Official rates checked October 27, 2026 · USD

Square Payroll pricing: the published rate, annualized

Square publishes a flat rate card: full-service payroll is $35/month + $6 per person paid per month, checked October 27, 2026. Unlike a quote-only vendor, this is a number you can turn into an annual cost today. Annualized for N billable people it is ($35 + $6×N) × 12 = $420 + $72×N per year — the same base-plus-per-person caliber the other pages in this series use — and it can be set directly against Paychex's quote-only range.

Square official payroll pricing page · checked October 27, 2026 states the full-service plan at $35/month plus $6 per person paid per month, with contractor-only payroll at $6 per person per month and no base fee.

What Square publishes (and what it does not)

Square's pricing page is a rate card, not a quote form. The items below are Square's own stated figures, checked October 27, 2026.

Separately charged items sit outside the $35 + $6 base. 401(k) retirement is offered through Square's partner Vestwell: Square's own 401(k) page states their most popular plan is $125/mo + $8 per participating employee, with participants paying an annual account fee starting at 0.2%. Workers' compensation and health insurance have no published price from Square and are quoted on request, and paid amendment services are an add-on with no published price. None of those separately charged items is inside the $35 + $6 figure. Timecard import and scheduling (up to 10 days out) are the exception: they are included in full-service payroll, so time tracking is not a separate charge.

Annualize it in the same caliber as the other pages

The batch pages express cost as base × 12 + per-person rate × headcount × 12. Square fits that exactly: the $35 base recurs every month and the $6 person fee recurs per billable person per month.

The arithmetic is ($35 + $6×N) × 12. A contractor-only team pays no base: $6 × N × 12 = $72×N per year (10 contractors = $720/year). These are subscription subtotals from the dated official rates — they exclude wages, employer payroll taxes, benefits funding and any opted-in paper-W-2 fee ($3 per mailed form per year).

Watch the per-person number. Because Square's $35 base is fixed, per-person cost falls as headcount rises: $41 per person at one employee drops to $9.50 per person at ten. Compare per-person figures only at the same headcount, or the comparison is meaningless.

Head-to-head with Paychex's quote-only range

Paychex, checked the same day, publishes no rate card: its four Flex tiers each read "Request Pricing." Its own stated market range is $30–$100 per employee per month for outsourced payroll — that is $360–$1,200 per employee per year, or $360N–$1,200N total per year for N people. Square's published total sits inside that band at one person ($492, inside $360–$1,200) and below the band's low end from five people up. Paychex pricing: quote units and confirmation checklist

The annualization mistake to avoid

Three ways this comparison goes wrong:

• Mixing monthly and annual. Comparing Square's $95 monthly (10 people) against a Paychex annual figure, or annualizing a single Square month as the whole year, makes one vendor look wrong when neither is. Keep both sides annual and at the same headcount.
• Treating Paychex's range as a quote. It is Paychex's description of the market, not a price it will charge you. Use it as a band to sanity-check a real quote, not as a competitor price.
• Inventing a Square promotion. The official pricing page shows no introductory discount, so there is no "first-month" number to annualize. Referral "first month free" offers appear off the official page and are unverified — confirm any promo in writing before using it.

Add-ons and annual lines to confirm

The $35 + $6 figure is the subscription. Before signing, record these separately so they do not surprise the invoice:

If a line is included, record "Included"; do not add the same cost again. A missing fee is "awaiting quote," not zero.

Third-party figure, not a Square price: a third-party review quotes a per-person time-tracking fee of $2.50–$4.00 per month, which does not appear on Square's pricing page and is therefore not budgeted here as a Square charge.

Items to confirm before signing

1. Product identity: Is the quote full-service payroll, or contractor-only at $6 with no base? Record the exact plan.
2. Who counts as a billable person: Employees, contractors, or both — and whether inactive staff are billed. Square bills people actually paid in a month.
3. Tax filing scope: Confirm federal and state filings are included (they are on the published page) and which local jurisdictions Square files for your states.
4. Add-ons: Which of 401(k), benefits or amendments you selected, and for each one whether the price is published by Square or has to come back in writing as a quote. 401(k) sits on Vestwell's plan price of $125/mo + $8 per participating employee; timecard import and scheduling are already inside the full-service plan.
5. Paper forms: If you opt into mailed W-2/1099 copies, budget $3 per mailed form per year.
6. Renewal: No long-term contract is advertised; confirm there is no auto-escalation clause and what the rate is from month 13.

Download the Square cost worksheet (CSV)

Compare against the vendors that do publish — and the one that does not

Square's published rate is the easy half. The harder half is Paychex, which quotes instead of publishing. Paychex's own stated range is $30–$100 per employee per month, checked October 27, 2026; its four Flex tiers each read "Request Pricing." A Paychex number only becomes comparable after you have a written quote with base, per-employee rate and billing units. Paychex pricing: quote units and confirmation checklist · Gusto pricing worksheet · QuickBooks payroll pricing

When you enter Square's published base and per-person rate into the payroll cost calculator, keep the same headcount and the same number of months you used for the others. Comparing a Square monthly figure against a Paychex annual figure will make one of them look wrong, and neither is.

Official sources, checked October 27, 2026

• Square — Payroll Services Pricing · full-service $35/mo + $6/person/mo, contractor-only $6/person/mo, paper W-2/1099 $3/form/yr · checked October 27, 2026
• Square — Payroll (product page) · same rate card, tax filing and multistate included · checked October 27, 2026
• Square — Square vs Gusto · cost comparison starting at $35/mo + $6/user/mo · checked October 27, 2026
• Square — 401(k) retirement benefits · Vestwell plan price $125/mo + $8 per participating employee, participants' annual account fee starting at 0.2%, and Square's disclosure that it is not a client of Vestwell · checked October 27, 2026
• Square — Workers' compensation · quote-based with no published price; quote in one business day, premiums adjust automatically with payroll employee data, individual rates and savings vary and are subject to change · checked October 27, 2026

Cross-check. NerdWallet, Forbes Advisor, Merchant Maverick, Rankite, Onfolio and Bluecloud CPA all reported the same $35 + $6 full-service figure as of September–October 2026, which is why this page treats it as the current published rate rather than a single-source claim. Those reviews corroborate the rate card only; the add-on lines above come from Square's own pages or are quoted on request.