Free tool

Lease vs buy: the terminal math

A $40/month terminal lease sounds harmless until you multiply it by 48 months. Enter the lease terms and the cash price, and see the true premium — in dollars and as a multiple of the terminal's value.

Monthly lease payment (CAD)

Lease term 24 months 36 months 48 months 60 months

Terminal — verified cash price lookup Loading…

Only vendor-published cash prices appear here.

Cash price (CAD) — or enter manually

From the vendor's site or a written quote. We never guess a price for you.

Months already paid (optional)

Already partway through a lease? Enter how many payments you have made — the sunk cost comes off the forward premium.

Monthly processing fees (CAD, optional)

Optional — expresses the premium as “months of processing fees” so you can feel the size of it.

Compare lease vs buy

Why leases get expensive

Lease salespeople quote the monthly payment; the contract runs 48 or 60 months. A terminal that retails for a few hundred dollars routinely costs two to three times that over a full lease term — and the contract's buyout clause can add more at the end. This calculator compares the contracted total against the cash price so you see the premium before you sign.

Already locked into hardware? See POS services for setup help, or run the switching break-even numbers before changing providers.