- Toaster ovens serve as a miniature version of a traditional oven and offer an array of functions, including broiling, roasting, toasting, and convection cooking.
- Even if you have a large kitchen, a toaster oven is useful for heavy-cooking holidays such as Thanksgiving, when you need to cook and warm several dishes at different temperatures at the same time.
- The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven is our pick for the best toaster oven because it’s easy to use, heats quickly, bakes evenly, and comes with all the accessories you need, including a pizza stone.
Living in environmentally-conscious times, it may feel like a waste heating up a full-size oven just to make a small meal. And, if you have a small kitchen, a traditional oven may not be an option. This is where toaster ovens can help save on space and utility bills.
Even if you have a large kitchen, a toaster oven is also useful for heavy-cooking holidays such as Thanksgiving, when you need to cook and warm several dishes at different temperatures at the same time. Because, despite the word “toaster” in its name, these are really full-fledged countertop ovens.
There are almost as many toaster oven options available as there are brands. When buying a toaster oven, you should consider how much space you have. Most models will fit between your counter and the bottom of your cabinets. If space is at a premium, pay special attention to the toaster oven’s dimensions.
We examined top-rated toaster ovens to select those that offer the best value and perform consistently. Read on to learn all about our top picks.
Here are the best toaster ovens:
- Best overall: Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven
- Best small size: Breville Mini Smart Oven
- Best convection: Calphalon Quartz Heat Countertop Oven
- Best on a budget: Oster Digital Convection Toaster Oven
- Best infrared heating: Panasonic Flash Xpress Toaster Oven
- Best for cooking anything: Breville Compact Smart Oven
Updated on 7/22/2020 to edit the prices, titles, and remove references and ratings from third-party sites because we’ve found them to be unreliable in the past.
The best overall
The Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven bakes evenly, is easy to use, and comes with all the pans you need to get baking.
Cuisinart's Chef's Convection Toaster Oven is the best toaster oven we've tested. Not only is it easy to use, but it also bakes evenly, has plenty of settings, and comes with helpful accessories like a pizza stone, two baking racks, and two baking pans.
With its 0.95-cubic-foot capacity, the oven can hold a 13-inch pizza, a 9-by-13-inch baking pan, a whole chicken, and nine slices of bread. Even though it holds a lot, the toaster oven itself isn't terribly huge. It measures 21 by 17 by 11 inches in size, plus, it looks good in any kitchen, thanks to its brushed stainless steel finish.
The Chef's Toaster Oven has 15 cooking functions, including several helpful pre-sets for foods you'll make a lot like toast, pizza, and sandwiches. It also has a speed convection setting for when you want to get cooking really fast. The 1800 watt oven heats up very quickly and Cuisinart's Exact Heat sensor ensures that the temperature is accurate.
We never had to wait very long for it to reach baking temperatures of 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and it toasts bread perfectly in a matter of minutes. We used the toaster oven to bake pain aux raisin, cuernitos, homemade pizza, and cinnamon rolls. We also warmed up French onion soup, broiled fish, and cooked meals in it for a month to really put it through the test, and it passed with flying colors.
The interior light makes it easy to see what's going on inside behind the big glass door, so you can monitor the progress of your toast, pizza, croissants, or what have you. We found the light particularly helpful when we were still learning the oven's settings.
The baking rack automatically slides out when you open the door, making it easy to pull out your hot baked goods. The interior was easy to clean, too, because of the pull-out crumb tray. All these little features add up to make a great toaster oven that's easy to use.
However, Cuisinart does warn that the sides will heat up and you should remove any meltable objects from the top and sides before you begin baking. The oven comes with a three-year warranty, too, so if you do run into any problems, contact Cuisinart for a replacement. - Malarie Gokey
Pros: Comes with pizza stone and pans, easy to use, bakes evenly, lots of settings
Cons: A bit pricey, takes up counter space
The best small size
The Breville BOV450XL Mini Smart Oven with Element IQ has the power of a traditional oven with faster pre-heat times and a smaller footprint in your kitchen.
The main feature that sets the Breville Mini Smart Oven apart is its use of Element IQ variable power distribution. It works like this: Food is cooked more quickly and evenly using the power of four individual quartz heating elements. This distributes heat throughout the appliance where it is needed. The oven adjusts the wattage of the heating elements up to 1,800 watts for flexible cooking based on the heating menu options you choose. The pre-set menu options include toast, bake, broil, roast, cookies, reheat, pizza, and bagel.
With dimensions of 16 by 13 by 9 inches, the Breville Mini Smart Oven is the smallest toaster oven Breville makes, and it can fit four slices of toast or an 11-inch pizza inside. Among the many features that make the unit easy to clean are the removable pull-out crumb tray. You should change it often to ensure the device doesn't malfunction, as most toaster ovens are designed to stop functioning when crumbs build up to an unsafe level.
Pros: Durable, easy to clean, broad array of cooking functions
Cons: No convection feature, loud
The best convection
The Calphalon Quartz Heat Countertop Oven heats quickly and evenly, has an easy-to-read screen, and comes with a nice range of accessories.
Whether you live in a small space that doesn't allow for a traditional oven, or you're in need of a countertop oven that can help handle the frenzy of holiday cooking, the Calphalon Quartz Heat Countertop Oven is an option well worth considering. This oven features a quartz heating element that allows for more even heating and cooking.
I put this countertop oven to the test to see if it lived up to the promise of fast, precise cooking. During the Thanksgiving holiday, I put it through the paces and was pleased with the results. It preheated quickly, and everything we cooked - including a corn casserole and roasted cherry tomatoes - came out perfectly.
The best part is that we had another oven to use for cooking sides while our main oven was busy cooking the turkey for dinner. If you enjoy entertaining, or simply need additional oven space, a countertop oven is a great thing to have in your arsenal of kitchen appliances.
I would also recommend this for those who have a smaller living space or kitchen that may not support a full-sized oven. It can handle all the jobs of a traditional oven, plus it doubles as a toaster. Along with the toast function, 10 other cooking functions are available: Bagel, Pizza, Bake, Broil, Roast, Defrost, Reheat, Warm, Cookies, and Dehydrate. It also has a turbo convection setting to crisp up food.
The larger capacity allows it to cook bigger dishes than smaller toaster ovens, but you'll want to measure your countertop space to ensure a good fit. We had no issue fitting this onto ours, and while we likely won't leave it out all the time, it does blend in well with the rest of our appliances thanks to the sleek, dark stainless steel design.
In addition to having a wide range of cooking functions and a bright, easy to read LCD screen, this countertop oven features a light so you can easily check on your culinary masterpiece - or your piece of toast. Either way, it's another useful feature to help ensure the cooking process goes smoothly.
I also liked that the oven comes with all the accessories you need to get started, including a wire rack, a baking sheet, a 12-inch pizza pan, and a dehydrator rack. The oven itself is easy to use thanks to the clearly labeled knobs and LCD screen that shows you the temperature setting, cooking function, and time if you choose to use the timer. - Kylie Joyner
Pros: Preheats quickly, features quartz element for even heating, easy to read LCD display, 11 different cooking functions, comes with cooking accessories
Cons: On the expensive side, short power cord
The best on a budget
Even if you are on a tight budget, you can take advantage of the roominess of the Oster Large Capacity Digital Convection Toaster Oven.
The Oster Toaster Oven is the only toaster oven that costs less than $100 to make our list. What sets it apart is the smooth electronic control panel that operates much like a built-in microwave oven.
With dimensions of 19.5 by 14 by 11 inches, it does take up a fair amount of counter space, but it also fits a 9 by 13-inch casserole dish or baking pan. You can use this model to toast six bread slices or bake a 12-inch pizza.
The cooking functions include defrost, toast, convection bake, warm, pizza, bake, and broil, which runs at any temperature for proper melting and browning.
Pros: Easy-to-clean, dishwasher safe accessories, completely digital touchpad
Cons: Takes up a lot of space
The best infrared heating
If you want to evenly cook small meals in a hurry using infrared heating technology, the Panasonic NB-G110P Flash Xpress Toaster Oven will not disappoint.
The Panasonic NB-G110P Flash Xpress is unique because it uses double infrared heating. Unlike other toaster ovens that need to pre-heat for a few minutes, infrared heating elements bring the oven to temperature immediately. The infrared baking element penetrates inside the food, while the front element efficiently cooks the outside.
This model has five shades of browning to pick from and six pre-programmed auto-cook modes, including frozen waffles, frozen hash browns, frozen pizza, reheating rolls, toast, and quick reheat.
The Flash Xpress comes with a square inner tray, baking tray, and removable crumb tray. And, it has an interior light so you can monitor the progress of your meal. The interior is large enough to accommodate four pieces of bread or pizzas up to 9-inches in diameter.
Pros: Uses infrared heating technology for even cooking
Cons: Quite small and has limited functionality
The best for cooking anything
The Breville BOV650XL the Compact Smart Oven Stainless Steel has a lot of the same features as our top pick, only it is much roomier and can do more than just toasting.
At around $180, the Breville Compact Smart Oven and the Cuisinart toaster oven are the two most expensive options on our list. This model is similar to the Breville BOV450XL. It uses Element IQ technology for even heating, has eight preset programs, features 1,800 watts of power, and has a pull-out crumb tray. The BOV650XL has an interior that is 33% larger, coming in at 0.6 cubic feet versus 0.45 cubic feet. It can also handle a 12-inch pizza, versus the 11-inch pizza you can make with the BOV450XL.
The Breville Compact Smart Oven is further down our list because we liked the compact design of the Mini Oven better. If you want a larger Breville toaster oven, you might consider the company's largest option, the BOV800XL, which holds six slices of bread, a 13-inch pizza, and will still fit under most cabinets because it's 16.25 inches high.
Insider Picks Guides Editor Les Shu found the Breville Compact Smart Oven to be well worth the price. He has an older version of the BOV800XL, which he purchased more than five years ago, and it's still going strong. Since he added it to his kitchen, he has stopped using his regular conventional oven, making everything from salmon and banana nut bread to pizza and even a whole small chicken. The temperature is close to accurate and food cooks evenly. He finds it to be a versatile oven that happens to make great toast. It does everything our overall pick can, but Breville's build quality and customer service are top-notch.
Pros: Great at toasting bread, comes with a heavy-duty broiling pan, can cook a variety of foods, broiler function
Cons: Expensive, hard to clean
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