How much does QR code ordering cost? Flat fee vs commission

Published prices for QR table ordering run from free to about $300 a month, and some tools take a share of sales or charge per AI request instead. Which model is cheapest depends mostly on how many orders go through the tool: usage-based pricing wins when you’re small, flat fees win as volume grows. Below we work it out for three example restaurants, with every assumption and every vendor price shown so you can redo the sums with your own numbers.

WaiterPilot costs a flat $200 per location per month after 30 days free, with 0% commission. It isn’t the cheapest option in every case, and the examples show where it isn’t.

What pricing models do QR ordering tools use?

Short answer: four. A flat monthly fee, tiers capped by order count, a fee per AI request, or a percentage of sales.

These are the prices as each vendor’s own page showed them on 15 Oct 2026. The tools are not like for like: some are tap menus, some take payment, some are chat ordering. The “what it is” column matters as much as the price.

For context, POS-native QR ordering is priced inside the POS plan. Lightspeed lists “Order and pay at table” on plans shown at 69, 189 and 399 USD (Lightspeed, checked 15 Oct 2026); the billing period isn’t stated next to the price. Square’s restaurant pricing page didn’t show base plan prices when we checked, only add-ons such as “$99/mo. for Square Kiosk per device” (Square, checked 15 Oct 2026). In Korea, Toss Place offered its QR table order “free for life” to stores that signed up during its 2024 launch, for stores on Toss POS (Toss Place, 18 Mar 2024).

Prices change. Check each vendor’s page on the day you buy.

What’s the formula?

Short answer: work out the monthly cost of each model from your own order count and average order value, then compare.

• Flat fee: monthly fee. (WaiterPilot: $200 × number of locations.)
• Tiered: the price of the cheapest tier whose order and table limits cover you.
• Per request: orders per month × AI requests per order × price per request.
• Percentage: orders per month × average order value × percentage.

A flat fee beats a percentage once orders × average order value × percentage > flat fee. Turned around, the break-even monthly sales through the tool is the flat fee divided by the percentage:

For per-request pricing at $0.01, $200 buys 20,000 requests a month. At our assumed 8 requests per order, that’s 2,500 orders.

Three restaurants, worked out

These are fictional examples, not customers. Every number below is an assumption we chose to make the arithmetic clear. Your numbers will differ.

Assumptions

Notes on the assumptions:

• An “order” is one confirmed order sent to staff. A table that orders mains and later dessert counts as two.
• We count only sales that pass through the QR tool, not your whole revenue.
• “8 requests per order” is our guess. AI-Waiter.com’s page doesn’t define what a request is.
• Card processing is left out of every line. You pay it whichever tool you use, and with WaiterPilot you keep your current processor.

Monthly software cost, using the prices above

One-off and extra costs not in that table: sunday lists “$5 / QR code” (12, 18 or 60 codes here) and optional $299 physical onboarding; MENU TIGER charges $30 a month for its Cloud POS module and $20 for printer management on its lower plans; WaiterPilot’s setup, QR cards and staff training are free.

What do the examples show?

Short answer: percentage pricing gets expensive fast, but flat $200 is not the cheapest choice for every restaurant.

• Cheaper tools beat $200 in all three examples. MENU TIGER ($46 to $119) and Ordder ($79, or $199 at the largest size) cost less than WaiterPilot on their published prices. If you want a translated tap-to-order menu and price is the deciding factor, they’re the better buy.
• Per-request pricing wins when you’re small. At the corner café, AI-Waiter.com works out at $120 a month on our assumption. It passes $200 at about 2,500 orders a month.
• Percentage pricing wins only at low volume. chatQR’s 1% costs less than $200 below $20,000 a month of sales through it. The corner café is just past that point; Casa Olivo pays more than five times the flat fee.
• Group pricing differs. WaiterPilot is per location, so three restaurants pay $600. MENU TIGER’s Advanced plan covers up to 5 stores and Premium is unlimited, so for a small group it’s much cheaper. Ordder’s page doesn’t say whether plans are per location.

What a flat fee buys you is a bill that doesn’t grow when you get busier. Whether that’s worth more than the lowest price is your decision.

What costs don’t show up on the price list?

Short answer: payment processing, set-up, hardware, integrations and staff time.

• Payment processing. Every tool that takes payment has processing fees, and several pages don’t state them. WaiterPilot takes no payment, so you keep your current terminal and rates.
• Hardware. Kiosks and table tablets cost money per device. WaiterPilot runs on guests’ phones and the phones or tablets your staff already have.
• Onboarding and QR codes. Compare what’s included. With WaiterPilot you send us your menu as a PDF or photos, we load it and you check it before going live; that setup, the QR cards and training are free.
• Staff time to re-enter orders. WaiterPilot has no POS or printer connection, so staff ring each sale up in the till. Count that time; our guide to QR ordering without a POS integration has a worksheet.
• Revenue assumptions. We left out any promise of bigger checks. The research suggests the effect on check size is small; see does tabletop ordering increase check size?.

For scale only: $200 is about 12 hours of a server’s time at the US median wage of $16.94 an hour in May 2025, tips included (BLS, page updated 27 Aug 2026). That isn’t a reason to cut a server. WaiterPilot handles orders and requests so your servers can spend their time with guests.

How do you pick?

Answer three questions:

1. How many orders a month will go through the tool? Under about 2,000, usage-based or a low tier is probably cheaper. Well above that, flat fees pull ahead.
2. Do you need payment at the table or a POS link? If yes, a pay-at-table tool or your POS vendor’s own QR ordering is the right category, whatever the price.
3. Do your guests need to ask questions in their own language? That’s what chat ordering is for. If they don’t, a tap-to-order menu does the job for less.

The pricing page has WaiterPilot’s full offer, and the cost calculator runs the formula above with your numbers.

The practical next step

Put your own order count and average order value into the cost calculator. If flat pricing comes out ahead, try a sample order to see what the $200 buys.