Toast Time-Specific Pricing Now Lives in Menu Manager: Set Up One Day-Part Price

Toast's September 17, 2026 update moves time-specific pricing onto the Menu Manager item page, the same day the Menu Builder landing page disappeared. Setup steps, when to pick it over a happy-hour menu, the channels Toast lists, the averaged PMIX price, and how to verify before advertising it.

Ryan Speier

Quick answer: as of Toast's product update dated September 17, 2026, you create and edit time-specific pricing on the menu item's configuration page in Menu Manager (Menus, then Menu management, then Menu manager). Open the item, set its Pricing strategy to Time specific price, enter the everyday base price, add one row per time window with its Time and Day settings, then save and publish. The same day, Toast removed the Menu Builder landing page from Toast Web, so if you used to price happy hour there, Menu Manager is now the place. Two things to know before you touch a live item: Toast's Product Mix report shows a time-priced item at an average price across everything it sold, not the two separate prices, and Toast's channel table lists time pricing for the POS, Online Ordering, Toast Local, Kiosk and online ordering partners, but does not list Toast Mobile Order & Pay.

This is a workflow guide built from Toast's announcement and three support articles as they read on September 22, 2026. The update is five days old, it is a menu-configuration change rather than an AI feature, and we did not run these steps on a live Toast account, so expect small differences on screen. Menu prices are edited in Toast Web on a computer, not in the Toast mobile app; the related pricing article lists the permissions Edit Full Menu (4.5) and Publishing (6.4). Toast says the update is available at all Toast POS locations in all countries.

Pick the strategy before you change anything

Toast offers several ways to make one item cost different amounts, and the pricing strategy is set per item. Switching is not a free move: Toast's articles say an item using time-specific, size or open pricing must be changed to base pricing before it can be converted to menu-specific pricing, and they do not say what happens to saved time windows when you switch away. Write down any existing prices and windows before you change a strategy.

StrategyWhat changes the priceTypical use
Time-specific priceThe clock and the day of week, set on the item or groupUsually simplest for a single item or group; useful for happy hour and weekly specials
Menu-specific priceWhich menu the item was rung from, controlled by menu availabilityThe usual way to build a full happy-hour menu or a separate third-party menu
Price levelA shared price assigned to many items, changed in one placeFor items that all share one price, such as every bottled beer
Base priceThe ordinary price you enter by hand; discounts can still apply on topWhat most items use

Toast's menu-specific article adds one operational reason to prefer a separate menu when the deal is conditional: with two menus, servers ring the happy-hour item only when the guest qualifies. A time-specific price applies inside the window wherever that item, menu and availability are configured on a channel Toast supports it on. If your deal is bar-only or dine-in-only, that difference decides it.

Set up one time-specific price

The worked example is invented: Fig & Fennel, a cafe that wants its Iced Oat Latte at $4.50 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm on weekdays and $6.00 the rest of the time. There is no alcohol in the example on purpose; if you use this for alcoholic drinks, check your state and local rules on happy-hour and reduced-price promotions first, because some jurisdictions restrict them.

  1. In Toast Web, go to Menus, then Menu management, then Menu manager. Use the arrows to the left of the menu names to open the group that holds the item, then select the item's name.
  2. In the settings panel on the right, scroll to the Pricing section.
  3. For Pricing strategy, choose Time specific price.
  4. Enter the Base price. This applies whenever no time window matches, so for Fig & Fennel it is 6.00, not 4.50.
  5. In the Time prices table, select + Add, then set that row's Time and Day settings for the 2:00 to 4:00 pm weekday window and enter 4.50.
  6. Repeat + Add for each additional window. Toast's steps describe repeating the row, so a weekend window is another row. The trash-can icon deletes a rule.
  7. Save and publish your changes.

Why the PMIX average differs from either price

Toast's article says a time-priced item appears in the Product Mix (PMIX) report as an average of the price across every time it sold, and gives this example: 100 beers at $10 plus 50 beers at $5 during happy hour report as an average price of $8.33. That is $1,250 divided by 150 units. For Fig & Fennel, 120 lattes at $6.00 plus 80 at $4.50 would show as $5.40 ($1,080 divided by 200). The same article's FAQ says time-specific pricing does not show each individual price in reporting. We did not verify which other Toast reports, if any, split sales by hour, so check that on your own account after the first window runs. Toast's menu-specific article does not say whether a shallow-copied happy-hour item reports separately from the original, so do not assume a separate happy-hour menu gives you a separate line either; verify the reporting breakdown on your account before you rely on it.

Limits Toast documents

  • Channel support: the Menu Builder pricing article, also updated September 17, 2026, lists time pricing as usable with Toast POS, Online Ordering, Toast Local, Kiosk and online ordering partners. Toast Mobile Order & Pay appears under base and menu-specific pricing but not under time pricing. Ask Toast before relying on a time price at the table on Order & Pay.
  • Bulk edits: the price editor can change base and time prices in bulk, but only for items already configured for time-specific pricing. It cannot switch an item onto the strategy for you.
  • Copies: the pricing strategy is set at the item level, so changing it on a shallow-copied item can carry to the original. If the same item needs different prices on two menus, consider menu-specific pricing instead of changing the copy's strategy.
  • Menu Builder: the landing page is gone from quick actions, the Menus page and onboarding checklists, and the Menu Builder pricing article still carries a banner saying Menu Builder will be retired on September 1, 2026. Follow Menu Manager's own article.

Verify before advertising the offer

This is a proposed procedure, not something we executed. Publishing in Toast Web changes the live menu; Toast's pages describe no preview or sandbox, so assume guests can see and order the item the moment you publish. Use your restaurant's approved test-order procedure and a quiet window, and do not submit payments or send new tickets to the kitchen by accident.

  1. Before you publish, tell counter and kitchen staff what is changing, when, and that the price change is automatic: nobody rings a discount on top of it. Save the item's current price and any existing time rules where you can find them again.
  2. Publish during a quiet window and note the time on the POS clock.
  3. Straight away, and again just inside and just after the window, open a test check with the item on the POS and read the posted price. Look at the online ordering page and any kiosk the same way. Clear test checks the way your procedure says to.
  4. If you take orders through Toast Mobile Order & Pay, do not assume which price it shows. Toast's table does not list time pricing for that channel, so check with Toast and look at that surface yourself before you offer the deal there.
  5. If any posted price is wrong, correct it or restore the saved price, republish, and read it back before you leave it.
  6. Follow-through, not a gate: the next day open the PMIX report for the item. The averaged price alone cannot prove the window worked; zero sales in the window, refunds or discounts can all move it. Compare the timed order prices and unit mix from your order history, and if they do not match what you set, investigate rather than diagnose from the PMIX number.

Before you decide a lower window price is worth it, add up what each sale in the window really costs: ingredients, packaging, channel fees on online or partner orders, and any other cost that rises with each extra unit. The free food cost calculator helps with the ingredient part, but covering ingredient cost is not the same as making money on the offer. Judge the offer by its incremental contribution and effect on the whole order, not by unit volume alone.

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