Toast Launches Menu Price Monitor, Offering Insights into Restaurant Pricing Trends
Toast (NYSE:TOST), the all-in-one digital technology platform for restaurants, has launched its new Menu Price Monitor, a powerful tool that provides monthly insights into menu pricing trends across the restaurant industry in the United States. Utilizing data from the Toast platform, which has over 140,000 restaurant locations as of March 31, 2025, this tracker offers a unique look at how prices on menus at restaurants change over time.
Toast's Menu Price Monitor tracks price fluctuations for key food and beverage items, including beer, burgers, burritos, chicken wings, cold brew coffee, and regular coffee. Data is presented by median, 25th percentile, and 75th percentile pricing per item, along with year-over-year percentage increases, offering a view of menu pricing dynamics from restaurants in the United States.
This data is powered by Toast Benchmarking, which leverages an AI-based classification tool to categorize menu items.
"The extensive network of restaurants on Toast's platform makes us uniquely positioned to provide a wide range of insights and to create tools that leverage data to help customers improve their business, such as Toast Benchmarking," said Steve Fredette, Co-founder and President of Toast. "From menu price trends to shifting consumer trends, the new Menu Price Monitor and our Restaurant Trends Reports offer unique views into the restaurant community in an ever-changing landscape. We look forward to sharing this monthly data going forward, and we hope it provides useful insight into the state of the restaurant industry."
Key Takeaways from April 2025:
- The median monthly price of regular coffee on restaurant menus was $3.50, up 6.4% when compared to April 2024 and 0.0% compared to March 2025.
- The median monthly price of cold brew on restaurant menus was $5.40, up 4.2% when compared to April 2024 and 0.0% compared to March 2025.
- The median monthly price of beer on restaurant menus was $6.41, up 2.6% when compared to April 2024 and 0.2% compared to March 2025.
- The median monthly price of burgers on restaurant menus was $14.31, up 3.1% compared to April 2024 and 0.3% compared to March 2025.
- The median monthly price of burritos on restaurant menus was $13.32, up 3.3% compared to April 2024 and 0.5% compared to March 2025.
- The median monthly price of chicken wings on restaurant menus was $13.67, up 3.2% compared to April 2024 and .01% compared to March 2025.
Key Features of The Toast Menu Price Monitor:
- Monthly Updates: Two years of historical data and monthly updates on pricing adjustments at restaurants in the United States.
- Itemized Data: Tracks various popular menu items and provides detailed pricing breakdowns.
- Unique Industry Perspective: Offers a snapshot of pricing adjustments across a diverse range of restaurant types and locations on the Toast platform.
- Data-Driven Insights: Helps understand how economic factors like inflation, ingredient availability, and demand impact pricing at a broad range of restaurant types and locations.
The Toast Menu Price Monitor is featured on Data by Toast, which includes additional research and data reports from Toast, including the Restaurant Trends Report, surveys, holiday and event reporting, and more. Data by Toast can be found at https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/data.
FAQ:
What types of restaurants are included in the Toast Menu Price Monitor?
Data from the Menu Price Monitor is a combination of all restaurant types on the Toast platform, from small quick-service restaurants to large, full-service restaurants and everything in between. Restaurants are located in all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C.
Does this tracker include a comparison of same-store sales?
The Menu Price Monitor does not provide insights into same-store sales, nor is it indicative of company or restaurant performance. Data is compiled from a snapshot of all applicable Toast platform restaurant locations in a month.
What are the Median, 25th, and 75th percentiles?
Percentiles indicate data distribution. The 25th percentile means 25% of values are at or below that point. The 75th percentile means 75% of values are at or below. The median (50th percentile) shows the exact midpoint of all data values. These percentiles show the range of typical menu prices.
What kind of AI powers Toast Benchmarking?
Leveraging an AI-based classification model, Toast Benchmarking classifies restaurant menu items into a standard set of categories so that transactional data can be aggregated and compared in a meaningful way. Transactional and menu data from Toast restaurants are included in the aggregated dataset, and are not exposed in isolation. For example, is a whiskey donut a dessert or an alcoholic beverage? Insights are provided for general informational purposes only, and menu item categorizations may be incomplete or inaccurate.
What is the scale of the data in the tracker?
As of Q4 2024, each menu item tracked has a quarterly volume of over 6 million items. The Toast Benchmarking tool aggregates pricing data from over 70 million unique restaurant menu items on the Toast platform.
When will this data be available?
Data in the Menu Price Monitor will be updated monthly to include updated pricing information from the month prior.
How does this data differ from previous data you have released?
Data in the Menu Price Monitor is a snapshot view of all applicable Toast platform restaurant locations in a given month. Previous pricing data released by Toast included filtering, such as same-store sales, and further breakdowns by restaurant type and other categories.
Do you have additional data on restaurants?
For the latest data releases from Toast, visit Data Powered by Toast at https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/data. Please send additional inquiries to [email protected].
About the Toast Menu Price Monitor
The Menu Price Monitor, powered by Toast, uncovers key menu pricing trends across the restaurant industry through aggregated sales data from restaurants on the Toast platform, which has approximately 140,000 locations as of March 31, 2025. This information is provided for general informational purposes only, and publication does not constitute an endorsement. Toast does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of any information, text, graphics, links, or other items contained within this content. Individual results may vary. Toast does not guarantee you will achieve any specific results if you follow any advice herein. It may be advisable for you to consult with a professional such as a lawyer, accountant, or business advisor for advice specific to your situation. The Toast Menu Item Price Tracker does not indicate Toast's operational performance or its reported financial metrics.
About Toast
Toast (NYSE:TOST) is a cloud-based, all-in-one digital technology platform purpose-built for the entire restaurant community. Toast provides a comprehensive platform of software as a service (SaaS) products and financial technology solutions that give restaurants everything they need to run their business across point of sale, payments, operations, digital ordering and delivery, marketing and loyalty, and team management. We serve as the restaurant operating system, connecting front of house and back of house operations across service models including dine-in, takeout, delivery, catering, and retail. Toast helps restaurants streamline operations, increase revenue, and deliver amazing guest experiences. For more information, visit www.toasttab.com.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release contains "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the context of the statement and generally arise when Toast or its management is discussing its beliefs, estimates or expectations. Such statements generally include the words "believes," "plans," "intends," "targets," "may," "could," "should," "will," "expects," "estimates," "suggests," "anticipates," "outlook," "continues," or similar expressions. These statements are not historical facts or guarantees of future performance, but represent the beliefs of Toast and its management at the time the statements were made regarding future events which are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside Toast's control. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding the launch and operation of Toast's Menu Price Monitor and other data resources, and the benefits of such data resources for its customers.
The forward-looking statements contained in this release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in Toast's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including in the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations'' in Toast's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, Toast's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2025, and Toast's subsequent SEC filings. Toast can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies as reflected in or suggested by those forward-looking statements will be attained or achieved. The forward-looking statements in this release are based on information available to Toast as of the date hereof, and Toast disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Toast's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.
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