Square for Retail and Square AI: answers about your store

Contents

1. What Square offers retailers
2. Published evidence
3. Strengths and limits
4. Pricing
5. Questions to ask Square
6. Sources

Type	Retail POS with AI insights
Pricing	Published
Website	squareup.com

Square for Retail is a point-of-sale system with retail inventory tools. Square AI, labelled beta, adds plain-language answers about a store's data⁠12Square for Retail pricingSquareSquare AISquare.

Best for: Small stores on Square that want inventory, vendor management and plain-language answers about their sales.

Not the right fit for: Retailers that want AI to act on stock or suppliers rather than answer questions.

What Square offers retailers

The Free plan covers item and SKU creation, discounts, refunds and sales reporting. Plus adds inventory management with stock intake, vendor and purchase-order management and cost-of-goods reporting; Premium adds cross-location returns and fulfilment, transfer orders and round-the-clock phone support. Businesses processing more than $250,000 a year can ask for custom pricing. The plan prices and processing rates were not shown on the page we read⁠1Square for Retail pricingSquare.

Square AI lets a seller ask about sales data in plain language, adds web context such as local weather, events and reviews, and saves charts that refresh with new data. Merchants quoted on Square's page describe using it to find what is not selling and to speed up calculations⁠2Square AISquare.

Published evidence

• Lion Cub’s Cookies. A merchant quoted by Square says a calculation that would typically take 30 minutes took under five with Square AI. Vendor-published testimonial.⁠2Square AISquare

Strengths and limits

Strengths

• A free plan to start, with retail inventory tools on Plus.
• Square AI answers questions about sales without building reports.
• Merchants quoted on Square’s page describe faster analysis and better stock decisions.

Limits

• Plan prices and processing rates were not shown on the page we read.
• Square AI is labelled beta, and its plan availability is not stated.
• The AI answers questions; it does not draft orders or write to suppliers.

Choose another option if: You want AI to take on purchasing and supplier follow-up (OpenLazarus or Lightspeed), or you sell mainly on Shopify (Shopify).

Pricing

Free, Plus and Premium plans; prices and processing rates not shown on the page we read; custom pricing above $250,000 a year.

Questions to ask Square

• What do Plus and Premium cost for our number of locations, and what are the processing rates?
• Which plans include Square AI, and when does it leave beta?
• Can Square AI help create purchase orders, or only answer questions?

See how Square compares with the other tools in the main guide.

Sources

1. Square for Retail pricing. Square. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.
2. Square AI. Square. Accessed 8 Nov 2026.

Further reading

• Buyer's guide · Updated quarterlyThe best AI for retail businesses in 2026An analysis of eight AI tools that retailers use for stock, purchasing and customer service, compared on the same criteria, with published prices and the established path to a first measured result.
• Guide · Choosing by jobAI in retail, job by jobRetail AI is sold by platform, but it is easier to choose by job. Six jobs cover most of the back office of an independent or mid-sized retailer.
• Guide · CostWhat AI costs a retailer in 2026Retail AI is priced per register, per interaction, per profile or per company. The total depends less on the headline price than on volume and on what the plan leaves out.