Toaster ovens are one of the most helpful tools you can have in your kitchen.
Offering a range of functions, from toasting to air frying, they're incredibly hard-working and extremely easy to use. In fact, even the best air fryers and best toasters should watch out. They might just be replaced by these countertop ovens.
Our team of experts has tested over 20 toaster ovens from Cuisinart, KitchenAid and Ninja, as well as some lesser-known up-and-coming brands, too. We've seen the good, the bad, and the very best toaster oven that the market has to offer.
With the benefits of in-person experience, we have all the information you need to make an informed investment. Whether you're looking for a compact toaster oven or a high-end model with extra features, we explore the pros and cons of each. You might say we've done the pre-heating for you, so all that's left to do now is get cooking.
The quick list
If you want a toaster oven and you want it quickly, here's a short guide to our top picks. You can read more details further down.
For a beautiful appliance with air frying capabilities, look no further. It has a wide range of functions and executes them excellently.
Although it has a hefty price tag, we think this is worth every penny. Our experts thought it was one of the best performance-wise, especially when charring steaks.
This beautiful oven is big enough for a pizza, has built-in WiFi controls and could perfectly broil and fry food. We love it for covering all bases and being easy to use.
The Fotile can toast, air fry, dehydrate, and bake, but we really loved the steam function. With 40 different presets, you can make almost anything without much effort.
This isn't just a toaster oven; it can cover a range of world cuisines. Our experts would pay money for the meals which this made, as it's easy and cooks to perfection every time.
A versatile, combination appliance, this can toast, air fry, reheat, broil, bake, and more. If you're looking for one appliance to do it all, this is your best bet.
The best toaster ovens of 2024
You can trust Homes & Gardens. Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing the latest products, helping you choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
The best toaster oven overall
The KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven with Air Fry is a beautiful appliance, with a sleek matte black exterior and glossy steel door. It's intuitive to use thanks to a simple dial on the front of the machine. We found the bright LED display easy to read, and simple enough to toggle back and forth between the remaining cooking time and minutes. It's compact enough to fit on a countertop, but it has a fantastic capacity. There's enough space for a 12-inch pizza pan or two full-size chickens.
Our experts especially appreciated the proofing function, which is a welcome addition for keen bakers. Every setting delivered consistent results, and the air fry basket is a stand-out addition. It's very deep and cleverly designed so that you won't have to flip food halfway through. It turned out delicious, thick-cut fries, perfect tater tots, and even fried chicken.
When operating, the handle remains cool to the touch, but the sides of the oven get very hot. Toasting is this oven's weakest function – the heating element is only on one side, so it can cook batches of toast unevenly, and the highest heat setting is overkill, burning one of the slices of toast on the test. The grill of the air basket is also a little untidy. There's no removable crumb tray, so they spill into the body of the machine.
If those snags sound like deal-breakers, our experts would recommend taking a look at Breville's The Smart Oven, which makes toast like an expert. It's also very slick, stylish, and perfect for pizzas. However, it isn't as user-friendly and is a little more expensive. Everything has its downfalls.
Read more: KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven with Air Fry review
The best premium toaster oven
Wolf Gourmet comes with a hefty price tag, so it's no wonder that it is among the very best of the toaster ovens we tested for this guide. Our expert tester found it it's 'the very best countertop oven that money can buy.'
Settings include bake, roast, broil, toast/bagel, and there is also a proof setting which will work well in place of the best bread makers. Our experts have used this oven since 2020 without any issues, and if the five-year warranty is anything to go by, this toaster oven is built to last.
This countertop oven allows you to toggle its convection setting, meaning you can turn it off for toasting or braising. The temperature probe is also easy to use, and we found that you can top up on timings to add some extra char to your steaks without compromising on how juicy it is on the inside.
After all that, you might be wondering why this oven isn't at the top of our guide. It's a simple matter of cost. There's no avoiding that the $700 price tag on this toaster oven puts it out of reach for some readers. If you can afford a $700 toaster oven, you probably don't need one in the first place.
What's more, other ovens on this list have more features and smart capabilities, such as being controlled by an app or by voice control. We'd particularly recommend the Tovala Smart Oven, which comes with an incredibly useful app and recipe library. The Tovala is also lighter and smaller than the Wolf, which might suit smaller kitchens better.
That said, if you can swing the Wolf Gourmet, this well-built machine is every bit as luxe as you could imagine. It's the benchmark of toaster ovens.
Read more: Wolf Gourmet Countertop Oven review
The best large toaster oven
This gorgeous toaster oven has a good capacity, allowing for a 12-inch pizza, a 9 x 13-inch pan (with no handles), or up to 6 slices of toast. The oven has a built-in WiFi, and the SmartHQ App means can monitor and control the oven from your cell phone. The app makes it easy to adjust the oven temperature, change the cooking time, and stop the cooking cycle. You can even do this with voice commands, but if you don't want to use an app you can also control it manually.
It made a delicious baked salmon and a homemade pizza with perfectly melted mozzarella. It broiled tender, juicy chicken and gooey chocolate chip cookies.
We can't fault the performance, so why isn't topping the test? Well, just as the Wolf Gourmet above, it's a little pricey for a toaster oven. If you just want a simple oven to reheat a slice of pizza you might not want to spend $400. Not only that, while it held up well on tests, the capacity may be a little small for bigger families. It's also a little pricey for a toaster oven.
Read more: Café Couture Oven with Air Fry review
The best toaster oven for steam
The Fotile ChefCubii has four main functions: it can steam, bake, air fry, and dehydrate. However, it goes much, much further than this, with a whopping 40 different preset menu functions. This means you can effortlessly proof bread dough or cook rice, make tacos, egg tarts, cook BBQ ribs, and dozens of other meals besides. Despite all these features, the stand-out function is the steam cooking. It's one of the healthiest ways to cook, creating a golden brown, tender finish without added oil. It made delicious steamed shrimp.
What's more, the sleek, glossy white finish is also a welcome change to the sea of stainless steel. Thanks to a self-cleaning mode, it's also incredibly simple to clean.
Our experts' only complaint is that the door is made of two layers of tempered glass and one layer of low E glass, which seal very tightly, but these make the door difficult to open. Fotile explained that the ChefCubii is designed with a damping set-up on the door (in the corners, metal hinges) for added compression and to make sure the unit is seamlessly closed up, but this meant that our experts needed to hold the top of the oven with one hand to stabilize and pull open the door with the other hand.
Read more: Fotile ChefCubii Countertop Oven review
The best smart toaster oven
Unlike some other ovens on the list, the Tovala Smart Oven isn't just a toaster oven. Its main feature is a menu of oven-ready meals from a range of world cuisines; everything from Italian to Indian to Indonesian. Our expert reviewers found that these healthy meals were delicious – so delicious that they would 'pay money in a restaurant' for them. Thanks to the app handling the temperature and timer, every single meal on test was 'ridiculously easy to prepare' - the only way it would be easier would be 'hiring a chef'.
If you don't want the ready meals, the usual cooking functions are all excellent, and our experts particularly liked the steam function. What's more, the Tovala is compatible with popular brands like Pillsbury, Eggo, Kashi, Amy’s, Annie’s, and Totino’s. Just scan the barcode and the Tovala will cook waffles and pizza rolls to perfection. This oven takes up way less space than other toaster ovens on our list, so it's a good option if you're working with a smaller kitchen.
But our experts found that there's a 'hefty' ongoing cost. Prices start at $9.99 per meal, which is very expensive for home cooking. If you're cooking for a family, that's a lot of $10 meals, and the portions are quite small. You also need a smartphone and a good WiFi connection for this toaster oven to work, so if you're old-school and don't have either of these, or if your WiFi's slow or your cellphone is out of charge, you won't be able to use this oven.
Read more: Tovala Smart Oven review
The best toaster oven for versatility
The Instant Omni Plus is a highly versatile air fryer toaster oven for those looking for a multi-functional countertop appliance. Whether toasting, air frying or simply reheating, the Instant Omni Plus cooks superb and tasty results. It easily feeds a group of four and comes with a variety of trays to best match what you're cooking. To minimize clean-up, the mesh air fryer basket sits directly on top of the enamel baking sheet to keep anything from dripping onto the heating elements.
We particularly like the large LED touchscreen that makes it easy to see cooking progress, time, and temperature. The oven utilizes a golden quartz infrared heating system that also cooks food about 25 percent faster, which makes for a little learning curve, but leaves you with faster meal prep once you get the hang of it.
The rotisserie feature is unique and created one of the best chickens we've ever made, but it was a much messier process than anticipated. We struggled to fit a four-pound chicken and had to pin it down so that it could rotate. What's more, the attachments to use the rotisserie feature are sharp and bulky, making it difficult to figure out proper storage, especially since it's unlikely the average user will make rotisserie daily. A little storage bag would have been a nice add-on.
The pre-heating took a little longer than the other toaster ovens on the test, and we found that the handle gets a little warm, so is best opened with a mitt.
Read more: Instant Omni Plus review
The ones that just missed the list
If you're looking for safety-first appliances, this is the best. The controls are easy to use and they protect against accidental burns. It's quite bulky though.
This can make up to six slices of perfect toast from frozen. It's brilliant across the board, including at air frying, but it's expensive and a little fiddly.
If you have compact countertops, but you want a capable oven, the Foodi is perfect. With space-saving features and top-tier performance, it's a fast favorite with our experts.
Super simple, easy to use, and excellent at toasting, this is the perfect oven if you're new to countertop ovens or not particularly picky about features, but a little imprecise.
It might be small, but this Wonder Oven lives up to its name. With a range of useful functions, it's the perfect appliance for small apartments. It feels a little flimsy in places though.
If you're looking for a cheap countertop oven, you won't find a better option than this. It can bake, broil, and air fry like some of the best models. It's just bulky and hard to clean.
How to choose the best toaster oven for you
For one thing, you should consider the space you have available. While the best toaster ovens are excellent stand-ins for a regular oven, they do require counter space. We included the dimensions to make that consideration a little easier.
Another design element would be dial controls versus buttons, and the inclusion of a digital display. Some may feature a combination of both to operate. Digital displays typically help you identify the exact settings a bit easier, but may drive up the price of your toaster oven, and can make the experience more sophisticated, though you will find yourself with more control.
As for features, we recommend a toaster oven air fryer. That's not just because we're air fryer lovers, but convection technology will mean that your food will cook faster, and you'll end up with more options when it comes to mealtimes. Other functions like steam cooking seem to be growing as an offering in toaster oven designs as well.
We've reviewed every single toaster oven in our guide to help you find the best. We take our testing incredibly seriously and never award a rating or a badge to a product that has not been tested by a member of our team.
Our best toaster oven page is one of the many pages we update with regular reviews of leading market choices, so this page will be sure to change as we add more of our testing results.
How we test the best toaster ovens
To test the best toaster ovens on the market, we focus on exceptional cooking performance. As a team of trained product testers, home cooks, and appliance experts, we assess each model by toasting, baking, broiling, and more. During these tests, we evaluate how evenly the oven browns and crisps, seeking results that are consistent and perfectly cooked.
Ease of use is essential, so we examine the intuitiveness of the controls, the preheat, and the quality of the instruction booklet. We also assess any special functions, such as air frying or steaming to gauge whether they're gimmicks or actually useful. We then make notes on the toaster oven’s capacity – important knowledge if you're hoping to cook large portions or use multiple racks.
Since cleaning is often a hassle, we evaluate how easy it is to maintain, checking if the racks and trays are removable and dishwasher-safe. We also scrutinize the materials, looking for durable, quality design. After testing, we scour customer reviews to check out the toaster oven’s reliability and overall satisfaction in the long term.
Finally, when investing in a kitchen appliance, price matters, so we weigh up the features, performance, and design to see if the toaster oven offers good value for money. Our goal is to ensure you select a model that not only performs well, but also looks stylish on your countertop for years to come.
Toaster oven FAQs
How does a toaster oven work?
The basic function of a toaster oven is a grill to cook toast and bagels. It's a larger surface with more capacity than a toaster, so you can cook up to eight slices at once, or thick-cut artisan breads like homemade sourdough. However, modern toaster ovens have multiple functions. Our tests have found toaster ovens that can bake, dehydrate, air fry, and much else besides, cooking an entire rotisserie chicken.
Is a toaster oven the same as an air fryer?
They're two different appliances. The basic difference is that an air fryer is an appliance that circulates hot air around food to cook it, whereas a toaster oven toasts bread. However, the best toaster ovens and air fryers have multiple functions – though toaster ovens tend to have many, many more.
Are toaster oven air fryers good?
The very best air fryers air fry better than most toaster ovens, so if you're after perfect, healthy fries, some toaster ovens might not cut it. However, many air fryers just can't compete with the best toaster ovens for functionality, and the best toaster ovens featured above are more than a match for air fryers, making delicious fries and baked salmon.
If you're pushed for space, a toaster oven is a great option that can save you from buying lots of different appliances. There's almost no limit on the appliances that can be replaced with the right toaster oven - you can get a dehydrator, air fryer, steamer, broiler, microwave, and toaster all in one appliance, saving you money and space on your countertop.
Do I need a toaster oven if I have an oven?
It depends on your space and what you're trying to cook. A traditional oven can roast and bake just fine, but a toaster oven offers quicker cooking, as well as multiple specialist functions like toasting, steaming rice, and in one of the above toaster ovens, spinning an entire rotisserie chicken. Lots of buyers do away with ovens in RVs or cabins and easily make do with a good toaster oven, so it depends on your kitchen setup.
What else can you cook in a toaster oven?
The answer may start with toast, but it certainly doesn’t end there. You could toast bagels, grilled cheese or even Italian-style bruschetta topped with tomato, mozzarella, and basil.
For dinner, you can make perfectly crispy french fries, chicken tenders, nuggets, roasted vegetables, and our favorite – tender, evenly-cooked, and golden pork chops. You can also reheat leftovers like lasagna, for a speedy weeknight meal.
Got a sweet tooth? A toaster oven can dehydrate fruit, so you can enjoy dried apples, plums, berries, and peaches. We've also tried ready-to-bake cookie dough, with gooey chocolate chips.
Get more toaster oven recipe inspiration here.
Can a toaster oven replace a microwave?
If it has a microwave function, absolutely. Even if not, the basic principle of heating food is the same, so classic microwave dinners like pizza rolls can turn out even better in a toaster oven.
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