Toast Posts $169M Profit, Launches AI Agent

The restaurant software company reported third-quarter 2026 results and introduced Toast IQ Team, an AI product that combines scheduling, payroll and forecasting.

Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Dining Out

Toast Posts $169M Profit, Launches AI Agent

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Toast reported $169 million in third-quarter 2026 net income, up from $105 million a year earlier, and launched Toast IQ Team. Its shares rose as much as 11% in pre-market trading after the results were released.

Why it matters

The launch signals Toast's push to move its platform from tools that help restaurant operators run the business toward agents that take on some of that work. Its growth in locations and recurring revenue shows how widely its point-of-sale system is now used.

Toast's third-quarter 2026 net income reached $169 million, up from $105 million a year earlier, and annual recurring revenue rose 24% to $2.5 billion. The company added roughly 8,500 net new locations in the quarter, bringing its total to 189,000, though the effect of Toast IQ Team on labour costs has not yet been measured.

The players

Toast, Inc.

Toast is a restaurant technology company whose point-of-sale and management platform runs in roughly 189,000 restaurant locations.

The details

Toast IQ Team bundles sales forecasting, scheduling, payroll and tip management into one system, with forecasts built from each restaurant's historical point-of-sale data. The company also added Team Performance, which runs in-platform sales contests tied to high-margin menu items, with live leaderboards shown in its MyToast app.

November 3, 2026: Toast reported its third-quarter 2026 results.
November 4, 2026: Toast shares jumped as much as 11% in pre-market trading.

Culture Shift

Toast IQ Team extends the company's point-of-sale platform, which already records each restaurant's sales, into forecasting and staff scheduling. That move places the software at the center of day-to-day restaurant management rather than only sales recording.

Restaurant operators using Toast may see new forecasting and scheduling features appear in their system as Toast IQ Team rolls out. Operators weighing the tool should watch whether it changes staffing costs in the coming quarters.

The takeaway

Restaurant technology is moving from recording what happens in a dining room to predicting staffing and sales needs. Operators considering AI scheduling tools should compare forecast accuracy against their own historical sales before committing.