Process offline payments
About offline payments
The Square Point of Sale apps require an internet connection at all times to function optimally. This can be a Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection on your mobile device or Square hardware, or a Wi-Fi, Ethernet or data service (such as 4G, 5G or EDGE) on your mobile device.
If your device goes offline, you can allow offline payments to accept cash and card payments from most major card brands.
Your device may go offline for two reasons:
Internet outage: your Wi-Fi stops working or your ISP has a service issue.
Square service disruption: Square’s services are deprecated or down.
How offline payments work:
Your current processing fees will be applied to offline transactions based on payment type, so you’ll see no difference in fees. Learn about Square fees.
You can accept tap payments with digital wallets (Apple or Google Pay), but tap payments with physical cards will not work while offline.
Offline payments are securely stored in your Point of Sale app while your device is offline.
Offline payments will process automatically when you reconnect your device to the internet within 24 hours (no later than 72 hours).
Before you begin
You can allow offline payments and manage your offline payment settings from Square Dashboard or the supported Square Point of Sale apps.
You have three options for accepting offline payments:
Accept offline payments during an internet service disruption
Accept offline payments during a Square service disruption
Accept offline payments during both an internet service disruption and a Square service disruption
You can also decide if you want to accept cash and offline card payments or just cash payments.
To prepare to accept offline payments, download the offline payments guide and share it with your employees so they know what to do in the event of an internet outage or Square service disruption. You can also download a reliability checklist for avoiding disruptions.
Starting in March 2026, we’ll notify you via email to review your offline payments settings. You’ll also see a task in Square Dashboard and the Square Point of Sale apps.
In April 2026, offline payments will be enabled automatically on all your devices if you take no action from the task in Square Dashboard.
Supported and unsupported features:
Offline payments can be processed on the supported Square Point of Sale apps, Square hardware and mobile devices.
You can process offline payments from the following Square Point of Sale apps:
- Square Point of Sale app in full service, quick service, bar, retail, bookings or standard mode. Learn how to use modes with Square Point of Sale.
- Square Restaurant POS app
- Square Appointments POS app
- Square Retail Point of Sale app
You can process supported offline payments from the following Square hardware:
- Square Register
- Square Terminal
- Square Handheld
- Square Stand (2nd generation)
- Square Reader (2nd generation)
- Square Reader (1st generation, v3)
- Square Reader for magnetic stripe, if you have Square Reader or Square Stand connected to the device
- Square Stand (1st generation)
Learn how to identify your Square hardware.
Online orders and deliveries:
- Depending on the type of disruption, new online orders received through your Square website or ordering platforms won’t appear in your POS.
- Once the disruption is resolved, any order that came in will appear on your Square device.
- Orders that came in when your device was offline will appear in your Square Dashboard and process automatically once your connection is restored.
Offline payments are not available or supported with the following:
-
Square hardware:
- Square Reader (1st generation – v1 and v2)
- Square Kiosk hardware running the Square Kiosk app
- Square Terminal connected (Terminal API) as a buyer-facing display and payment point. Learn how to connect Square Terminal with Square POS.
- Learn how to identify your Square hardware.
-
Payment types:
- Physical contactless cards
- Clearpay
- Square Gift Cards
- Tap to Pay on iPhone
- Tap to Pay on Android
- Manually-entered cards
-
Square apps:
- Square Invoices app
- Square Point of Sale app in services mode
- Square Kiosk app
- Square Loyalty: You’ll need to manually link and accrue customer points earned from offline payments once you reconnect to the internet and upload the payments.
- Reports: Close of day reporting. Learn how to set up and run your restaurant’s close of day report.
Safety practices for offline payments
Make sure you obtain a signature for every transaction (where possible) and verify the signature on the screen matches the signature on the back of the payment card. Learn how to manage signatures for payments.
If the card is not signed, ask your customer for a government-issued ID and to sign the card. Looking at their ID, match the signature to the signature on the payment card.
While you can’t require your customer to provide an ID, and requesting an ID doesn’t change your liability for chargebacks, unsigned cards are invalid and should not be accepted.
When the customer presents a chip and PIN or contactless card, ask them to insert or tap the card whenever possible. Processing a chip-enabled card by swiping or manual entry may increase your risk of fraud or declined/voided transactions.
You’re responsible for any expired, declined or disputed payments accepted while taking offline payments. Square is unable to provide customer contact information or contact customers on your behalf for declined or expired offline payments.
Time limits for offline payments
Payment card industry partners and regulators set specific requirements related to the duration of offline payment sessions.
If you’re using the Square hardware listed below, you must reconnect your device to the internet and upload your offline payments within 72 hours of the start of your offline payments session.
- Square Register
- Square Terminal
- Square Handheld
However, uploading your offline payments within 24 hours is highly recommended to reduce your risk of chargebacks or card declines.
If you’re using the Square hardware listed below, you have 24 hours to accept offline payments.
- Square Reader (2nd generation)
- Square Reader (1st generation, v3)
- Square Stand (1st or 2nd generation)
After 24 hours, your offline payments session will end and you’ll need to reconnect to the internet while your Square hardware is connected to your iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device. You can start accepting offline payments again after reconnecting every 24 hours.
You must upload your offline payments within 72 hours of the start of your offline session. However, uploading your offline payments within 24 hours is highly recommended to reduce your risk of chargebacks or card declines.
Step 1: Allow offline payments and manage settings
With offline payments allowed, your device will automatically begin accepting offline payments whenever it loses its connection to the internet or Square’s servers.
Allowing offline payments from point-of-sale modes in Square Dashboard and the Square Point of Sale app will allow offline payments on every device that has the mode assigned to it.
If you don’t use modes, you can allow offline payments directly from the Square Point of Sale apps.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Device management > Modes.
- Select an existing mode from the list and click Manage under Settings. If you do not have an existing mode, learn how to create and assign modes.
- Under Checkout settings, select Offline payments > Turn Allow Offline Payments on.
- Select how you want to accept payments during an internet outage:
- Accept cash and offline card payments
- Only accept cash payments
- Select how you want to accept payments during a Square service disruption:
- Accept cash and offline card payments
- Only accept cash payments
- Set your preferred max amount allowed per transaction for offline payments.
- Click Save.
From the Square Point of Sale app in full-service, quick-service, bar, retail, bookings or standard mode, or from the Square Restaurant POS app, Square Retail Point of Sale app or Square Appointments POS app:
- Open your app and tap ≡ More > Settings.
- Tap Checkout > Offline payments > turn Allow offline payments on.
- Select how you want to accept payments during an internet outage:
- Accept cash and offline card payments
- Only accept cash payments
- Select how you want to accept payments during a Square service disruption:
- Accept cash and offline card payments
- Only accept cash payments
- Set your preferred max amount allowed per transaction for offline payments.
- Tap the back arrow to save.
Step 2: Identify your disruption type
If you try to process a payment during an internet outage or Square service disruption, an error notification will appear before your device goes offline. The error message will indicate what type of disruption you are experiencing.
- A Check network connection error message will appear when you try to process a payment during an internet outage.
- Click Try again to attempt the payment again before going offline.
- If the payment fails again, your device will automatically go offline.
To confirm whether your Square hardware is offline due to an internet outage:
- Open your Square Point of Sale app.
- Tap ≡ More > Settings > Hardware > Network.
To confirm whether your mobile device is offline due to an internet outage, open the Settings app and go to Wi-Fi or Network & Internet.
- A Square payment error message will appear when you try to process a payment during a Square service disruption.
- Click Try again to attempt the payment again before going offline.
- If the payment fails again, your device will automatically go offline.
To confirm whether your device is offline due to a Square service disruption:
- Go to issquareup.com.
- Select your country.
- Under System status, check for an X next to __Payment Acceptanc__e.
You can set up Square service disruption notifications to be notified when Square services are down. Learn how to set up account email and Square service disruptions notifications.
Step 3: Accept offline payments
You can accept supported offline payments as you normally would on your supported device or Square hardware. When offline payments are allowed, an offline session automatically starts any time your device loses internet connectivity, and a notification banner will appear at the top of the screen.
While you’re offline:
The banner will include a countdown clock showing the remaining time to reconnect and upload the offline payments.
The countdown clock will not appear if the device is offline due to a Square service disruption.
Offline payments will show as ‘pending’ in your app transaction history. Learn how to view offline payments.
You can restart or power off your device or Square hardware, but you need to power it back on to upload any pending offline payments before they expire.
Step 4: Upload offline payments
You can upload offline payments by reconnecting your device to the internet – no other action is required.
Pending offline payments will expire after 72 hours if you don’t reconnect your Square Register, Square Terminal or Square Handheld to the internet and upload them. Learn how to identify your Square hardware.
Pending offline payments will expire after 72 hours if you don’t reconnect your iPhone, iPad or Android mobile device to the internet (while connected to Square hardware) and upload them.
Expired offline payments cannot be retrieved or reprocessed.
After you reconnect to the internet:
A notification will confirm that your device is back online and offline payments are being processed.
You can view completed and declined payments. Learn how to view offline payments.
Customers will receive their digital receipts and you will receive payment notification emails.
A new offline session will activate if internet connectivity is lost again or if a Square service disruption occurs after the offline payments have successfully been uploaded.
Refunds for offline payments
Offline payments can’t be cancelled or refunded while they’re still processing. You can issue a refund once your internet connection has been restored and the offline payment has been uploaded. Learn how to manage customer refunds.