customers in
United States
Platforms
iOS, Android
Hardware
Uses Square hardware (Register, Stand, Kiosk, KDS) plus outdoor menu boards, confirmation screens and signage from The Howard Company and Nanonation. Square KDS runs on Android devices.

The vendor does not state where the product is sold. United States is inferred from the US site, the US launch announcement and US franchisee quotes.

The company

Company
Block, Inc.
Founded
2009
Headquarters
United States
Customers named by the vendor
PJ's Coffee Fort Mill, Steak Escape

Security and support

Support
Square's restaurant plans list 24/7 phone support on higher tiers and weekday phone support on the entry plan.

Listing details

Vendor
Block
Built for
Restaurants
Focus
Food-specific
Status
Active
Website
squareup.com
Also listed in
Drive-Thru Technology

Alternatives to Square for Drive-Thru

See all 33 in Quick Service & Drive-Thru POS

  • Applova

    Applova is a US restaurant technology platform combining a POS, self-order kiosks, commission-free online ordering, branded websites and mobile apps, kitchen display and loyalty.

    Runs on Web, iOS and Android, against iOS and Android for Square for Drive-Thru.

  • thru

    thru is a drive-thru order-taking system for quick-service restaurants.

    Runs on Web, against iOS and Android for Square for Drive-Thru.

  • S4D

    S4D, formerly Solutions 4 Delivery, is omnichannel software for multi-location quick-service restaurant chains.

    Runs on Web, iOS and Android, against iOS and Android for Square for Drive-Thru.

  • SoundHound for Restaurants

    SoundHound for Restaurants is the restaurant offering of SoundHound AI's OASYS voice AI platform.

    Runs on Web, against iOS and Android for Square for Drive-Thru.

Compare Square for Drive-Thru

Side-by-side tables built from the same profile data.

What we could not confirm

These points were not confirmed when this page was written.

  • Any Square for Drive-Thru price or plan
  • General availability date after the early access program
  • Which partner integrations are supported specifically in drive-thru
  • Countries where it is offered
  • Headquarters city
  • Security certifications

Sources

Facts on this page come from the pages below, checked on 29 September 2026. Prices and features change, so confirm with the vendor before you buy.

  1. Launch announcement, features, availabilityhttps://squareup.com/us/en/press/square-for-drive-thru
  2. Product page, hardware partnerhttps://squareup.com/us/en/restaurants/drive-thru
  3. Square pricing page, drive-thru workflow linehttps://squareup.com/us/en/pricing
  4. Restaurant integration partnershttps://squareup.com/us/en/restaurants/partners
  5. KDS platformhttps://squareup.com/us/en/point-of-sale/restaurants/kitchen-display-system