The Best Convection Toaster Ovens in 2024 Tested and Reviewed

Convection toaster ovens are toaster ovens that come with the added benefit of having an extra built-in fan (a convection system) to help with the air circulation inside the cooking chamber. This feature better promotes even cooking and surface browning compared to traditional (aka conventional) toaster ovens. Thus, it allows the oven to do a better job at everything you need it to do, from roasting meat and baking savory dishes to toasting bread.

But here’s a small disclaimer: no convection toaster ovens are perfect, even the ones on our list of the best toaster ovens. Despite that, you can pick the one that suits your needs and budget the best by comparing and contrasting the pros and cons of each model.

That’s where we come in. At Shouldit, we have selected, purchased, and reviewed a number of highly-rated and popular convection toaster ovens to help you make better, more informed purchase decisions.

When Should You Buy A Convection Toaster Oven?

If you want the best cooking performance possible from your toaster oven, which we believe should be the case most of the time, then don’t hesitate to invest in a good convection model. They certainly can be more expensive than their conventional counterparts, but it’ll be a worthwhile investment.

Compared to traditional ovens functionality-wise, convection toaster ovens are just as capable in baking, roasting, reheating, and of course, toasting. But in terms of practicality and economics, convection models are more suitable if you have limited kitchen space and also want to decrease energy consumption.

1. Quick and Crispy Cooking

We mentioned in our best toaster ovens article that toaster ovens’ preheating speed is quicker than traditional wall ovens by one half. And that was also taking into account the convection variety which preheats even faster than conventional ones!

The convection fan helps even out hot or cool spots inside the cooking chamber by circulating air around. This allows the oven to reach a desired preheat temperature more quickly. The fan also helps the oven maintain the internal temperature better when cooking.

The air circulation distributes heat evenly around the entire cooking chamber. This is why convection toaster ovens cook foods much more evenly than conventional ones. And as a bonus: the airflow helps crisp up the surface of foods by browning them. So, if you often roast meat or bake savory dishes, convection toaster ovens will be an excellent fit for you.

However, they may not be ideal for baking sweets because the airflow can disfigure cakes that have delicate textures like soufflé, mousse, and other airy pastries. Moreover, for most sweets, you typically don’t want their surface to be dry, which is something air circulation can cause.

Fortunately, most models allow you to toggle the convection fan on or off to fit the requirements of your recipe.

2. Decrease Energy Consumption

Convection toaster ovens have the same range of power outputs as their conventional counterparts—800 W to 2200 W. Of course, the power supplies both the heating elements and the convection system simultaneously.

However, according to most sources, because convection ovens can cook more efficiently, you can set the cooking temperature 25°F lower than what the recipe says (most recipes are written for conventional ovens.) Alternatively, you can set the cooking time 25% lower compared to conventional ones.

Together, these two unique characteristics of convection ovens can help you significantly decrease your energy consumption. Your electricity bill will be cheaper and your environmental footprint, smaller!

3. Various Types of Heating Elements

Similar to the conventional variety, the standard for a small convection toaster oven is two heating elements, medium is four, and large is four and more. Convection toaster ovens can have nichrome heating elements or quartz heating elements, or even both at the same time.

The quartz variety uses infrared radiation to heat up food directly and not much of the air around it. Nonetheless, a convection system is still useful since the air inside the cooking chamber still gets hot and can be leveraged to make the cooking process more efficient. Quartz models have also shown faster cooking times in our performance tests compared to nichrome.

The nichrome variety, however, in combination with a convection system, has been showing better cooking results in our performance tests. Particularly in terms of the evenness of surface browning.

4. Various Shapes and Sizes

Convection toaster ovens come in all shapes and sizes. Though it is worth noting that convection toaster ovens tend to have slightly bigger footprints and are heavier than their conventional counterparts due to the addition of the convection system.

• Small convection toaster ovens (LxWxH): around 14"x11"x8"
• Medium convection toaster ovens (LxWxH): around 19"x16"x11"
• Large convection toaster ovens (LxWxH): around 20"x16"x12"
• Extra-large convection toaster ovens (LxWxH): over 20"x16"x12"

Capacity-wise, one of the big pluses of convection ovens is that they allow you to cook more food at the same time without compromising the results, unlike traditional ovens. The temperature in a convection oven’s cooking chamber is more evenly distributed even when it’s crowded, which is the complete opposite of traditional ovens.

• Small convection toaster ovens’ capacity: 10-15 liters
• Medium convection toaster ovens’ capacity: 15-20 liters
• Large convection toaster ovens’ capacity: 20-30 liters
• Extra-large convection toaster ovens’ capacity: 25-55 liters

Note that manufacturers have not yet standardized toaster oven sizes and these measurements are only a basic guideline.

5. Various Price Ranges

The best convection toaster ovens can range from $40 to $450 to over $700, depending on many factors (brand, model, size, etc.). There are also over-the-top fancy models at the price of over $1000 to $4000.

It's advised that before making an expensive purchase, you should give a second thought to finding a cheaper product that still brings as much satisfaction. In other words, to find a good oven, you'll need to pay attention not only to the price but also to the value.

Ask yourself how much better a premium model is and whether it’s worth the extra cost, to help your buying decision. Currently, we chose the Cuisinart TOA-60 as the best-to-buy convection toaster oven.

Premium units also tend to stay reliable for longer and require minimal maintenance. Meanwhile, cheaper models may carry a less comprehensive warranty, or you may lose out on maintenance service. But that doesn’t mean cheap models are bad. Many budget models from reliable brands still get rave reviews from time to time.

Review of the Best Convection Toaster Ovens in 2024

Now that we’ve talked about the things to look for when buying. Let’s cut to the chase, here’s the list of the best convection toaster ovens for 2024.

1. Best Overall: Cuisinart TOA-60 Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryer

$235.00

(Price at time of publish)

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The silver stainless steel Cuisinart TOA-60 Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryer cooked consistently excellent foods in our performance tests thanks to the constant deployment of its convection system. This was our main reason for choosing it as the best-to-buy convection toaster oven.

More impressively, this is a completely analog toaster oven. This type usually doesn’t perform as reliably as digital models, but the TOA-60 is an exception. Its simplicity makes this oven ideal for seasoned home cooks who are willing to spend a bit more on an effective, robust, and long-lasting toaster oven.

Great For Toasting Bread

Of course, the Cuisinart couldn’t be the best-to-buy convection toaster oven if it didn’t have one of the highest scores in our toast test. This is one of the rare units that deploy the convection fan for the toast function.

The Cuisinart produced 4 pieces with a beautiful golden color throughout in just 4 minutes. The first batch of toast was quite crispy yet very soft inside. Our head chef Tuyet Pham determined they would be great to go with sandwiches, omelets, and eggs benedict. For soup, however, they didn’t cut the mustard, but that could be rectified with the extra crispiness of a second batch.

While the second batch had a brown color, it had a few dark spots. A low score in consecutive usability was the only reason keeping this oven from having an excellent toast score. In actual use, you can simply lower it to Light—around 2 minutes 30 seconds if you want the second batch to be the same as the first.

Excellent for Baking Pizza

The Cuisinart baked a delicious 9-inch thick-crust meat pizza in just 3m 30s, which was extremely fast. The crust turned out a tantalizing golden brown with some appetizing charred spots. It’s a little soft due to being baked on a baking pan in such a short cooking time though.

Thanks to the good convection system, the pizza itself had beautiful, even coloring throughout. The melted cheese was also perfectly caramelized due to the high and steady temperature. These factors combined to produce a virtually perfect-tasting pizza with one of the top scores among our tested toaster ovens.

Excellent for Baking French Fries

Due to the cooking time being much shorter than ideal, the color wasn’t entirely even, but we still consider it to be very good. The fries were crispy and golden on the outside while moist on the inside, thanks to the strong convection and the air fryer basket. Thus, our chef gave one of the highest scores among our tested toaster ovens after tasting the fries.

The Cuisinart baked french fries very quickly, finishing in just 12 minutes. In fact, the oven has one of the quickest cooking times among our tested units.

Read our full Cuisinart TOA-60 Convection Toaster Oven Air Fryer in-depth review

2. Best Value: Cosori Air Fryer Toaster Oven

$189.66

(Price at time of publish)

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The shiny stainless steel Cosori CO130-AO Countertop Convection Air Fryer Toaster Oven has some of the highest scores among our tested units, all the while at a very reasonable price. This large toaster oven consistently produced great foods, including toast. It’s also friendly to users of all culinary levels. Thus, it became our choice for the best-value convection toaster oven.

Making Consistently Great Foods

Unlike like the Ninja DT 201 or the Cuisinart TOA-60, the Cosori didn’t have the highest score in making toast. Nonetheless, it’s still in the second-highest tier in terms of toast-making score. The four pieces of toast had a fairly even golden brown color, crispy outside, and soft, moist inside.

In fact, most of the oven’s performance scores are from 7.5 to 8.5—the second-highest tier. The Cosori solidified its position as our best-value pick standing next to our other top choices.

However, when it comes to our Whole Roasted Chicken test, the Cosori has one of the highest scores alongside the Ninja DT201. The chicken was roasted to a gorgeous color in just 40 minutes, which, to date, is a cooking speed record in our database.

The skin was mostly golden with some enticing golden-brown color at the wings and the tips. The fact that the meat had a near-perfect doneness in such a short cooking time was what impressed us the most.

Well-Designed Automatic Preheat Phase

The Cosori has an automatic preheat phase which engages for the Pizza, Bake, Roast, Broil, Cookies, and Air Fryer functions. The feature will adjust its preheating time accordingly if the oven is already hot.

This toaster oven is one of the rare units that actually preheat to the input temperature. Most others, even on this list, simply heat to a hardwired preheat temperature that cannot be adjusted.

Practical Cooking Functions

We were especially pleased with Warm, Dehydrate, and Ferment, which can maintain an oven temperature as low as 140°F, 100°F, and 80°F, respectively. We could tell by looking at a number of recipes that these temperatures fit their intended purpose. Thus, this oven can act as a family-sized dehydrator and dough proofer.

This oven is easier to operate than many other digital ones, including those on our list, not just because of the numerous useful cooking features but also because of how simple it is to change the time and temperature.

Read our full Cosori Air Fryer Toaster Oven in-depth review

3. Best Large: Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fryer Toaster Oven

$299.99

(Price at time of publish)

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In addition to having one of the largest capacities among the toaster ovens we evaluated, the stainless steel Ninja DT201 Foodi XL Pro Air Convection Air Fryer Toaster Oven also has one of the top overall ratings. With its 2-level even cooking feature, this excellent family-sized toaster oven performs even better for preparing big feasts. As a result, it was selected as our best large convection toaster oven.

Excellent for Roasting a Whole Chicken

One of our greatest scores to date was achieved when the Ninja successfully roasted a 3-pound whole chicken using an air fryer basket. Although this oven isn’t designed with a rotisserie kit in mind, its performance showed that it could roast even without the kit.

We were also able to confirm, through our Whole Roasted Chicken test, the manufacturer’s claim that food in this oven didn’t need to be rotated, especially when using its air fryer basket.

In only 40 minutes, the chicken was cooked all the way through with an appetizing-looking and crispy skin. Of all of our toaster ovens, it has one of the quickest cooking times.

Though because the chicken's skin cooked so fast, a lot of the fat didn't render off. So, the skin was crispy on the outer layer but soft on the inside.

We used a meat thermometer to check, and the internal temperature of the chicken was higher than USDA's standard. In addition, there were no pink spots in the meat after we carved the chicken.

The meat remained delightfully juicy thanks to the short cooking time. In combination with the crispy skin, the chicken earned a really high taste score from our chef.

Family-Sized Capacity

Out of all the toaster ovens we tested, the Ninja features the biggest cooking chamber that easily fits a 12-pound turkey. The oven maximizes the cooking chamber’s space by merging the control panel and door handle.

There are four tray levels in the cooking chamber, numbered 1 to 4 from the bottom up. The special ‘2-level’ button advises the ideal levels for cooking two trays of food at once in order to utilize the number of rack levels. With this feature, you may even roast a tray of meat and a tray of veggies at the same time.

Premium Usability

Although the Ninja's control panel has a lot of buttons, it’s very straightforward. The information is presented on the digital display in a way that is both eye-catching and not one bit complicated.

Each cooking function of the Ninja has a corresponding temperature range, convection level, and number of engaged heating elements. You can find recipes that suit each function in the booklet.

The ideal oven rack position will illuminate whenever you choose a function. You'll notice that the tray-level suggestions for the greatest outcomes change as you go between functions.

Read our full Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fryer Toaster Oven in-depth review

4. Best Convection Air Fryer: Instant Omni Plus 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven

$233.55

(Price at time of publish)

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The silver stainless steel Instant Omni Plus 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven and its exceptional air frying capability have been proven by our performance tests. As a result, we decided that it was our best convection air fryer toaster oven. Its smart programs, status bar, automated reminders, and recipe app are perfect for those who value efficiency, convenience, and smart technologies.

Excellent in Baking French Fries

The Instant Omni Plus scored exceptionally high at baking french fries thanks to its air fryer basket and air fryer function which deployed the convection system on the high setting. In only 15 minutes, the air fryer basket and powerful convection resulted in perfectly golden fries.

To the same degree, the fries were baked to crispy perfection while retaining an ideal amount of moisture. This test cemented the oven's position as our top air fryer toaster oven.

Great for Roasting a Whole Chicken

The Instant Omni Plus is not just restricted to air frying; it can handle any cooking technique, including rotisserie. With a rotisserie kit, it only took the oven 50 minutes to roast a 3 lb whole chicken which was faster than average (40 minutes).

Thanks to the smooth rotation and high convection, the chicken was cooked all the way through. Additionally, its internal temperature was only slightly above the USDA recommendation.

The combination also yielded flawlessly golden brown crispy skin. But because the meat was so juicy, the skin lost its crispiness very quickly.

The meat practically fell off the bone. Unfortunately, our chef didn't give the taste a high score since the skin was significantly softened due to the juicy meat.

Easy-to-Operate User Control

The Instant Omni Plus has one master-control knob and a black LCD digital touchscreen. The display includes the cooking status bar, functions, and toggles for Convection, Rotation, and Light. The oven has an audio cue to turn food halfway through the input cooking time in addition to the automated oven preheat feature.

There are audio cues whenever you perform an action on the oven, for example, when selecting a function, adjusting time and temperature, or when the oven finishes cooking. Some reviews we've read claim that they can be a little noisy. This can be a problemin homes with children and/or pets. However, you can turn the audio cues off by pressing and holding the control knobs for 5 seconds until the screen displays S OFF.

Read our full Instant Omni Plus 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven in-depth review

5. Best Budget: Toshiba AC25CEW-BS Digital Convection Toaster Oven

$117.12

(Price at time of publish)

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The black stainless steel Toshiba AC25CEW-BS Toaster Oven is our best budget convection choice. While not the cheapest, it’s a medium-sized oven with good all-around performance, design, and usability at a very low price. Technically though, it doesn’t excel at anything or offer anything unique.

Good All-Around Performance

With a short preheat time and highly precise temperature, the Toshiba AC25CEW did well in each of our performance tests. Among the toaster ovens we examined, it actually had one of the highest scores in baking pizza.

After a short baking time of 5m 15s, the crust wasn’t dry and had a nice golden brown color with some beautifully charred spots. Since the cheese was also nicely melted and caramelized, our chef gave the pizza a high score for taste.

The scores for making toast and roasting chicken are in the second-highest tier. In terms of baking french fries, the oven didn't perform as well, but it also didn't perform poorly.

Valuable Design Features

The Toshiba has a large capacity for its size and lightweight but sturdy build. Of the six accessories, the rotisserie kit and the removable crumb tray are rare for this price range. It also stands out for having many air ventilation holes on each of its five sides to complement its convection system.

Easy to Use

The Toshiba is intuitive to use by having three simple knobs and a clear digital display. However, aside from the accessories, the oven has nothing particularly convenient.

In addition, readjusting the function while the oven is already working is a chore. You need to press the stop button. Then, press the buttons all over again to your desired setting.

Beginners may find the ten cooking functions helpful, especially the Defrost and Reheat functions. The unit also comes with the Rotisserie and Keep Warm functions, which can help you make a nice roast just like seasoned cooks.

Read our full Toshiba AC25CEW-BS Digital Convection Toaster Oven in-depth review

How We Test Convection Toaster Ovens

Our testing procedures were designed with the inclusion of convection toaster ovens in mind so no changes had to be made. Allow us to explain!

Our Performance Tests

All convection toaster ovens have the same basic cooking functions and some models have extra unique presets, similar to conventional toaster ovens. But it’s worth noting that the number of cooking functions doesn’t matter as much as how precise and stable the oven’s internal temperature is when cooking.

Needless to say, they also have a built-in toast function, with a manufacturer-predetermined time and temperature. Most convection toaster ovens don’t deploy their convection system when toasting, however.

As mentioned above, most recipes that call for the use of an oven recommend decreasing the temperature by 25°F or reducing the cooking time by 25% when cooking with convection ovens. Most of our performance tests have ‘cooking time’ as an assessing factor, so we didn’t need to make any reduction.

The only test without cooking time as an assessing factor was our Toast test. The reason was that most digital toaster ovens have toast presets and don’t let the user adjusts the timing.

Other than that, the portion sizes and temperature settings stayed uniform throughout each of our Toast, Pizza, Whole Roasted Chicken, and Baked French Fries tests. We also deployed the strongest convection setting possible, including if the strongest convection setting is only applicable to certain cooking functions.

Our Design Tests

Having the same scoring factors, convection toaster ovens tend to have higher scores than their conventional counterparts. Particularly, they fair better in terms of design, but usability is hit-or-miss. This is because the convection system is incorporated into a number of our scoring features:

Design-wise, the toaster oven receives extra points for having a convection fan, ventilation holes to accompany the fan, and the fan being powerful but not noisy. While we don’t evaluate the accessories in the design section, some accessories, including the rotisserie kit and air fryer basket, complement the convection system well enough that they boost the scores in certain performance tests.

Usually, larger sizes provide more leeway for the manufacturer to include extra features. For example, it’s quite rare for a small toaster oven to have a convection system.

Besides two sets of upper and lower heating elements, some high-end ovens have an extra heating element alongside the fan so that the air is heated as it circulates. This feature is often called “true convection”, “third-element convection”, or “European convection”. An example of it on our list is the Ninja DT201.

Our picks for the best convection toaster ovens should have a good stainless steel exterior to provide sufficient heat insulation as well as water and stain resistance. We prefer convection models to have as many ventilation holes as possible, preferably on all sides of the casing.

Additional accessories like a rotisserie kit, a pizza stone, multiple racks, and extra baking pans can get the model some bonus points. Particularly, a convection toaster oven will become an air fryer toaster oven with the addition of an air fryer basket.

How well the convection system work is reflected and evaluated in the performance tests. Meanwhile, how easy and convenient it is to use is evaluated in the usability section.

Our Usability Tests

Convenience or ease of use are hard to assess without actual hands-on experience. That’s where we come in.

For convection toaster ovens, an intuitive control panel that is responsive and easy to use is all the more necessary. Of course, convection toaster ovens should also be easy to clean from the inside out, including the accessories.

We also give plus points if the convection toggle allows for flexible adjustments. Some models have different convection settings which control the fan speed (and maybe even the heating like the Ninja DT201). Some ovens can automatically adjust cooking times for preset cooking functions when convection is deployed.

This flexibility is more commonly seen in digital convection toaster ovens. However, there are analog units that have accurate controls and offer this flexibility, including the Cuisinart TOA-60 on our list.

How We Pick the Best Convection Toaster Ovens

Our hands-on experience combined with knowledge from different experts allowed us to be thorough when designing our tests. We also looked into user reviews to find out which features matter the most to consumers and applied them to our scoring table.

Thus, rest assured that only the candidate with the highest score in every aspect can become our pick for the all-around best convection toaster oven. According to our results so far, the Cuisinart TOA-60 has an ideal balance of performance, design, and usability—according to our scoring criteria.

Why Trust Us?

What separates us from other product reviewing platforms is that our basis revolves around hands-on experimentation as a team. Our testing criteria prioritize user experience with all kinds of toaster ovens. Based on the authentic appraisal and helpful information from our reviews, you can confidently decide how suitable a toaster oven model is for you.

With the culinary expertise of our head chef, we developed our performance tests using the most commonly cooked foods in a toaster oven. Meanwhile, the Research, Testing, and Review (RTR) team scored different aspects of the toaster oven (in design, usability, etc.) by directly interacting with the toaster ovens.

In our How We Tested Toaster Ovens article, you can follow our tests step by step and see how we were able to finalize the scores which you see in our reviews. 

Seeing is believing, so our entire testing process is backed up with original videos and photographs. The tests are performed in the same fashion across all toaster ovens in our lab, which means you can reliably replicate them and compare the ovens with one another as well.

After being tested, the toaster ovens are employed in the kitchen of Healthy Recipes 101 for intensive and extensive use. This is how we maintain a constant flow of feedback on the quality and performance of the toaster ovens as well as the do’s and don’ts when using them.