The best toaster ovens in 2024, tried and tested

The newest toaster ovens do much more than brown sliced bread. Yes, they make toast but these multi-tasking countertop ovens can do anything from bake to broil, roast to reheat and even air fry, proof, dehydrate or serve as convection ovens. Some are even considered smart ovens that come standard with some internal smarts to help turn average home cooks into great ones.

To find the best toaster ovens, we put 12 leading models through a battery of tests, toasting and baking dozens of slices of bread, defrosting waffles and frozen snacks, baking cookies and more. Ultimately, we found four great, versatile ovens that deserve a home in your kitchen.

Best toaster oven: Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1

The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster aced all our cooking tests, giving the most evenly toasted bread, perfectly browned, crisp frozen waffles, frozen potato skins that came to internal temperature in just 15 minutes with melted cheese that didn’t burn (something that happened in most of other models), and cookies with perfectly uniform tops and bottoms that had our kids begging for a new batch nightly. The french fries cooked using the convection setting turned out as good as any we’ve baked in an air fryer.

It also topped the competition when it came to included accessories. Cuisinart includes two cooking racks, a 9-by-13-inch enamel baking/drip pan, broiling pan, crumb tray and 13-inch pizza stone. Its spacious interior (which fits nine slices of bread, a quarter sheet pan or a 13-inch pizza) features four rack positions and a nonstick interior making cleanup easy, and gets extra points for its auto-slide middle rack, which attaches to hooks that pull it part-way out when you open the door — making access much easier.

We also appreciate the interior light, which you can turn on or off whenever you like, as in a traditional oven, because many of the models we tested only allow you to see the cooking/toasting progress by opening the door, thus losing heat while you cook.

The high-speed machine boasts an impressive 15 cooking functions (toast, bagel, waffle, dual cook, bake, broil, roast, pizza, sandwich, keep warm, leftovers, plus 30 seconds, two convection cooking settings and defrost) and seven toasting shades. 1800 watts of power are managed by what Cuisinart calls the “Exact Heat” sensor, which monitors internal temperature and adjusts the five heating elements to maintain the desired temperature through the cooking cycle. In our testing, it consistently delivered even heat from front to back and side to side.

The Cuisinart Chef’s intuitive, sleek display is large and easy to read, and the backlit LCD screen and selector dial are a cinch to operate. Beyond the expected stop and start functions, front panel buttons let you run the convection fan in any mode, choose faster or slower convection speeds, and add 30 seconds to your cook time (handy if you didn’t quite get your toast dark enough). You can also access dual cook mode, unique among the models we tested, which allows you to select and consecutively run any two functions or temperatures: For example, set it to bake nachos at 350 degrees for 5 minutes, then switch to broil at 500 degrees for 5 minutes.

But while we loved this model, it wasn’t perfect. It weighs about 32 pounds, and at 21 inches wide by 17 inches deep by 11.5 inches high, the stainless steel appliance was among the larger toaster ovens we tested. And not ideal for those with limited counter or cabinet space. Given its larger size, we weren’t surprised that It wasn’t the fastest to preheat, though it was faster than the similarly bulky Panasonic FlashXpress. Lastly, it doesn’t have an air fryer mode, though we found its high convection gave crispy results comparable to the models we tested that did offer the popular setting.

The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven is big, and it’s one of the most expensive toaster ovens we tested. But when you factor in its three-year warranty, superior results and versatility, it’s worth it — especially if you, like us, quickly find yourself using it more than your regular oven (a godsend in the hot summer months).

Best air fryer toaster oven: KitchenAid Countertop Oven With Air Fry KCO124

With a streamlined black matte design and unobtrusive, simple controls aligned across the bottom of the appliance’s front panel the KitchenAid Countertop Oven with Air Fry is an instant standout on style. And, as we discovered in testing, its performance holds up to its aesthetics.

Of the toaster ovens we tested with air fryer functionality, however, the KitchenAid was the best performer. We loved that the included air fryer basket slid in and out of the appliance more easily than on any of the other ovens we tested, as it made it easier to give that needed shake or flip halfway through the cooking cycle.

The KitchenAid is smaller than the Cuisinart, and has four heating elements, nine cooking settings (proof, dehydrate, toast, air fry, bagel, bake, broil, reheat and keep warm), plus air fryer and convection oven options and eight toast shades. We liked the simplicity of its interface, too: Use a dial to choose the cooking function, a dial to choose the time and temperature, a digital display for progress updates and simple start, cancel and frozen buttons. It comes with a baking pan, grill rack, crumb tray, metal rack and air fry basket.

Like our overall pick, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster, it boasts 1800 watts of power, a nonstick interior coating for easy cleanup and it delivered great testing results. It didn’t preheat as quickly as the Cuisinart, but once up to temperature the KitchenAid did as well as the Cuisinart Chef’s, offering an even bake, and it matched the performance of its convection setting as well, cooking french fries that came out super crisp on the outside and nice and soft inside. It lagged behind as a toaster, with room for just six slices to the Cuisinart’s nine, and while it produced an even golden color on the tops of our test slices, the bottom surface was more uneven. That said, it outperformed most of the competition, none of which matched a dedicated toaster in this respect.

Overall, temperature management was not quite as precise as the Cuisnart, though this affected performance only slightly. The potato skins needed an extra few minutes to cook compared to our winner and showed a bit of charring on top, but the cheese melted just right and the skins were nice and crisp. The waffles, however, took a little experimenting, as the KitchenAid has no dedicated setting. We started with the bagel setting, but that didn’t cook them long enough, then adjusted the darkness level on the toast setting, which was better, but left some dark spots on the bottoms.

The KitchenAid weighs in at 21 pounds; lighter than the Cuisinart but you likely won’t be putting it away between uses in any case. More importantly, at 17 inches wide, 11.3 inches high and 16 inches deep, it’s shorter, narrower, and shallower than the Cuisinart, making it a great option for those with more limited counter space.

So, while this model got top marks for build, looks and high performance, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection toaster oven fared better in our tests and had more versatility. However, if air fry capability is important to you, the KitchenAid, also about $90 cheaper than the first-place winner, won’t disappoint.

Best budget toaster oven: Beautiful Air Fryer Toaster Oven

Right out of the box, you’ll be awestruck by the distinctive look of the Beautiful Toaster Oven, with its modern and elegant curves and gorgeous color combinations. Then you try it out and start wondering how they crammed such amazing cooking technology into such an efficient and cost-effective machine.

The infrared-heated Beautiful Toaster Oven excelled through each of our tests. Batches of waffles did a good job of achieving a crispy exterior while remaining soft inside. This did tend to be hit-or-miss, though, as one of our testers didn’t think their waffles got crispy enough (though this could just be personal preference). Cookies were always moist with just enough browning, and toast was even through and through.

For frozen foods, the Beautiful Toaster Oven is at the top of its class. The frozen fried chicken got just crispy enough with the Beautiful’s air fryer but didn’t get hard, and it cooked the pieces several minutes faster than a conventional oven we tested alongside it. It is worth noting that while this toaster oven looks smaller, this is mainly due to Beautiful’s efficient design since it fits the same size pizza (12 inches) as other ovens we reviewed that took up more space.

One of the challenges with the Beautiful was the digital interface. The clock can only be changed by unplugging and plugging in the machine, and when you hit power there are only buttons for Air Fry, Pizza, and Toast/Bagel. To use the bake, broil, cookies, slow cook, or dehydrate features, there is a series of buttons you have to toggle between, making it a little more difficult than most other units we tested which used dials or full touchscreens. The instruction manual is short, though, and once you get over the learning curve and know how to use it, moving between the functions is easy enough.

Overall, the Beautiful Toaster Oven excelled compared to conventional ovens and the others in our testing pool. It preheats to 400 degrees Fahrenheit in 2 minutes (versus 3 minutes for the impressive De’Longhi Livenza). Plus, cleaning is a breeze without convection wires. This infrared oven is all about efficiency, from energy usage to size to ease of cleaning.

If you want a toaster oven for anything short of, say, roasting a chicken, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better performing, more efficient, or more elegant machine than the Beautiful Toaster Oven.

Best steam toaster oven: Balmuda The Toaster

In a world of convection and infrared toaster ovens, Balmuda decided to leave the beaten path and cook with steam. The instructions are simple, the results are sublime, and watching your food cook in Balmuda’s The Toaster is almost as satisfying as eating it.

From the moment we unboxed The Toaster, we realized this wasn’t your standard toaster oven. It looks like a television from the ’50s, with two knobs and a seductive cooking screen. The first time we cooked with it, we found ourselves quite literally hypnotized by the process. You pour in 5 cc’s of water using the included little cup, select what type of food (mostly baked goods) you want, then turn the clock knob on the other side of the face and watch in awe. The red light turns on inside and the viewing glass turns cloudy before clearing up again. The timer dings and what you pull out is a masterful mix of hard crust and soft middle.

While it may be a simple Toaster compared to most of the others on this list, what it does cook comes out simply perfect. I’m talking potato skins that are crisp but not hard, with gooey cheese and juicy bacon bits. I’m talking about reheated pizza slices that taste better than the first time around, and toast that’s perfectly brown in less time than any of the others we tried. Balmuda scienced it up to achieve this balance. Water conducts heat faster than air so Balmuda’s steam heats up and cooks quicker than about any other toaster oven, a process also helped out by the size of the oven and the efficiency of the heating rod.

Of course, there are some limitations. Balmuda’s The Toaster is 14 inches wide, 8 inches tall and 12 inches deep. While this means it fits any kitchen perfectly as an additional accessory, you’re limited by what you can cook. It fits two frozen waffles or pieces of toast and can reheat pizza slices, but you can’t cook a whole pie. About the biggest food product you can fit inside is a loaf of bread. But it does have plenty of breed-specific settings ranging from sandwich bread to artisan bread, pizza and pastries.

Then there’s the oven feature, which doesn’t use steam though it has limited guidance without any special settings, so get ready to play around with it. Our first round of cookies was slightly burnt while the second round was some of the best we baked.

All gold, Balmuda’s The Toaster can be a fun addition to your kitchen, a mid-century modern vibe cooking toy that is sure to be a conversation starter at the next dinner party. When your guests taste that freshly warmed bread, those break-apart croissants or the crispy-gooey frozen food treats, they’ll be amazed it was all achieved via steam. We certainly were.

Even if you’ve already got everything you need for your kitchen, this magical little steam-powered dynamo is sure to elevate your dining experience. If you like innovation, value a lush memorable aesthetic, and love your baked goods, Balmuda’s The Toaster needs to find its way onto your counter.

How we tested

Our testing pool included 12 toaster ovens ranging in price from $58 to $750; some included special features such as a convection oven, air fry, dehydrator, bread proofing and more. When pertinent, we additionally tested those cooking modes.

All the models performed well in our toasting and cooking tests, which included making toast, waffles, frozen potato skins, refrigerated break-apart and bake cookies, as well as crispy chickpeas for air fry modes and frozen french fries for convection modes. Some toaster ovens did a better job when it came to achieving an even browning, better crisping, faster preheating and more. We also found differences in interface, included accessories and versatility.

To test performance, we used four typical recipes you’d prepare in a toaster oven in all models.

For models featuring air fry, we made the same crispy chickpea recipe, checking for crispness, evenness of cooking and noting how long each batch needed to cook to reach optimum doneness. For convection ovens, we made frozen crinkle-cut french fries and roasted veggies, again noting how evenly they cooked, crispness vs. softness and time.

While testing, also used an oven thermometer to record how long it took each toaster oven to reach 350 degrees and took special note of the overall build and power wattage, size and weight, number of functions or modes, temperature range, number of toasting shades, number and type of heating elements, ease of set up, interface, parts or accessories included and how easy they were to clean (most parts of most models were not dishwasher safe).

We also looked at warranty coverage, customer service accessibility, and price — not just paying attention to affordability, but in particular, making sure that any higher-priced models we examined were worth the additional cost over budget models.

Why you should buy a toaster oven

If you’re toasting bread, waffles or bagels, a regular two or four-slice toaster does the job just fine. But today’s countertop ovens offer so much versatility and convenience — “toaster ovens” barely capture what they do — that once you invest in a good model, you’ll likely never return to a plain ol’ toaster again.

These ovens do take up quite a bit of room on your counter. But you won’t mind leaving them out all the time because they come in so handy. They are helpful during hotter weather when you can bake anything — from cookies to pizza to fries to a whole chicken — without heating the house with your traditional oven. It’s also helpful that on all of the toasters we tested, the interfaces are easy to operate, and you’ll be able to start cooking without referring to the manual.

Most of the models we tested feature nonstick inner surfaces, adjustable wire racks and baking pans and they all include removable crumb/drip trays. Some models included extra racks, broiler pans, pizza pans and stones, and air fry baskets, so while you’re shopping you’ll want to look for the accessories that suit your favorite recipes.

We generally found the air fryer functions do not work as well as the best air fryers, especially because it’s difficult to get that crucial halfway-done shake or food flip with a shallow basket that, many times, has to be removed from the oven. While several of the ovens we tested included convection fans, that help circulate hot air, cooking food faster and leaving it crisper outside — you can typically get “air fryer” like results from these modes, even on ovens that don’t have a dedicated function, aside from preparation methods dependent on seasoning or flipping and shaking using a basket.

The models we tested range in power from 1300 to 1800 watts and all provided several functions/cooking modes, a wide temperature range (usually about 150-450 degrees) and various toasting shades. The number of heating elements ranged from two to five and some used sensors or smart technology to monitor and adjust temperature. Some did not require preheating, while others did, typically alerting you to the preheating status on a digital screen, much like a traditional oven, but with their smaller chambers took far less time to reach the desired temperature (usually in five minutes or less).

All the toaster ovens we tested recommend hand-washing for all included accessories, save the Wolf, where the crumb tray, baking pan and broil rack are dishwasher safe. That said, we have some expert tips on keeping your toaster clean if things get grimy.

Other toaster ovens we tested

De’Longhi’s Livenza Air Fry Convection Oven is every bit a junior full-size oven and is especially helpful if you need extra heat for pies or sides or whatever. The Livenza is a nice big stainless steel machine that can fit 4 pieces of bread or waffles, a small chicken or a 12-inch pizza. It also comes with a pizza stone that allows you to cook a frozen pizza quicker than any conventional oven. It takes up a little more room than other toaster ovens that can fit a comparable amount of baked goods because it’s taller. For that reason, it takes longer to heat up, though that also means it allows for some bigger items.

When it comes to performance, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better toaster oven with a simpler interface. One of the reasons the Livenza didn’t top our list is that the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Oven has more capacity, a similar look and doesn’t take up more counter space. De’Longhi, though, stands for performance and durability. The Livenza has enough performance to blow away most other toaster ovens. Plus, its conventional design means that not only will it be easy to use but it will also fit that classic professional kitchen aesthetic.

There’s a lot to love about this compact, stainless steel toaster oven. The smallest of those we tested, it can be stored away in a large cabinet, making it ideal for those short on counter space. It has six cooking functions (toast, waffle/frozen, roll/reheat, pizza/frozen, quick/reheat and hash brown/frozen), five shade controls and a wide temperature range (250 to 500 degrees). We loved the auto-eject rack that makes access a cinch, gave it high praise for its performance on waffles which came out perfectly soft inside yet crunchy on the outside and we appreciated that one of the dual heating elements acted as an interior light so you could easily see what was going on inside.

It also doesn’t require preheating time, so if you’re reheating a couple of slices of pizza or warming up a sandwich, your food will be ready in just a few minutes. Nits? Because of the small size, it can’t handle more than four slices of bread at a time, you can’t add time or change the temperature while you’re cooking and the temperature presets are set at odd intervals (for example, 355, 390, 425, 460, etc.).

The adjustable thermostat on this Cuisinart toaster oven allows you to choose from temps from 150-500 degrees in 25-degree increments and it comes with an oven rack, broiling rack, crumb tray and baking/drip pan. The blue backlit LCD digital display and selector dial and buttons are intuitive and easy to operate and, like the Chef’s version, the “Exact Heat” sensor keeps an even temperature throughout the cooking process.

Unsurprisingly, it performed well on most of our cooking tests, with one of the faster preheat times. But the winner was much better on the convection setting (the Deluxe results were uneven, with some fries burnt and some not fully cooked). And, for the same price, we got better performance from the KitchenAid.

We found that Cuisinart’s Air Fryer and Convection Oven performed similarly to the Deluxe, giving us very crisp toast that tasted great but with uneven color and darker spots on the bottoms. We also noticed that bread and waffles placed closest to the door turned out lighter than those in the back of the oven, a sign of uneven heat distribution.

The timer also threw us for a loop — the indicator starts at 10 minutes, so if you want to bake for less time you have to guess where to set the dial — not great for things like cookies. It also wasn’t our favorite air fryer. It’s better than the Hamilton Beach but not as good as the KitchenAid. The shallow basket was tricky to shake (we lost some chickpea soldiers) and some started to burn while others were still cooking.

Like all Breville appliances we’ve tested over the years, the Australian brand’s 1800-watt Smart Oven performed well. It has top, middle and bottom rack positions and we love the magnetic auto-eject rack that ejects the rack halfway when you open the door, allowing for easier removal of food. It also includes a 12-by-12-inch baking pan and broiling pan, nonstick pizza pan, wire rack and crumb tray and an “Element IQ” smart heating system that transfers heat across five quartz elements.

We love the easy dials and LCD screen and nonstick inner walls for simple cleanup. However, its drawbacks include the fact it doesn’t have an interior light, the Cuisinart’s pizza stone gave us a crisper crust than Breville’s metal pan and the Breville’s convection mode must be turned off manually, which can be a bit annoying. It was also one of the slower models to preheat to 350 degrees.

The Compact Smart Oven from Breville shares many features with its larger kin above: Element IQ, a nonstick interior, easy-to-use controls, the same temperature range and toast shades. It has one fewer cooking function (no convection) and comes with a 10-by-10-inch enamel baking tray and broiling rack. It also has the same one-year limited warranty.

Do keep in mind however that “Compact” means compact. Able to hold just four slices of bread at a time, it’s great for small spaces but not for feeding a larger family. But our biggest negative was that there were no lips on the sides of the rack, so it kept sliding out of the oven when we tried to remove it, often even slipping out of our oven mitt and onto the open door — not a good thing when dealing with hot food.

Called the “Easy Reach” thanks to its roll-top door, we found that the design made accessing the toaster oven more difficult in practice. The model we tested (which, we must note, arrived dented in on the top, perhaps due to a shipping mishap — we don’t believe this affected performance) is pared down compared to the other models with toast, bake, broil and air fry modes. It also only has two toasting modes — light or dark — and comes with a metal mesh air fry basket, baking pan, broil rack and crumb tray.

With 1400 watts of power it performed well on our toast and waffle tests with nice browning and fairly consistent evenness. The potato skins were pretty burnt on top, though, and it did the worst job of the lot on cookies, which were unevenly browned on the tops and undercooked in the middle. However, with a five-year limited warranty at its low price, the Easy Reach is still a fine choice for those with smaller living spaces. We do think it’s worth spending more for the Panasonic if you can stretch your budget, though.

At almost three times the price of our winning model, the Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven Elit costs as much as some full-sized ovens. But, man, does this thing perform. It’s larger than any of the other models we looked at and weighs nearly 50 pounds but for those with the counter space, it may make sense, especially with oven-like features including an integrated temperature probe. It also comes with a generous five-year limited warranty.

The Wolf crushed our potato skins, cookies and french fry tests, but while it toasted bread and waffles nice and evenly, it took a long time to do so: almost nine minutes for the toast and more than seven minutes for the waffles. So, yes, it’s a great countertop oven but unless you need the extra space the Cuisinart Chef’s oven wins out overall for the majority of home cooks.

Why you should trust CNN Underscored

Testing a kitchen appliance like a toaster oven requires more than seeing how well a certain model browns a piece of bread. Although browning bread is part of what we consider, there’s more to the process. Understanding the considerations that go into deeming a certain toaster oven as the “best” requires years of testing experience, subject matter expertise and an affinity for toasted food (as well as ample kitchen counter space).

This guide’s writers, Lesley Kennedy and Ryan Ariano, have a decade-plus of combined testing experience and worked together to develop a rigorous testing rubric to judge and rank the above-featured toaster ovens. Rest assured the toaster ovens featured as our top picks are truly the best you can currently purchase. Of course, certain people may have specific preferences or use cases they prefer, and not every toaster oven will satisfy every user, but the picks above represent the highest-quality models available right now. If they can hold up to our writers’ meticulous testing process, they can thrive on your kitchen counter.

FAQs