Toaster ovens have always been extremely versatile appliances, but the newest models take it to another level. A modern toaster oven can do away with your dehydrator, air fryer, microwave and even your traditional gas oven. They heat up faster than ovens, cook your food faster, and use less electricity. Many of the toaster ovens in this guide are even capacious enough for families of four, and can roast a whole chicken.
They are also consistently excellent appliances. I tested 10 different models for this guide, and they generally produced such good results that you really can’t go wrong. But with so many sizes, features and price points, it can still be challenging to find the right fit for you and your kitchen. Fortunately, we found great models for every size and preference.
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At a glance
Best overall:
Breville Joule Smart Countertop Oven Air Fryer
Best budget:
Cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven with Grill
Best compact:
Zojirushi Micom Toaster Oven
Best air fryer toaster oven:
Panasonic FlashXpress Air Fry Toaster Oven
Best high end:
Lotus Professional Series The Perfectionist Oven
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Why you should trust me
As a former professional chef and part-time recipe developer, I find toaster ovens indispensable both at work and at home. In a professional kitchen, toaster ovens are the go-to tool for heating small portions of food quickly.
At home, my toaster oven is my most used appliance in my kitchen (other than my rice cooker) and I use it for basically all foods that need a golden brown crust. I’ve owned three toaster ovens in my life and only lost one to malfunction – the other two are still kicking in two different residences. I believe that you should buy a toaster oven for life, and I tried to prioritize models that I believe will last.
To select the 10 toaster ovens for this guide, I scanned store shelves and browsed online retailers, but also polled my friends and asked them many intrusive questions about their toaster ovens. How long have you had it? How often do you use it? What do you use it for?
How I tested
For three months, I roasted whole chickens, fish and vegetables; reheated pizza and chicken wings; and toasted bread in each of the toaster and compared their results. I compared two ovens at a time.
Then I integrated these toaster ovens into my life, rotating each through the place of honor on my kitchen counter for one week. I considered both how it performed its basic function of producing toast, but also how much ease it brought to my life, and how much time it saved me. I also considered:
How intuitive were the controls? Was it obvious without having to consult the manual?
How big is it? Could I fit a whole chicken in it without taking up too much of my countertop?
How quickly did it heat? How evenly?
How many present functions does it have? Are they useful?
Does it offer bells and whistles like Wi-Fi connectivity, a probe thermometer, or the option to save specific settings?
The winners below are the toaster ovens I kept returning to the place of honor, even after their week was done.
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Best overall:
Breville Joule Smart Countertop Oven Air Fryer
$499.95 at Amazon
$499.95 at Williams Sonoma
Why we love it
Of all the toaster ovens I tested, this one is basically perfect. It heats up incredibly fast, and while it does take up a fair amount of counter space, it doesn’t feel as enormous as our high-end pick, the Lotus. And yes, it is also very good at simply making toast.
Convenient and innovative features include “rotate remind”, which beeps to suggest rotating your food for even results, and a heart button that saves your favorite settings – such as the perfect toast length. Even the crumb tray has been thoughtfully engineered as a pullout drawer that slides below the heating mechanism, so you don’t have to reach inside the toaster oven to extract crumbs.
With the Breville+ app, you connect your oven to your phone using Bluetooth and access genuinely useful features, including guides that walk you through cooking practically anything in the Joule. For tilapia fillets, it tells you to use the included air fry basket and roasting pan, explains which numbered position to slide them into, and suggests cooking times and temperatures, which you can use the app to set the toaster oven to. You can also use the app to start a cleaning cycle (which heats the oven up to 400F and takes 20 minutes), search for recipes from partners such as NYT Cooking and Serious Eats, and even access cooking classes. Yes, this is a toaster that builds community.
It’s a shame that … it is on the pricey side at $500, but this is a reasonable price for the features it brings. Also, running the cleaning cycle doesn’t burn off all the bits and oil splatters in the toaster oven’s interior – you still need to apply elbow grease to get it sparkling.
Dimensions: 12.8in (H) x 21.5in (W) x 17.3in (D)
Presets: Toast, Bagel, Bake, Air Fry, Broil, Roast, Pizza, Cookies, Proof, Reheat, Slow Cook, Keep Warm, Dehydrate
Accessories: Basket for air frying and dehydrating, two reversible racks, enamel roasting pan, broiling rack, pizza pan
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Best budget:
Cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven with Grill
$219.95 at Cuisinart
$219.95 at Crate&Barrel
Why we love it
I have used this toaster oven for seven years and I have had no complaints, except when the baking sheet started to rust a year ago (which is still not bad in terms of longevity). It’s extremely versatile and is tall enough to easily roast a whole chicken while still being very compact. There’s no touch screen and its mechanisms are pretty basic – there are four dials to control time, temperature, function and toast (which is separate from its warm, broil, convection broil, bake, convection bake and air fry functions).
If you’re looking for a low-tech, straightforward toaster oven that heats up very quickly and does a good job of circulating heat, this is a fantastic option. It also happens to be chef Jen Carroll’s favorite appliance.
It’s a shame that … it is somewhat challenging to clean the interior of oil splatters.
Dimensions: 13.7in (H) x 15.7in (W) x 12.2in (D)
Presets: Air fry, Convection Bake, Convection Broil, Bake, Broil, Warm, Toast and Grill
Accessories: Baking sheet, air fryer basket, two oven racks, dual-sided ceramic nonstick grill/griddle plate
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Best compact:
Zojirushi Micom Toaster Oven
$258.99 at Amazon
$258.99 at Zojirushi
Why we love it
If you’re looking for a compact toaster oven that still boasts advanced features, the streamlined Zojirushi Micom is an excellent option.
Zojirushi appliances are generally more advanced than they appear, and the Micom (or “microcomputer”) toaster oven follows in the same vein as their best-in-class rice cookers: it uses sensors to gauge interior temperatures and adjust time and temperature to what the food needs, rather just just counting down on a timer. When you select an automatic function such as “toast” or “bagel”, the cooking time is adjusted automatically. You can, of course, adjust cooking times manually too, using a dial.
I’m a rule follower, which means I’m unlikely to use an appliance other than for its intended purposes but my rogue husband used it to heat up leftover congee, and it strangely worked. The congee came out evenly warmed up. He described it as having the “convenience of a microwave, but the integrity of a toaster oven”.
In every test, it heated up food thoroughly and extremely quickly. When I used it for leftover pizza (it fits two slices at a time, or a whole 12in pizza), it took four minutes to utterly transform a cold piece into a sizzling slice that could pass for oven-fresh, with perfectly melty molten cheese and a crisp bottom.
It’s a shame that … it’s a little finicky to thoroughly remove crumbs, and it doesn’t have an air fry function (though you probably don’t really need it).
Dimensions: 11.88in (H) x 16in (W) x 15.2in (D)
Presets: Toast, Bagel, Pizza, Cookie, Bake, Roast, Broil, Homemade (dough proofing, which means it proofs dough for a second rise then automatically switches to bake), Rise, Timed Toast, Reheat, Keep Warm
Accessories: Baking tray, broil tray, toaster oven, mesh rack
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Best air fryer toaster oven:
Panasonic FlashXpress Air Fry Toaster Oven
$270.63 at Amazon
$299.99 at Best Buy
Why we love it
The Panasonic FlashXpress is fast, consistent, reasonably priced, and it works well as an air fryer. It’s a step up from the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, but without too many bells and whistles.
Though it’s a couple inches taller than the Zojirushi, it’s still relatively compact and fits a 12in pizza or a whole chicken. It heats up toast and pizza reliably, and more or less evenly – if your whole chicken is on the taller side, the breast area can get burnt faster.
The crumb tray is a shade less fidgety than the Zojirushi’s but not as clean to use as the Breville Joule. It also had the most well-designed rack holders of every one of these models, as they’re just notches molded into the interior sides. And as someone who thinks in both celsius and fahrenheit, I also appreciated how there’s a button to toggle between them.
It’s a shame that … the upper heating component seems more powerful than the bottom rods, but I found it easy enough to adjust foods to prevent the tops from getting burnt.
Dimensions: 13.9in (H) x 16.9in (W) x 15.8in (D)
Presets: Toast, Bagel, Pizza, Bake, Broil, Reheat, Air Fry, Air Roast, Roast, Steak, Dehydrate
Accessories: A mesh basket rack for dehydrating and air frying, oven rack, and enamel tray
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Best high end:
Lotus Professional Series The Perfectionist Oven
$799.95 at Lotus
$799.95 at Williams Sonoma
Why we love it
The Lotus is an absolute beast of a toaster oven. Out of all the toaster ovens on the list, this one is the most like an actual oven and most suitable for a larger family. My favorite feature is the temperature probe, which you plug in on the interior of the oven, then insert into the bird, brisket or fish that you’re roasting. It really takes the guesswork out of knowing precisely when it is done.
It toasts slices of bread evenly, and you can easily set your preferred toastiness (from light to dark). It reheats pizza as well as the Zojirushi, and it’s especially powerful as a convection oven – which means it’s an excellent air fryer. You can roast a chicken slowly, then switch it to air fry mode to get incredible crisp all over the bird. Unique removable rack guides make it really easy to clean up the interior.
If you have the counter space and budget, and you never want to use your full-size oven again (or you don’t have one), the Lotus is ideal.
It’s a shame that … it has a larger footprint than the Breville and a higher price point but lacks the wifi connectivity, dedicated app, and cooking community.
Dimensions: 12.75in (H) x 22.5in (W) x 16.75in (D)
Presets: Proof, Warm (to keep cooked foods warm), Air Fry, Bake, Broil, Toast, Bagel
Accessories: Air fry basket with air fry tray which goes underneath it, two oven racks, temperature probe, baking pan, broil rack
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Best of the rest
For multitasking:
Ninja Double Stack XL Countertop Oven and Air Fryer
$279.99 at Amazon
$279.99 at Kohl’s
Why we love it
This combination toaster oven and air fryer has two separate, stacked ovens, rather than having a single oven cavity that adjusts like the other combination appliances on this list. Its single door hinges with the press of a button in its handle. It also has a probe thermometer to accurately roast whole birds, fish, pork loins, etc.
It didn’t make the final cut because: While I can see scenarios where having two compartments would be helpful, its price point is too close to the Breville Joule, which is far more advanced, robust, and intuitive.
Dimensions: 13.26in (H) x 16.39in (W) x 16.39in (D)
Presets: Broil, Toast, Bagel, Bake, Reheat, Keep Warm, Whole Roast, Air Roast, Air Fry, Convection Bake, Pizza, Dehydrate
Accessories: Air fry basket, two baking pans, wire racks, probe thermometer
What other toaster ovens did the Guardian test?
Hamilton Beach 4-Slice Toaster Oven – 31401
Waring Commercial countertop convection oven
Our Place Wonder Oven
Frequently asked questions about toaster ovens
How does a toaster oven work?
Toaster ovens are typically equipped with heating elements on the interior floor and ceiling of a rectangular box that opens like an oven. These elements – bars or coils – produce thermal radiation, which cooks your food. Some toaster ovens have fans for convection cooking or air fry functions, which circulate hot air evenly throughout the body.
Why are there so many different functions in a toaster oven and how do they differ?
The different settings in a toaster oven control which of its heating elements are active – for instance, broil settings only engage the top heating element – as well as temperatures and durations of cooking.
Do I really need a combination air fryer and toaster oven?
Yes, you do. The combination ones have more powerful fans than traditional toaster-only toaster ovens. Also, when air frying with a combination toaster oven, you don’t need to remove a pot and shake it, as you would with an air fryer.
How do I clean a toaster oven and its accessories?
This will of course vary according to model, but in general you will unplug it, protect your hands with an oven mitt, and wipe splatter off the door while it’s still hot, which makes grease far easier to remove.
None of the accessories included with toaster ovens in this guide are dishwasher-safe, so handwash all roasting pans, fryer baskets, racks and trays.
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Kiki Aranita is a food writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer and former senior editor of kitchen and dining at New York magazine’s the Strategist. She is also the owner of Poi Dog Sauces, and the former chef/owner of Poi Dog restaurant and food truck in Philadelphia. She writes and cooks with an eye towards sustainability
