Square accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, and UnionPay International cards, along with mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. It also supports ACH bank transfers through Square Invoices and buy-now-pay-later payments through Afterpay. Here’s how each payment method works and what you need to know as a merchant.
Credit, Debit, and Prepaid Cards
Square processes any U.S.-issued and most internationally issued cards that carry a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, or UnionPay International logo. That covers credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards, all at Square’s standard processing rates. There’s no extra setup required to accept any of these networks. If a customer has a card with one of those logos on it, Square will process it.
Cards can be accepted through every Square entry point: swiped or dipped on a Square Reader, tapped via contactless chip, keyed in manually on the Square POS app, or entered by the customer through a Square Online checkout page or invoice link. The processing fee varies by method (in-person transactions typically cost less than keyed-in or online ones), but the accepted card brands stay the same across all channels.
Mobile Wallets
Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay are all accepted automatically with any Square point-of-sale setup that supports contactless payments. You don’t need to flip a switch or configure anything in your account. When a customer holds their phone or watch near your Square terminal, the NFC reader picks up the wallet and processes the transaction just like a tap-to-pay card.
Mobile wallet transactions run through the same card networks (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) that the customer’s underlying card belongs to, so they’re processed at the same rates as a standard contactless card tap.
Afterpay (Buy Now, Pay Later)
Square supports Afterpay, which lets customers split a purchase into smaller installments. Your business must be in an approved merchant category to offer Afterpay. You can check eligibility and enable it by logging into your Square Dashboard under Payment Methods.
For in-person purchases, the customer taps their Afterpay Card through a digital wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay) at checkout. The transaction total must fall between $1 and $2,000. Afterpay makes an instant approval decision at the time of purchase based on the customer and the order, so some transactions may be declined even if your business is approved to accept it.
Afterpay also works with Square Invoices for larger purchases. Qualified customers can pay invoices between $400 and $4,000 in monthly installments spread over 6 or 12 months. One limitation worth noting: Afterpay does not work with offline payments, so your device needs an active internet connection.
ACH Bank Transfers
If you send invoices through Square, you can let customers pay directly from their bank account using ACH transfers. This is useful for businesses that handle larger transactions where credit card processing fees would add up quickly. The fee for ACH is 1% of the transaction amount, with a minimum of $1 per transaction and no monthly fee. The cap per individual ACH transaction is $50,000.
To set it up, you simply enable ACH payments as an option when creating a new invoice. When your customer receives the invoice, they’ll see a bank transfer option alongside the standard card payment option. Square uses a third-party provider called Plaid to let customers log into their bank securely, so they never have to share their account and routing numbers with you directly. Once a customer pays, the funds typically land in your Square account within two to three business days.
ACH is currently available only through Square Invoices, not through the in-person POS terminal or Square Online checkout.
Cash and Other Manual Payments
Square’s POS app also lets you record cash payments, which is helpful for tracking all your sales in one place even when a customer doesn’t pay electronically. You can ring up the sale, mark it as a cash transaction, and Square will include it in your reporting and inventory counts. There’s no processing fee on cash transactions since Square isn’t moving any money.
What Square Does Not Accept
Square does not process payments from PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, cryptocurrency, personal checks, or money orders. If a customer wants to pay with one of those methods, you’d need to handle that transaction outside of Square. Gift cards issued by Square itself can be accepted, but third-party gift cards from other processors generally cannot be redeemed through the Square system.
For international cards, Square works with most foreign-issued cards from the six supported networks, but all transactions are processed and settled in U.S. dollars. Square does not offer multi-currency processing for U.S.-based accounts.