How many kiosks do you actually need?
Work it out from your peak, not your average. A simple throughput calculation for sizing a kiosk bank — and the mistake that makes restaurants buy too few.
Kiosk quantity is one of the few restaurant technology decisions with a genuinely arithmetic answer. You do not need a consultant for it, and you do not need to guess. You need your peak order count and a realistic estimate of how long one guest takes at a screen.
Size for the peak, never the average
A restaurant taking 300 orders a day does not need capacity for 300 orders a day. It needs capacity for the busiest hour, because that hour is the only time the queue exists. Sizing off a daily average is the single most common way operators end up with too few kiosks and conclude the technology does not work.
Pull your order counts by hour for a few representative days, including one bad-weather day and one weekend, and take the highest hour you would actually like to serve well. That is your design target.
The calculation
One kiosk serves roughly sixty divided by the average minutes a guest spends at it, per hour. Most quick-service orders land somewhere between ninety seconds and three minutes depending on menu complexity, group size and how much customisation your items invite.
- ✓Take your peak-hour order count.
- ✓Estimate average time at the screen in minutes — be pessimistic, not optimistic.
- ✓Kiosks per hour = 60 ÷ that time. A two-minute order means about 30 orders per kiosk per hour.
- ✓Divide peak orders by that figure, then add one.
The plus one is not padding. It covers the screen that is down, the guest who walks away mid-order and leaves a session open, and the fact that arrivals are lumpy rather than evenly spaced. A bank sized exactly to peak will still queue at peak.
A counter-service restaurant peaks at 90 orders in the lunch hour. Orders average two minutes, so one kiosk handles about 30. That is three kiosks, plus one, so four — with at least one staffed point of order alongside for guests who want a person.
What changes the answer
Menu complexity moves the time-per-order figure more than anything else. A build-your-own concept with many modifier steps can easily double it, which doubles the kiosk count for the same throughput. That is worth knowing before you buy, and it is also an argument for the menu work described in our guide to kiosk menu design.
- ✓Group ordering. One guest ordering for four takes far longer than four guests ordering individually.
- ✓Payment method. Contactless taps are quicker than inserted chip cards.
- ✓Physical layout. Kiosks too close together create a crowd that discourages the next guest from approaching.
- ✓First-time users. Adoption periods run slower; do not size off week one.
Why this is cheaper to get right in Opero
Because Opero runs the kiosk on tablets you already own and prices per location rather than per device, the cost of adding a lane is the tablet and stand, not a per-kiosk software fee. That means you can start with your calculated number and add one if the queue tells you to, instead of over-buying terminals up front to avoid a second procurement round.
Each lane that takes cards needs a supported card reader; one per location is bought from us, and further lanes need their own. Every kiosk feeds the same kitchen display and the same menu as your counter, so adding one is a hardware decision rather than a systems project.
Work out what a kiosk lane actually costs before you size the bank.
Read the kiosk cost guideFrequently asked questions
- Is one kiosk ever enough?
- For a small cafe with a modest peak, yes — one kiosk alongside a staffed counter is a reasonable trial. The risk with one is that any downtime takes your entire self-service capacity with it.
- Should I replace all my registers with kiosks?
- Most operators keep at least one staffed point of order. It serves guests who want a person, covers card problems and accessibility needs, and gives you somewhere to send anyone the kiosks cannot help.
- How much space does a kiosk lane need?
- Enough for a guest to stand and a queue to form behind without blocking the path to collection. Kiosks placed too tightly together read as one crowded station rather than several open ones, which measurably slows approach.
Run your whole restaurant on one platform
POS, kiosk, QR ordering, kitchen display, and payments on one spine — you bring the tablets, and the card reader is the one piece you buy from us. Unlimited devices, no per-device fees.
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Keep reading
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