Square just turned ChatGPT and Claude into restaurant ordering apps, and it’s not charging the marketplace fees that have made platforms like DoorDash and Uber Eats a four-letter word for restaurant owners.
The Block subsidiary announced on July 1 that US food and beverage merchants using Square Online Ordering are now automatically included in AI-powered conversations on both OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude. Consumers can browse menus, discover nearby restaurants, and place orders directly inside those AI platforms. The only cost to merchants is standard Square processing fees, not the double-digit commission rates that traditional delivery marketplaces typically extract.
How the integration actually works
The setup is designed to require zero technical lift from restaurant owners. Eligible US Square Food & Beverage merchants are automatically opted in at no extra cost.
Orders flow through Square’s “Order by Cash App” infrastructure, which connects Block’s consumer-facing app to the merchant side of the equation. A customer asks Claude “what’s good for Thai food near me,” and the AI can surface real menus, handle the order, and process payment, all without the customer ever opening a separate app.
