5 Best Toaster Ovens
Top-tested picks from brands like Breville, Panasonic and Cuisinart.
Tested by Raena LoperContributing Writer and Analyst
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Toaster ovens can toast bread like a toaster, but they also function as small ovens. Their compact size allows them to heat up faster than a full-size oven, making them ideal for reheating leftovers and quick cooking tasks. Many can fit a 4-pound chicken, and some can accommodate larger roasts. They're one of my favorite appliances to use when I'm cooking for one or two people or when additional cooking space is needed for a party. In the summer, I find they're especially handy for avoiding the heat of a full oven in my New York City apartment.
At the Good Housekeeping Institute, my team and I have tested over 25 toaster ovens in recent years. We evaluate performance and ease of use by cooking with almost all settings. Our tests include toasting multiple rounds of bread, baking cake on both "bake" and "convection bake" settings, roasting a chicken, broiling a steak and air-frying chicken wings and frozen fries if the toaster oven has an air fry setting. We also assess the control panel, user experience and ease of cleaning. Based on our tests, these are the best toaster ovens you can buy right now, including some of the best air fryer toaster ovens.
Breville Joule Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro
Pros
- Large, but sleek
- Cooked food evenly
Cons
- Pricey
Dimensions: 21.5"D x 17.3"W x 12.8"H | Settings: Toast, Bagel, Bake, Air Fry, Broil, Roast, Pizza, Cookies, Proof, Reheat, Slow Cook, Keep Warm, Dehydrate
Breville toaster ovens have been on our list of best toaster ovens for years. They're well-made and easy to use. This version is one of their latest and connects to the Joule app for maximum usability. It's large compared to most toaster ovens but sleek. It features 13 settings that you can use straight from the control panel, from bake to dehydrate and air fry, or you can select a recipe from the app and put the toaster oven on "auto-pilot."
In our tests, chicken, cake and pizza all cooked evenly. Air fried wings came out good, too; they just weren't as crisp as the wings you'd get out of our best air fryers or some other air fryer toaster ovens we tested. It's been set up in our Lab for more than a year as well as in several consumer tester homes where it's used daily and has stood the test of time.
It comes with high-quality accessories, including two wire racks, a roasting pan, a pizza pan, an air fryer basket and a broiling rack. It's easy to read and the program control panel stands out compared to other toaster ovens we tested. If its price point is a little too high for you, consider the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, which our Deputy Food Editor loves, that's similar but doesn't include the connected capability. We're also fans of the smaller, more basic Compact Smart Oven Breville makes.
Hamilton Beach 6-in-1 Sure Crisp Air Fryer Toaster Oven
Pros
- Large capacity
- Includes many accessories and cooking options
Cons
- Steak didn't brown too well on the broil setting
Dimensions: 14.92"D x 18.82"W x 11.97"H | Settings: Air fry, grill, bake, broil, toast and pizza
Hamilton Beach's line of Sure Crisp Toaster Ovens compete with our top-tested toaster ovens and air fryer toaster ovens. They're easy to program and make good, even food. They air fry chicken wings well, too, which is impressive since it's often hard for toaster ovens to stand up to standalone air fryers.
This version is the latest Sure Crisp Toaster Oven we tested. It can fit up to an eight-pound turkey, according to the brand, and comes with an assortment of accessories, including a wire rack, a baking pan, a pizza pan and a grill pan. Its digital control panel is unique. Instead of just using words like most toaster ovens, it uses food icons to represent the four toaster oven settings (toast, pizza, bake and broil.) Air frying and grilling are also options you can select by pressing designated buttons.
In our tests, the roasted chicken came out golden and juicy with crispy skin. The steak was succulent, too, but it wasn't the most browned. Toast was golden and mostly even with the back pieces toasting a little darker than the front ones. Pizza had a nice chew to it and cake baked mostly even with no cracks, a.k.a. the sign of over-baking.
Panasonic FlashXpress Compact Toaster Oven
Pros
- Small, compact size
- Tray pulls out automatically when you open the door
Cons
- Cook pan can be hard to clean and rusts easily
Dimensions: 13"D x 12"W x 10.25"H | Settings: Toast, frozen waffle, reheat roll, frozen pizza, quick reheat, frozen hash brown, manual
Popular on Amazon with over 7,000 five-star reviews, this small toaster oven is perfect for people who want to toast bread and reheat food. It uses bright infrared lights to heat, which turn on instantly and heat quicker than typical calrods found in most toaster ovens. (Note that this type of light cycles on and off during cooking to maintain the oven temperature.) This toast oven has an old-school design that works by turning it on by pressing the power button and then selecting a function. You can choose from toast, frozen waffle, reheat roll, frozen pizza, quick reheat and frozen hash browns, and you can set the toaster oven to a manual mode between 250ºF and 500ºF.
In our tests, the tops of bread toasted evenly. Pizza cooked quicker than others so we suggest checking on frozen food sooner than you would in another toaster oven or oven. The wire rack is attached to the door and pulls out when you open the door. It comes with a baking pan.
Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1
Pros
- Sleek, straight-forward design
- Easy to use and bakes evenly
Cons
- Some might miss the air fry function
Dimensions: 16.93"D x 20.87"W x 11.42"H | Settings: Toast, bagel, waffle, keep warm, bake, broil, roast, pizza, leftovers, sandwich, dual cook, +30s, convection cooking settings and defrost
This toaster oven from Cuisinart has been around for years and is well loved for good reason. It has a sleek, straight-forward design, is easy to use and cooks evenly. It has 15 cooking settings and comes with a pizza stone — a unique feature.
In our tests, bread toasted evenly, cake baked well (it scored a five out of five for being level, nicely colored and cooked within the recommended time) and chicken came out nice and golden. Even though this toaster oven doesn't have an air fry function, we tried our air fry tests on the "speed convection" setting. Wings came out juicy but they weren't crispy like they would be in an air fryer or air fryer toaster oven and fries were soft.
It's a reliable toaster oven that's been set up in one of our consumer tester's home for years and is still going strong.
Cuisinart Air Fryer + Convection Toaster Oven
Pros
- Air fries, toasts and bakes well
- Powerful and even
Cons
- Mechanical dials don't offer precise time or temperature control between settings
Dimensions: 12.25"D x 15.75"W x 13.75"H | Settings: Air fry, toast, convection bake, bake, convection broil, broil, grill, keep warm
If you're looking for a good toaster oven that can also air fry as well as a standalone air fryer, this Cuisinart is our top pick. We've tested both this mechanical version and the popular digital version numerous times. This latest one comes with a grill pan in addition to an air frying basket, baking pan/drip pan and wire rack. It has rack recommendations for each setting printed on the door for a more seamless user experience.
In our tests, air fried wings and fries cooked up very quickly and crispy. The tips of some fries got extra crisp so we'd recommend checking on your food often in the air fry mode and tossing with tongs as needed for the most even results. It toasts and bakes well and evenly, yielding golden results.
Some might consider the knobs as a con, but we like how easy they make it to program the toaster oven.
READ OUR FULL REVIEW: Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven Review
Other toaster ovens we recommend
While these picks might not be ideal for everyone, we also found them to be solid performers in our tests.
•The Breville Smart Oven Compact is a great basic toaster oven that's smaller than most we tested.
•The Hamilton Beach Easy Reach is a small, basic toaster oven that performed well in our tests. It was our best value pick for several years but in our latest update to this list, we replaced it with a larger, newer model that offers more features.
•The Ninja Foodi cooks evenly and air fries well. It can be stored in an upright position for storage. It's just a little shorter than other toaster ovens and can't quite fit a whole chicken.
•The Balmuda toaster oven is a gorgeous small toaster oven that is designed for toast and other baked goods. It uses a little bit of steam and performs well, but is a little expensive and doesn't accommodate other cooking functions.
How we test toaster ovens
When we test toaster ovens, we assess their performance and ease of use by conducting a specific set of cooking tasks.
We first toast bread in each toaster oven several times. We toast four slices of toast on the low, medium and high settings to see how evenly each setting toasts as well as assess the range of the shades.
Then we bake a cake in each to help further understand how even the toaster oven bakes and how gentle it is.
This image represents a range of how well and poorly some cakes bake.
We also test an assortment of other foods like frozen pizzas on the pizza setting, steak on the broil setting and chicken on the bake or roast setting.
All of these test are good indicators of how evenly the toaster oven can cook, how powerful it is and how fast.
Lastly, for toaster ovens with air fryer functions, we test how quickly and evenly they crisp up chicken wings and frozen French fries.
Then we evaluate how easy the toaster ovens are to use based on their design quality, user manuals, control panels, ease of use, number of rack positions, interior visibility, audible alert and cleanability.
What to look for when shopping for a toaster oven
✔️ Space: Consider how much room you have as well as what you want to use the oven for. If space is not an issue, dream big: Ovens like the Breville Joule Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro can fit a small turkey. For those tight on space, there are many compact ovens on the market that can still fit six slices of bread at one time, or a 13-inch frozen pizza.
✔️ Design: Since your toaster oven will most likely live on your counter, aesthetics are important. Digital toaster ovens with stainless steel housings are typically sleeker and more modern looking than their mechanical counterparts.
✔️ Rack positions: Most toaster ovens have two rack positions, but the largest have three. The added rack position allows for even more cooking versatility and usable space, especially for air frying or dehydrating. As a general rule of thumb, the uppermost position is used for broiling, the middle is used for toasting bread and baking and the bottom is used for cooking large roasts or pizzas.
✔️ Accessories: Most toaster ovens come with at least one rack and a baking/broiling pan. (Note: a heavier baking pan means less warping over time.) Usually toaster ovens now come with a removable crumb tray that is dishwasher safe, too. Being able to toss them in the dishwasher is very important: Dishwasher-safe parts help with toaster oven maintenance by preventing caked-on gunk from building up.
✔️ Additional features: Some toaster ovens come with an air frying basket/rack, others with pizza stones or rotisserie spits and many include an interior light that helps you see inside without opening the door. We found this feature to be very useful and were also pleased with toaster ovens that had large, glass doors for the easiest viewing.
✔️ Settings: Toaster ovens come with a variety of different settings and functions. While some may only have a few such as toast, bagel, bake, broil, pizza and reheat, others can have over 200 settings including convection, air fry, dehydrate, grill, slow cook, proof, roast and warm, just to name a few. If you're specifically trying to replace a few different kitchen appliances with one, make sure that the toaster oven you purchase can perform the certain functions you are looking for.
Are toaster ovens worth having?
I use my toaster oven far more often than I do my full-sized oven. I use it to toast bread for avocado toast, to bake small sheet-pan meals, cook up veggies and proteins quickly and to air fry. I find it far more convenient that heating my entire range and quicker. I also find it easier to clean.
For the longest time when I didn't have room for a microwave, I used it to reheat food — and I still use it to reheat leftovers that I don't want to get soggy in the microwave.
I recommend toaster ovens to almost everyone who asks me what are the main kitchen appliances they should buy — and I get that question often!
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou oversees all content and testing related to kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets and gear. She's been testing kitchen appliances professionally since 2013 and helped develop several popular models. She conducted a round of toaster oven testing and uses one daily.
Raena Loeper is a contributing analyst for the Kitchen Appliances Lab. She conducted our most recent toaster oven test.
Nicole (she/her) is the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute's Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab, where she has overseen content and testing related to kitchen and cooking appliances, tools and gear since 2019. She’s an experienced product tester and recipe creator, trained in classic culinary arts and culinary nutrition. She has worked in test kitchens for small kitchen appliance brands and national magazines, including Family Circle and Ladies’ Home Journal.
Raena Loper (she/her) is a fashion journalist and product analyst based in New Jersey whose work has appeared in Forbes, Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine. Raena is a graduate from Montclair State University where she earned a degree in fashion studies as well as gender, sexuality and women's studies. In her free time, she enjoys sewing, cooking BBQ and spending time with family.
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