Toad, known in Japanese as Kinopio (Japanese: キノピオ), is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo's Mario franchise. A prominent red Toad serves as one of Princess Peach's handlers and appears consistently as a supporting character in the franchise.

While most Toads look virtually identical to each other and usually are not named individually, notable exceptions include Captain Toad, Toadette and Toadsworth. The most prominent trait of the Toads is their large, mushroom-like head with colored spots on top.

The Toads typically have assisting roles in the Mario franchise, but are occasionally featured as protagonists. Two Toads, Yellow Toad and Blue Toad are featured as playable characters along with Mario and Luigi in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Toad appears as one of the playable characters in Super Mario 3D World, with blue spots resembling Blue Toad. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker featured Captain Toad as the main character, and was the first game to have a Toad as the titular character.

When Mario Kart for the Nintendo GameCube was revealed to be Mario Kart: Double Dash on 23 April 2003, Kiyoshi Mizuki actually wanted to make Toad one of the selectable characters from the beginning, but after thinking about Toad's own partner, they could not come up with any specific one suitable as a partner for this sort of tandem ride. Because of this, they hid him as an extra character by himself. Nintendo would invent a new, female Toad character with an extremely high-pitched voice named Kinopiko (キノピコ), 30 minutes later, who would be named Toadette outside of Asian regions.^{[citation needed]}

During the development of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the developers at Nintendo decided between four characters to be playable in the game: Princess Peach, Toad, Wario and Waluigi (all suggestions made by fans). Two Toads (yellow and blue) were eventually included as playable characters in New Super Mario Bros. Wii due to their physical similarity to Mario and Luigi.

In February 2018, Yoshiaki Koizumi confirmed that the mushroom on Toad's head is part of his body, and not a hat. It had previously been a common topic of debate among fans.

In the main Super Mario video games, Toad was voiced by Jen Taylor starting from Mario Golf and lasting until Super Mario Strikers. Following Taylor's departure from the role, she was succeeded by Samantha Kelly, who voiced Toad in all games starting from Mario Party 8 and lasting until Mario & Luigi: Brothership. In other media, Toad was also voiced by John Stocker in the DiC cartoons and Keegan-Michael Key in two animated films. As of Mario Kart World, the Toads have two separate voice actors, with Laila Berzins voicing the main Toad and Paul Castro Jr. voicing the supporting Toads.

Toad and his race of mushroom people made their debut appearance in Super Mario Bros. where they play a minimal role in the game. They appear at the end of the first seven worlds as the Mushroom Retainers, who serve the princess. Once Mario or Luigi defeats Bowser, Toad rewards the heroes with the message: "Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!", and in the Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 they maintain this role. In the American Super Mario Bros. 2, Toad got his first individual appearance and was given a bigger role as one of the four playable characters. In Super Mario Bros. 3, Toad appears in the Toad houses where he provides items and extra lives for Mario to take on his journey. He is the sole playable character in the puzzle game Wario's Woods, where he tries to prevent Wario from taking over the woods with the help of Birdo and a fairy named Wanda.