Who are Block's competitors?
Block competes in two main ecosystems, and its 2025 Form 10-K describes the rivals in each by type without naming a single company; the names come from competitors' own filings and trade press. For Square, the 10-K lists business software providers, payment terminal vendors, merchant acquirers, banks, payroll processors and alternative lenders. Global Payments' 2025 10-K names Fiserv, Toast, Stripe, Shopify and Block among its primary U.S. merchant-acquiring competitors. In U.S. restaurants below the top 250, Baird estimated in January 2026 that Fiserv's Clover held about 20% of card processing, Toast 17%, Square 13% and Global Payments 11%, Payments Dive reported. Square handled $250 billion of gross payment volume for more than 4.5 million sellers in 2025. For Cash App, the 10-K names money transfer apps, debit card offerings, brokerage firms, tax firms, fintech apps, banks and crypto trading services. Chime's 2025 10-K lists Cash App among its fintech competitors, and an analyst told American Banker in April 2026 that Chime is chasing the same sub-$75,000 income population as Cash App, which had 59 million monthly transacting actives in December 2025. In buy now, pay later, Affirm's fiscal 2026 10-K names PayPal, Block and Klarna, and Klarna's 2025 20-F lists AfterPay among BNPL solutions it may compete with. The 10-K also warns that Block's AI depends on third-party large language models it does not control. Rivals are shipping AI of their own: Toast launched ToastIQ in May 2025, Stripe its Agentic Commerce Suite in December 2025, and PayPal said in September 2026 it would support Meta's Muse agent.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
Data as of Nov 2, 2026 · Block profile updated Oct 22, 2026 · 26 sources cited on this page · 56 fintechs profiled on this site · Markdown
What does Block's 10-K say about its competitors?
Block's FY2025 10-K, filed February 26, 2026, has a Competition section for Square and Cash App and names no competitor. For Square it says: "The markets in which our Square ecosystem operates are competitive and evolving. Our competitors range from large, well-established vendors to smaller, earlier-stage companies." It lists business software providers (point of sale, website building, inventory, employee and customer management, invoicing and appointment booking), payment terminal vendors, merchant acquirers, banks that provide payment processing, checking, savings, loans and payroll, pen and paper and cash, payroll processors, and established or new alternative lenders. Block says it differentiates on its commerce ecosystem, transparent pricing and no mandatory long-term contracts.[1]
For Cash App the filing says: "Cash App competes with other companies in peer-to-peer payments, debit and prepaid cards, credit card rewards, stock trading, tax filing, digital wallet, bitcoin exchanges, BNPL providers, and shopping and consumer demand generation." Its competitors include money transfer apps, debit card offerings, brokerage firms, tax firms, financial technology apps, banks and crypto trading services, and Block says it competes on its lifestyle brand, the breadth of its network and the simplicity of its experience. Over time, with its bank partners, Cash App aims to become one of the top providers of banking services to U.S. households earning up to $150,000 a year.[1]
The risk factors add three pressures. In banking, "We compete with established banks, neobanks, and other financial technology companies that provide access to similar offerings"; in BNPL, "Competitors in the BNPL space have engaged in, and may continue to engage in, aggressive consumer acquisition campaigns"; and companies not traditionally associated with payments have introduced competing products. On AI, the 10-K says "Our use of AI depends on third-party large language models that we do not control" and that its ability to deploy AI features depends on the availability and pricing of third-party AI models, tools and infrastructure.[1]
The names appear in other companies' filings. Global Payments, NCR Voyix, Chime, Dave, Affirm, Klarna and Sezzle each list Block, Square, Cash App or Afterpay as a competitor in their latest annual reports. Toast's, PayPal's and Shopify's 2025 10-Ks describe their competition by category and do not mention Block, Square or Cash App.[2][11][4][12][6][7][13][14][15][16]
Who are Block's main competitors in each business, and how do they compare?
One row per competitor. Scale figures are each company's own, on its own definitions and periods, and are not comparable with each other or with Block's. Block's own: $250 billion of Square GPV and more than 4.5 million sellers in 2025; 59 million Cash App monthly transacting actives in December 2025.
| Competitor | Where they compete | Dated scale figure | How they compare on AI | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toast | Square, in restaurants. Global Payments' and NCR Voyix's 2025 10-Ks list Toast alongside Block; Baird estimated Toast at about 17% of small U.S. restaurant card processing to Square's 13% (January 2026) | About 164,000 locations processing about $195 billion of gross payment volume in the trailing 12 months, as of December 31, 2025 | ToastIQ, an "intelligence engine" delivering prompts, personalized recommendations and automated workflows, launched May 1, 2025 | Global Payments 10-K 2025; NCR Voyix 10-K 2025; Payments Dive, Jan 2026; Toast 10-K 2025; Business Wire, May 2025[2][11][3][14][8] |
| Fiserv (Clover) | Square, in small-business point of sale. Fiserv is named with Block in Global Payments' and NCR Voyix's 10-Ks; Baird estimated Clover at about 20% of small U.S. restaurant card processing, including 175,000 locations (January 2026) | Clover 2025 revenue expected at $3.3 billion, $200 million below prior guidance (October 29, 2025) | Project Elevate, a two-year AI program with IBM announced October 2025, initially covers Clover alongside sales, onboarding, client service, HR and finance | Global Payments 10-K 2025; NCR Voyix 10-K 2025; Payments Dive, Jan 2026 and Nov 2025[2][11][3][17] |
| Global Payments | Square, in merchant acquiring and POS. Its 2025 10-K names Block among its primary U.S. merchant-acquiring competitors and, outside the U.S., with Worldline, Nexi, Adyen and Stripe; Baird put it at about 11% of small U.S. restaurant card processing | Revenues of $7,705.9 million in 2025; acquired Worldpay on January 9, 2026 | Its 10-K says it is investing in AI capabilities and strategic partnerships "to position our platforms to support agent-driven commerce" | Global Payments 10-K 2025; Payments Dive, Jan 2026[2][3] |
| Stripe | Square, in online and developer payments. Global Payments' 10-K lists Stripe with Block among its merchant-acquiring competitors in the U.S. and abroad. Stripe is private and files no 10-K | $1.9 trillion of total volume by businesses running on Stripe in 2025, up 34% from 2024 | Agentic Commerce Suite (December 11, 2025) lets businesses sell across AI agents with a single integration and handles Shared Payment Tokens | Global Payments 10-K 2025; Stripe annual letter, Feb 2026; Stripe, Dec 2025[2][18][9] |
| Shopify | Square, for sellers who sell online and in person. Global Payments' 10-K names Shopify with Block; Klarna's 20-F lists Shopify among e-commerce platforms with integrated payment capabilities | $378.4 billion of GMV in 2025, of which $248.1 billion went through Shopify Payments | Sidekick, an AI-enabled commerce assistant, and Agentic Storefronts for agent-assisted product discovery and checkout across AI platforms (10-K 2025) | Global Payments 10-K 2025; Klarna 20-F 2025; Shopify 10-K 2025[2][7][16] |
| PayPal (including Venmo) | Cash App and Afterpay. Affirm's FY2026 10-K lists PayPal with Block among mobile wallets and pay-over-time providers; Sezzle names PayPal's "Pay Later"; Dave names Cash App and Venmo; IDC told American Banker that Cash App Green takes aim at Venmo's credit card (November 2025) | $1.79 trillion of total payment volume in 2025; 439 million active accounts at December 31, 2025 | Said in September 2026 it would support Meta's Muse, letting the AI assistant search and execute transactions for consumers | Affirm 10-K FY2026; Sezzle 10-K 2025; Dave 10-K 2025; American Banker, Nov 2025 and Sep 2026; PayPal 10-K 2025[6][13][12][19][15][10] |
| Chime | Cash App, in everyday banking. Chime's 2025 10-K lists "offerings such as Cash App" among its fintech competitors; a Cornerstone Advisors analyst told American Banker that Chime Prime targets the same sub-$75,000 population Cash App is going after (April 2026) | 9.5 million Active Members at December 31, 2025 | Its Jade AI agent assisted the majority of Chime's 50 million support interactions in 2024; AI and automation handle 70% of interactions (May 2026) | Chime 10-K 2025; American Banker, Apr 2026; Banking Dive, May 2026[4][5][20] |
| Affirm | Afterpay and Cash App's pay-over-time products. Affirm's FY2026 10-K names "PayPal, Block and Klarna" among mobile wallets and pay-over-time solutions it competes with; Sezzle lists Affirm and Afterpay among its main U.S. BNPL competitors | $50.2 billion of GMV in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 | Machine-learning risk models calibrated and validated on data from over 553 million loans, per its FY2026 10-K | Affirm 10-K FY2026; Sezzle 10-K 2025[6][13] |
| Klarna | Afterpay and Cash App. Klarna's 2025 20-F lists Block among payment networks and "AfterPay" among buy now, pay later solutions it may compete with; Sezzle lists Klarna and Afterpay in the U.S. and Canada | $128 billion of GMV in 2025; about 118 million active consumers at December 31, 2025 | AI assistant built with OpenAI, launched February 2024, handled 80% of customer service chats in 2025, per the 20-F | Klarna 20-F 2025; Sezzle 10-K 2025[7][13] |
Which companies list Block, Square, Cash App or Afterpay as a competitor in their filings?
From each company's latest annual report on SEC EDGAR, in filing order.
| Filer and filing | Block business | How the filing names Block | Others named in the same list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Payments, 10-K for 2025 (February 20, 2026) | Square | Block Inc. among its primary U.S. merchant-acquiring competitors, and again among providers it competes with outside the U.S. | Fiserv, Chase Paymentech, Elavon, Bank of America Merchant Services, Wells Fargo Merchant Services, Toast, Stripe, Shopify; abroad Worldline, Nexi, Adyen and Stripe[2] |
| NCR Voyix, 10-K for 2025 (February 26, 2026) | Square point of sale | Block Inc. among its key competitors | Aptos, Diebold Nixdorf, Fiserv, Flooid, Fujitsu, GK Software, Global Payments, HP, Lightspeed, Olo, Oracle, PAR Technology, Toast, Toshiba Tec and Qu[11] |
| Klarna, 20-F for 2025 (February 26, 2026) | Cash App, Square and Afterpay | Block among payment networks, and AfterPay among buy now, pay later solutions, it may compete with | Affirm and PayPal; card issuers and networks; Revolut and Nubank; Shopify, Amazon and Walmart[7] |
| Sezzle, 10-K for 2025 (February 26, 2026) | Afterpay | "Afterpay (a subsidiary of Block, Inc.)" among its main BNPL competitors in the U.S. and Canada | Affirm, Klarna, PayPal's "Pay Later" and Zip[13] |
| Dave, 10-K for 2025 (March 2, 2026) | Cash App | Cash App among broader fintech platforms it competes with | Banks and credit unions; Chime and Varo Bank; Earnin, MoneyLion and Brigit; Affirm and Venmo[12] |
| Chime, 10-K for 2025 (March 6, 2026) | Cash App | "offerings such as Cash App" among fintech competitors | Bank of America, Capital One, Citibank, J.P. Morgan Chase, PNC Bank and Wells Fargo; Ally, Discover and SoFi; Affirm, Klarna and PayPal[4] |
| Affirm, 10-K for fiscal 2026 (August 27, 2026) | Afterpay and Cash App | Block among companies offering mobile wallets and other pay-over-time solutions | PayPal and Klarna; card issuers Synchrony, J.P. Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, Capital One, Bread Financial and American Express[6] |
How is Square doing against Toast and Clover in point of sale?
In U.S. restaurants outside the 250 largest groups, a segment of about 75% of the market, Baird estimated in January 2026 that Fiserv's Clover held about 20% of card processing (175,000 locations), Toast about 17% (145,000 locations), Block's Square 13% and Global Payments 11%, Payments Dive reported. Only Toast and SpotOn focus entirely on restaurants, the report said.[3]
The contest has moved to price. Baird analysts said in a September 2026 note that Toast and Block-owned Square had led a push of sharp hardware discounting; Toast and Square generally sell directly, while Global Payments and Fiserv sell their Genius and Clover systems mainly through independent sales organizations, Payments Dive reported in October 2026. The same article put Toast at about 180,000 merchant locations and Square at about 4.5 million merchants.[21]
Clover has slowed. Its revenue grew 2% in the second quarter of 2026 and Fiserv expected mid-single-digit growth for the year, Payments Dive reported in August 2026. Square's gross payment volume was $72.8 billion in that quarter, up 13%, per Block's Q2 2026 shareholder letter.[22][23]
Who does Cash App compete with for consumers' primary bank account?
Block is pushing Cash App to become customers' primary banking relationship. At an event in New York City in November 2025 it launched 11 product updates, including the Cash App Green benefits program, and IDC's Aaron Press told American Banker that Block was taking aim at neobanks such as Chime and at peer-to-peer offerings such as Venmo's credit card.[19]
Chime answered with Chime Prime in April 2026; Cornerstone Advisors' Tony DeSanctis told American Banker it targets "the same population that Cash App is going after", the sub-$75,000 annual income segment. Chime reported 9.5 million Active Members at the end of 2025, against 59 million Cash App monthly transacting actives in December 2025 and 9.4 million Cash App primary banking actives in June 2026, each on its own company's definition.[5][4][1][23]
What companies are similar to Block?
No single company matches Block's mix of seller and consumer networks; these are the closest alternatives for each side.
| Company | Why it is similar | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Toast | A point-of-sale, payments and software platform for restaurants with about 164,000 locations at the end of 2025; Baird ranks it second to Clover in small U.S. restaurants, ahead of Square | Restaurants that want a platform built only for restaurants[14][3] |
| Clover (Fiserv) | Fiserv's all-in-one point-of-sale system for small businesses, sold mainly through independent sales organizations and used by banks such as Western Alliance and TD | Small businesses that buy payments through a bank or sales organization[21][22] |
| Shopify | A commerce platform with its own payments; $248.1 billion of its $378.4 billion 2025 GMV went through Shopify Payments | Sellers whose business starts online[16] |
| PayPal and Venmo | A two-sided network of consumers and merchants with 439 million active accounts; consumers shop and pay with PayPal and Venmo online and in person | Peer-to-peer payments and online checkout[15] |
| Chime | A neobank that lists Cash App as a competitor and courts the same sub-$75,000 income customers as their primary account | People who want an app-based primary bank account[4][5] |
| Dave | Offers ExtraCash of up to $500 in short-term credit with no interest, late fees or credit check, and names Cash App and Venmo as competitors | Small-dollar, short-term liquidity like Cash App Borrow[12] |
What does the Block profile record on this topic?
The rows below are the entries of the Block AI strategy profile that bear on this page, as of Oct 22, 2026; the profile holds the full record of 14 dated moves, 8 use cases and 16 sources.
| Use case | What the record shows | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moneybot (Cash App) | In-app assistant that surfaces spending, income and savings insights and proactively recommends actions; generally available with over 1 million weekly engaged accounts in Q2 2026, with about 70% of conversations started from proactive prompts in Q1 2026. | In production | [24][23] |
| Managerbot (Square) | Business agent in Square Dashboard that monitors sales, labor and inventory, flags issues and proposes actions that execute only after the seller approves; opened to more sellers in beta in April 2026 and available to over 1 million sellers, with US general availability expected in June 2026 per the Q1 letter. | Rolling out | [25][24] |
| Machine-learning risk assessment | Block says rapid fraud detection is a machine-learning problem it has run in production at scale for over fifteen years; its 10-K says Square automates risk assessment for more than 99.95% of all transactions. | In production | [23][1] |
| Machine-learning underwriting | Block names loan underwriting among the machine-learning problems it has solved at scale for over fifteen years; Cash App consumer lending originated $18.9 billion in Q2 2026, driven by Cash App Borrow. | In production | [23] |
| Date | Move | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 5, 2026 | Q2 2026: Moneybot passes 1 million weekly engaged accounts | Block reported gross profit of $3.17 billion (up 25%), said Moneybot was generally available with over 1 million weekly engaged accounts, and said agentic AI helped write and review nearly all production code changes in June. | [23] |
| May 7, 2026 | Q1 2026: Moneybot live across Cash App, every employee using AI | Block's shareholder letter said 100% of employees were using AI tools as of early April, Builderbot was making 15% of production code changes nearly fully autonomously, Moneybot was live across Cash App, and Managerbot was available to over 1 million sellers with US general availability expected in June. | [24] |
| Apr 28, 2026 | Managerbot opens to more Square sellers | Square opened Managerbot, described as the next evolution of Square AI, to a broader group of sellers in open beta inside Square Dashboard; it monitors sales and labor, flags issues and proposes actions that the seller must approve. | [25] |
| Nov 13, 2025 | Cash App introduces Moneybot | Cash App's fall release introduced Moneybot, an assistant that answers questions about spending patterns and income and suggests actions, available to select users at launch with broader availability planned. | [26] |
Who are Block's biggest competitors?
By business: Toast, Fiserv's Clover, Global Payments, Stripe and Shopify compete with Square; Chime and PayPal's Venmo with Cash App; Affirm, Klarna and PayPal with Afterpay. Block's own 10-K names no companies, but Global Payments, Chime, Affirm and Klarna list Block or its brands in their filings.
What companies are similar to Block?
No one company combines a seller network and a consumer app at Block's scale. The closest alternatives are Toast and Fiserv's Clover for point of sale, Shopify for online sellers, PayPal and Venmo for peer-to-peer payments and checkout, Chime for app-based banking, and Dave for small-dollar credit.
Square vs Toast: which is bigger?
Square is broader: more than 4.5 million sellers made $250 billion of Square gross payment volume in 2025. Toast serves restaurants only, with about 164,000 locations processing about $195 billion in the 12 months to December 2025. In small U.S. restaurants Baird estimated Toast's card-processing share at 17% and Square's at 13% in January 2026.
Is Chime a competitor of Cash App?
Yes. Chime's 2025 10-K lists offerings such as Cash App among its fintech competitors, and an IDC analyst told American Banker in November 2025 that Cash App's new benefits program takes aim at neobanks such as Chime. In April 2026 a Cornerstone Advisors analyst said Chime Prime targets the same sub-$75,000 income population that Cash App is going after.
Who competes with Afterpay?
Affirm, Klarna and PayPal's Pay Later. Sezzle's 2025 10-K lists Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal's Pay Later and Zip as its main U.S. BNPL competitors, Affirm's fiscal 2026 10-K names PayPal, Block and Klarna, and Block's 10-K warns that BNPL rivals run aggressive consumer acquisition campaigns.
- Block, Inc. Annual Report 2025 (Form 10-K)
- Global Payments Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Toast, Clover battle for small eateries
- Chime Financial, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Chime moves further up market with prime offering
- Affirm Holdings, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026
- Klarna Group plc Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Toast Launches ToastIQ to Superpower the Future of Restaurants
- Stripe launches the Agentic Commerce Suite to help every business thrive in the AI-enabled commerce era
- PayPal partners with Meta's Muse AI assistant
- NCR Voyix Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Dave Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Sezzle Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Toast, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- PayPal Holdings, Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Shopify Inc. Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025
- Fiserv turns to AI for help
- Stripe publishes 2025 annual letter and announces tender offer to provide liquidity to current and former employees
- Block beefs up Cash App to pry consumers from banks
- How Chime overcame trust challenges when deploying its AI agent
- Toast, Square jockey on POS discounts
- Fiserv flags Clover revenue drop
- Q2 2026 Shareholder Letter (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)
- Q1 2026 Shareholder Letter (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K)
- Square Brings Managerbot to More Sellers, Giving Main Street an Intelligent Business Agent
- Cash App debuts a new AI assistant that answers questions about your finances
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