Restaurants can now accept orders placed directly from ChatGPT and Claude thanks to Square’s new, low-cost, no setup integration.
Square presents the new ChatGPT application and the Claude plugin, which allows consumers to find restaurants and place orders easily within these AI platforms – and allows restaurants, to accept orders from users and their AI agents without any technical skills.
Even more useful for businesses, Square processes these AI-driven transactions without charging the traditional market commission fees that have historically weighed down the food and beverage industry.
However, Square still charges its regular online ordering rates of 3.3% plus $0.30 or 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction for sellers who sign up for the Square Plus and Square Premium plans.
The system is directly from the live square catalog, mapping variables, prices, complex modifiers, and stock availability so independent agents never show an out-of-stock inventory.
For business evaluation and delivery verification, operators can automatically analyze their digital footprint by using "@" sign to request the Order by Cash App plugin directly within ChatGPT or link it through the Claude extension directory.
Depending on the configuration of the particular AI tool, customers can complete checkout completely within the chat window of the Order by Cash app, or be redirected seamlessly to the merchant’s online ordering landing page with their selected items and modifiers fully loaded in the basket.
An affordable online ordering system for restaurants
To understand the importance of Square’s move, you have to look at the statistics that restaurant owners face in 2026. Third-party delivery and ordering apps have dramatically changed the economics of the restaurant industry.
Currently, the big players—DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub—charge restaurants a cheap premium for visibility and fulfillment. These exorbitant rates exist primarily because delivery aggregators bundle the costs of delivery goods for gig workers, platform marketing, and search placement into one profit-sharing model.
According to the latest pricing structures, DoorDash charges restaurants a 15% commission for its “Basic” delivery tier, which rises to 25% for “Plus” and 30% for its top-tier “Premier” delivery plan. Even pickup orders carry a 6% market capitalization fee.
Uber Eats similarly charges prices up to 10% if the store price is not strictly guaranteed.
Grubhub matches these prices, taking between 5% and 20% of the total order value depending on the marketing and delivery package chosen.
On top of these market commissions, the platforms still work on their fees for processing payments—typically around 2.5% to 3.05% and a fixed amount per order.
For an independent restaurant that may only clear 3% to 9% profit on a good day, offering a 25% or 30% commission on a $40 digital order means preparing food at a loss.
Square’s new integration specifically targets this pain point. By integrating Square’s ChatGPT and Claude, qualified merchants are automatically logged in without additional setup, no new APIs to be created, and, most importantly, zero added marketplace costs.
Instead of handing over a 30% cut to the delivery aggregator, the restaurant found using the AI agent only pays Square’s standard online processing fee (which typically sits at around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction on a standard plan, with no monthly market commission attached).
Unlike delivery aggregators, the square payment model does not inherently support the pilot network. Instead, when an AI-generated order needs delivery, Square uses a white-label shipping network that charges a low courier fee—usually around $7 to $10 depending on distance—rather than charging a percentage of the total basket size. Restaurants can choose to absorb these flat delivery costs or pass them on directly to the customer, completely protecting their food margins.
The result is an AI-powered discovery channel that works like direct, third-party ordering.
How technology works
Square’s new integration is currently live for US Food & Beverage retailers with an open Square online ordering profile.
The system works completely in the background. Retailers manage their availability and business information—menus, hours of operation, stock levels, and pricing—using their existing Square Dashboard.
When a consumer informs ChatGPT or Claude with the question, “Find me a specialty coffee shop nearby with great pour-overs and order me a bag of their roastery,” the AI relays real-time data provided by Square.
Customers can browse results, make their selections, and complete purchases using the Order by Cash App, all without leaving the chat interface.
The work is then moved instantly into the retailer’s existing workflow, from their Square Point of Sale (POS) and Kitchen Display System as an in-store or direct website order.
To help operators track returns in this new channel, order origination is clearly marked as an AI integration within Square’s back-end reporting.
“Consumer behavior and preferences are constantly changing, and business owners can find themselves playing an impossible game of participation,” said Morgan Kuntze, Global Partnerships Lead at Block, Square’s parent company. “Our commercial investment aims to relieve that responsibility by giving operators time, helping them connect with customers in their communities, and keeping them at the forefront of the industry. Modern commerce is moving at breakneck speed, and we’re building Square to help merchants be visible everywhere customers go.”
The focus on technology allows restaurants to focus on food
During its pilot phase, Square partnered with Partners Coffee, a Brooklyn-based specialty coffee brand, to refine how AI-driven discovery translates into the real world. For operators like Partners Coffee, the goal is not necessarily to become a digital storefront, but rather to use digital efficiencies to protect the physical experience of the cafe.
"We don’t see coffee as something to buy. For us, it is an opportunity to pause and reflect, an opportunity to relax, and a catalyst for communication," noted Andrew Costaris, Digital VP at Partners Coffee, in a statement provided to Square to VentureBeat. "The last thing we want is for our technology solutions to work against this goal or complicate the customer experience. With commerce and AI tools running in the background, we are confident in the knowledge that our business is digitally acquired and continuously growing in efficiency, while our customers can continue to enjoy the lo-fi, specialty coffee space first."
An AI-driven e-commerce system
The integration with ChatGPT and Claude is only the first step in Square’s broader strategy for commercial agents. The numbers are high: industry data cited by the company shows that more than 42% of consumers are now using AI tools to help with shopping tasks such as product discovery and comparison. By 2030, analysts project that agent buyers could drive nearly $385 billion in US ecommerce spending.
Many small and medium-sized businesses don’t have the engineering teams or budgets needed to build custom integrations for every new chatbot, voice assistant, or AI hardware device that hits the market. The square wants to act like that universal connective tissue.
To that end, the company announced that it is actively working with Amazon to bring retailers to the Alexa + voice commerce experience. In addition, Square participates in major regulatory and standards groups—including the AAIF Agent Commerce Working Group and the W3C Web Payments Working Group—to shape how AI agents and commerce platforms interact at scale.
Most notable is Square’s ongoing partnership with Google to develop the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) spec for local food ordering. This open standard is designed to allow agents and systems to communicate seamlessly throughout the commerce journey. On Google’s end, UCP enables discovery and payment across AI Overview in Search and the Gemini app. As the UCP protocol grows around the world, Square plans to roll out these capabilities so its vendors can stay front and center.
For the more than 4.5 million sellers who currently use Square, the promise of agent trading is clear: a way to capture the next generation of online traffic without sacrificing the margins needed to keep their doors open. If Square can successfully move AI orders directly to local businesses’ POS systems—leaving the 30% fee to delivery aggregators—it could mark a sea change in how the restaurant industry navigates today’s digital economy.
