Square Releases Delivers for Restaurants, With Square's Biggest Food & Beverage Platform Expansion To Date
Square introduces new products – including voice ordering, cost control tools, smarter AI, and bitcoin built for businesses – that help restaurants thrive as neighborhood favorites and grow faster and stronger, whether it's their first location or their fiftieth
Square today delivered the most significant expansion of its food and beverage platform to date as part of the company's biannual Square Releases product launch. This sweeping set of innovations is designed to help restaurants of all sizes reach more customers, manage costs more effectively, and optimize operations for growth in any economic environment.
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Square introduces new products – including voice ordering, cost control tools, smarter AI, and bitcoin built for businesses – that help restaurants thrive as neighborhood favorites and grow faster and stronger, whether it's their first location or their fiftieth (Graphic: Square)
Restaurants are more than businesses. They're gathering places, first jobs, family legacies, and cultural landmarks that hold communities together through thick and thin. They're also the heartbeat of local communities and engines of economic growth, sourcing from local farms, drawing foot traffic to main streets, and generating a powerful multiplier effect: every dollar spent in a restaurant drives $2.68 in broader economic activity.¹
But running a restaurant has never been more challenging. Shrinking margins, rising expenses, fragmented tools, and pressure to do more with less have left many operators squeezed. With so much outside their control, staying profitable – and staying present with customers – has become the real challenge. Too often, owners and operators feel stripped of control over their time, money, and future – spending their energy just staying afloat.
Square's latest solutions empower these vital neighborhood businesses to never miss an order, integrate AI into everyday decisions, manage costs with greater precision, and save and invest with bitcoin – all on one unified platform.
"We're going all-in on restaurants because we believe in their essential role in neighborhoods everywhere," said Ming-Tai Huh, Head of Food and Beverage at Square and a partner at Cambridge Street Hospitality Group, which manages multiple F&B concepts, full-service dining, and quick-service cafe locations. "For too long, while they've been serving our communities, restaurants have been underserved by tools that are too rigid, too fragmented, or not built for their reality. We're changing that. Square is giving restaurant operators the control, confidence, and peace of mind they need to thrive, today and into the future."
Take Orders, Everywhere
Expanding into new channels is critical for growth, but it often comes at a cost, from order errors and inconsistent customer experiences to added fees that squeeze profitability. Square is delivering a complete food ordering ecosystem to help restaurants capture demand wherever it happens. Whether over the phone, online, at the counter, or through third-party delivery apps, restaurants can be everywhere their customers are and never miss an order.
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AI-Powered Voice Ordering answers 100% of incoming calls with conversational AI, even at peak hours. Customers place orders by phone just as they would with a staff member, and can ask deep questions and customize items. For example:
- What are your specials today?
- What ingredients are in the market salad?
- I'd like to customize the toppings that come on my burger – extra pickles, and no cheese.
- Please make my tacos spicy!
Confirmed orders are sent directly to the kitchen or POS, eliminating double entry and reducing errors. Every interaction is logged in Square Messages, giving restaurants visibility into call summaries, customer questions, and order patterns, insights that help improve service and menu offerings. By automating phone orders, sellers save on labor, free up staff to focus on hospitality, and deliver faster, more consistent customer experiences.
- Square's latest Grubhub integration builds on a broader set of integrations that allow restaurants to manage millions of customer orders directly through Square. For too long, restaurants have been forced to juggle multiple tablets to manage orders from Grubhub, DoorDash, and Uber Eats – and then wait up to 11 days to access their earnings. Now sellers can manage menus, modifiers, and inventory across these third-party channels directly from Square, ensuring accuracy and consistency. Orders flow straight to the kitchen, reducing errors and eliminating missed tickets and the need for extra tablets. And with Instant Payouts, restaurants can expand their reach while maintaining cash flow.²
- Enhanced Square Kiosk now delivers up to 30% faster order entry, helping restaurants move lines quickly during peak hours. A redesigned interface with picture-based categories, larger fonts, and always-visible carts makes browsing and customizing orders more intuitive for guests. By reducing bottlenecks and easing staff demand, kiosks improve throughput and create a smoother experience for customers and employees alike.
- Multichannel Menu Management lets restaurants create, edit, and sync a single menu across online ordering, kiosks, and third-party delivery apps. Sellers can control availability and layout by location and channel, eliminating the need for duplicate menus or manual updates. With all menus managed from one dashboard, restaurants can scale more easily while keeping operations consistent and accurate.
Gain Control of Costs
From inflation and volatile supplier pricing to unpredictable cash flow and rising operating costs, restaurants are being forced to make critical decisions with fragmented data, manual processes, and limited time. Margins are under pressure, and staying profitable has never been harder. Square's new cost management tools give sellers sharper visibility into costs and spending, and more control over purchasing decisions, helping them operate more sustainably and protect their bottom line.
- Order Guide is Square's new centralized and AI-powered procurement tool that helps restaurants bring all their vendor data into one place. By standardizing prices by unit, like $/oz or $/lb, it gives sellers instant clarity to compare offerings, track trends, and spot gaps across suppliers. Menus can be uploaded and automatically converted into complete ingredient lists, saving hours of manual work. With SKU-level and category-level insights, restaurants gain sharper visibility into spending, negotiate better deals, and drive down food costs. Order Guide streamlines procurement end-to-end, reducing manual effort and giving operators more control over their margins.
- Enhanced Accounting and Sales Reports give restaurants a clear view of cash flow and business performance. From payments to payouts, sellers can see exactly what's tied to fees, gift cards, refunds, and returns, making reconciliation more accurate and reliable. Daily sales summaries, benchmarks, and item-level insights provide a snapshot of business health and highlight top-performing products, helping operators plan and grow with confidence.
Square AI: Make Better Business Decisions
Running a restaurant means making dozens of decisions every day, from menu planning and staffing to pricing and promotions, often with limited time and incomplete information. At the same time, operators face tight labor markets, rising costs, and pressure from larger chains with more resources. Square AI levels the playing field, with a conversational AI assistant embedded in Square Dashboard that answers their critical questions, instantly – from item and category performance, to staffing and labor costs, to top customers and more – all through pairing data visualization with a natural language interface. Instead of manually digging through multiple reports and filters, restaurants get clear answers in seconds, unlocking insights that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. With Square AI, operators can then make smarter business decisions faster, freeing them to focus on their guests. The latest updates to Square's AI assistant include:
- Industry and Location Context enriches sales summaries with external data like local weather, neighborhood events, and industry trends. By combining business performance with what's happening around them, sellers can make smarter decisions that reflect real-world conditions.
- Customizable AI Widgets allow sellers to save answers as charts and visuals that auto-update in their Dashboard. Routine analysis of their most valuable insights becomes faster, easier, and more useful for day-to-day operations.
- Mobile Access brings Square AI to the Dashboard App, giving operators the ability to ask questions and get insights on the go.
- Personalized Suggested Questions help sellers discover new opportunities without having to know what to ask first.
For more details on the latest Square AI innovations, read the full announcement here.
Square Bitcoin, Built for Businesses³
Traditional money movement can feel slow and expensive for restaurants, with settlement delays and limited options for how to manage earnings. Until now, tools like bitcoin have been out of reach for most businesses. Square is bringing bitcoin to Main Street with the first fully integrated bitcoin payments and wallet solution built for local restaurants, and businesses more broadly. These tools give sellers more ways to get paid and diversify their savings, extending the same financial empowerment that Square Banking has delivered to hundreds of thousands of businesses since its launch.⁴
- Bitcoin Payments let sellers accept bitcoin directly from their point of sale with zero processing fees through 2026, giving customers more ways to pay and restaurants more control over their costs.
- Bitcoin Conversions allow sellers to automatically convert a percentage of daily sales into bitcoin, helping them diversify savings and build long-term value.
- Integrated Bitcoin Wallet makes it easy to hold, spend, or transfer bitcoin directly from Square Dashboard, managing digital currency alongside other business finances.
- Seamless Integration with Square Banking ties bitcoin directly into Square's broader ecosystem, unifying sales, banking, and treasury management in one place.
For more details on Square Bitcoin, read the full announcement here.
To learn more about all the new features included in the latest Square Releases, visit squareup.com/releases.
About Square
Square helps businesses turn transactions into connections and businesses into neighborhood favorites.
In 2009, Square started with a simple invention – the first mobile card reader, which changed how the entire financial system thinks about small businesses. Square has since grown into a global business platform helping millions of sellers of all sizes participate and thrive in their communities.
Whether independently run or a global chain, Square understands that sellers succeed when they have the freedom to focus on the experiences that keep customers coming back. From point of sale and payments to online commerce, staff management, banking, and more, Square brings together the tools sellers need to run and grow on one intelligent platform. For more information, visit squareup.com.
¹ National Restaurant Association https://restaurant.org/research-and-media/research/industry-statistics/state-statistics/
² Instant Payouts services require a Square Checking account. Funds provided through Instant Payouts services are generally available in the Square Checking account balance immediately after an order is processed. Fund availability times may vary due to technical issues. If an order is not paid out instantly, it will be available according to your regular deposit schedule. Payout limits, including limits on payout amounts, may apply.
³ Square Bitcoin availability is subject to change and may not be available in all locations or for all Square sellers. This feature is not available to Square sellers located in New York State or outside the U.S. and may be subject to regulatory approval, where applicable. Bitcoin's value can change rapidly, which means the amount of bitcoin needed for a purchase, or the amount made from a product sale on Square, may vary. Bitcoin transactions may occasionally experience delays or technical issues. Bitcoin transactions are generally irreversible and all payment details should be carefully verified before confirming any transaction.
Block, Inc. makes no representation on the accuracy, suitability, or validity of any information provided. Bitcoin services are provided by Block, Inc. Bitcoin services are not licensable activity in all U.S. states and territories. Block, Inc. is licensed where required. Block, Inc. operates in New York as Block of Delaware and is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services.
⁴ Block, Inc. is not a bank. Banking services are provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. or Sutton Bank; Members FDIC.
Square Checking is provided by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. FDIC deposit insurance coverage only protects against the failure of an FDIC-insured deposit institution. If you have a Square Checking account, up to $250,000 of your balance may be covered by FDIC insurance on a pass-through basis through Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, subject to aggregation of the account holder's funds held at Sutton Bank and if certain conditions have been met. Square Debit Card is issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Mastercard. See Terms and Conditions.
Savings accounts are provided by Square Financial Services, Inc. Member FDIC.
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