Payroll · United States
Square Payroll pricing: what it actually costs per employee at 5, 10, 25 and 50
At 10 employees, the cheapest plan Square Payroll publishes is Full-Service Payroll: $95 a month — $9.50 per employee per month, base fee included.
- Price statusPublished list price
- Prices read onchecked 2026-09-06
- Last recorded change2026-09-06 · what changed
Cheaper at this headcount: Patriot Software at $57 a month on its Basic Payroll plan.
On its cheapest published plan, Square Payroll costs $95 a month for 10 employees, which is $9.50 per employee per month.
At 5 employees the same plan works out at $13.00 per employee — the headline figure of $6 assumes the base fee is spread over more people.
What the vendor publishes
| Plan | Base / month | Per employee / month | Eligibility as published | What the vendor states |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Service Payroll | $35 | $6 | No headcount condition published | No commitment, no long-term contracts required; optional paper W-2/1099 mailing $3/form/year |
| Contractor Only Payroll | $0 | $6 | No headcount condition published | $6/month per person paid; no commitment, no long-term contracts required |
Setup fee: not stated in the vendor's published documentation (checked 2026-09-06).
Free trial: not stated in the vendor's published documentation (checked 2026-09-06).
Minimum contract: not stated in the vendor's published documentation (checked 2026-09-06).
Add-on fees the vendor publishes
These are the extra charges Square Payroll states on the same pricing page, for things the headline price does not cover. They are the only add-on figures we hold for Square Payroll: anything else it charges is not published, and we do not estimate it. The calculator can add them for your headcount under its advanced options.
| Plan | Item | Fee | Charged | The vendor's wording |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Service Payroll | Year-end forms | $3 | a year for each form | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; mailing paper copies is an annual fee of $3 per form |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Year-end forms | $3 | a year for each form | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; paper copies $3 per mailed form |
What that works out at per employee
Vendors quote a per-employee fee and a base fee separately. What you actually pay per employee is both of them divided by your headcount, so the smaller your team, the further the real figure sits above the advertised one. This table is Square Payroll's published prices put through that division.
| Plan | 1 | 5 | 10 | 25 | 50 | 100 | 250 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-Service Payroll | $41.00 | $13.00 | $9.50 | $7.40 | $6.70 | $6.35 | $6.14 |
Columns are employee counts. Scroll sideways on a phone.
No other adjustment is applied. We do not add estimated tax-filing fees, discounts, or promotional pricing. The full method is at Method.
Where the base fee stops mattering
On Full-Service Payroll, the $35 base fee is 54% of the monthly bill at 5 employees and 10% at 50. That is the whole of why the effective figure falls as a team grows: the fee does not change, the number of people carrying it does.
Who this suits, and who it does not
- If price is the only thing you are deciding on, Patriot Software is cheaper at 10 employees ($57 against $95) — see its figures.
- If your headcount is under 5, the base fee of $35 dominates the bill. Check the per-employee column at your actual size before comparing anything.
- If you are not ready to decide, wait. Published prices change without notice and the figures here are only as current as 2026-09-06. Confirm on the vendor's own page before you sign.
Price history
| Date | Plan | What changed | Was | Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-06 | Full-Service Payroll | Year-end forms, in the plan correction to our data — Re-read on the vendor pricing page | a paid add-on | included in the plan |
The same entries, next to every other vendor's, are on the price history (RSS).
Where each figure comes from
Every figure above is either a number Square Payroll publishes or a gap it leaves. Field by field: what we hold, which of the vendor's own pages it was read from, the day it was read, and the vendor's wording where we have it. Nothing in this table comes from a third party, and no blank is filled with an estimate.
Show the source of every figure on this page (24 fields)
| Plan | Field | What we hold | Read from | Read on | The vendor's wording |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | Setup fee | Not stated in the vendor's published documentation | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| — | Minimum contract | Not stated in the vendor's published documentation | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| — | Free trial | Not stated in the vendor's published documentation | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| Full-Service Payroll | Monthly base fee | $35 | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| Full-Service Payroll | Per-employee fee | $6 | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| Full-Service Payroll | Tax calculation | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Automatic payroll tax calculations — Included" |
| Full-Service Payroll | Tax filing | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Automated federal tax payments and filings" and "Automated state tax payments and filings" — Included |
| Full-Service Payroll | Direct deposit | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Pay by check, direct deposit, or Cash App" — Included |
| Full-Service Payroll | Year-end forms | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; mailing paper copies is an annual fee of $3 per form |
| Full-Service Payroll | Multi-state filing | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Multistate payroll" — Included |
| Full-Service Payroll | Off-cycle runs | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Off-cycle payments" — Included |
| Full-Service Payroll | Year-end forms (add-on) | $3 a year for each form | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; mailing paper copies is an annual fee of $3 per form |
| Full-Service Payroll | Conditions on the price | — | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | No commitment, no long-term contracts required; optional paper W-2/1099 mailing $3/form/year |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Monthly base fee | $0 | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Per-employee fee | $6 | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Tax calculation | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Automatic payroll tax calculations" — Included on both plans |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Tax filing | Not included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Automated federal tax payments and filings" and "Automated state tax payments and filings" — Not included on this plan |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Direct deposit | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Pay by check, direct deposit, or Cash App" — Included |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Year-end forms | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; paper copies $3 per mailed form |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Multi-state filing | Not included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Multistate payroll" — Not included on this plan |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Off-cycle runs | Not included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Off-cycle payments" — Not included on this plan |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Contractor payments | Included | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | The plan is the contractor product: "$6/mo per person paid" |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Year-end forms (add-on) | $3 a year for each form | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | "Digital delivery of W2s/1099s" — Included; paper copies $3 per mailed form |
| Contractor Only Payroll | Conditions on the price | — | the pricing page | 2026-09-06 | $6/month per person paid; no commitment, no long-term contracts required |
The same record, for every vendor, is the sources column of plans.csv on the data page.
Where to check this yourself
Go to Square Payroll and open its pricing page. Everything above comes from https://squareup.com/us/en/payroll/pricing, read on 2026-09-06.
Related
- Square Payroll compared with Patriot Software
- Square Payroll compared with OnPay
- Square Payroll compared with QuickBooks Payroll
- Alternatives to Square Payroll
- Why payroll costs more than the advertised per-employee fee
- Put your own headcount against Square Payroll in the calculator
- What payroll software costs, and where the money goes
- Gusto vs Square Payroll: $14 a month apart at every headcount, $35 apart on contractor plans
- Contractor-only payroll cost: Square $18, Gusto $53, Remote $87, Deel $147 a month for three contractors, and contractor-of-record plans from $597
- Square Payroll vs Homebase: $35 + $6 against $49 + $6 with a $0 to $120 plan fee underneath
Written by Kaz, independent publisher.
Page last updated: 2026-10-03. Sources: vendor pricing pages only. Figures checked between 2026-08-20 and 2026-10-03. I have not used these products. Nothing here is a personal test result.
Ranking method and formulas: Method. Listing position on this site is not for sale.
Corrections: contact form.