The 6 Best Toaster Ovens Tested & Reviewed

Toaster ovens are compact, cost-saving alternatives to traditional ovens, offering faster preheating, wider functionality, and more efficient energy use. Whether it’s roasting, baking, broiling, or even air-frying, as long as the dish is the right size, there’s nothing it cannot do. The appliance basically hits all the right spots for places with tight kitchens and few people. That said, finding the right one for our homes in today's saturated market is everything but easy.

That’s why we handpick 20 of the most popular models from huge brands like Cuisinart, Breville, Ninja, Black+Decker, Panasonic, etc. and put them through our curated tests and trials to answer two big questions: which one is actually good and why. 

The Cuisinart TOA-70 turns out to be the best choice right now as it offers a high-end build, precise operation, and overall excellent cooking at a very competitive price. However, for a more premium experience, the Breville Smart Air Fryer Pro is an incredible toaster oven that boasts not only top-tier design and build quality but also industry-leading functionality with unmatched versatility.

Everything We Recommend

Cuisinart TOA-70 Air Fryer Toaster Oven w Grill

Best to Buy

The Cuisinart TOA-70 is easily the best choice right now, with top-quality construction, unmatched temperature precision, and very forgiving pricing. The oven’s spacious, well-insulated chamber is perfect for either simple meals or complex dishes and its analog controls promote more traditional cooking, which is a nice change of pace in today’s market.

Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

Premium Pick

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the highest-scoring model we’ve had our hands on and is an excellent upgrade option for those looking for both versatility and efficiency in their toaster oven. It has a wide range of quality-of-life functions consistently delivering impressive performances, and a streamlined design that none of the other models could rival.

Ninja DT201 Foodi XL Pro Air Oven

Best Air Fryer Oven

This air-fryer oven is a versatile yet efficient solution for small places. It is an excellent toaster oven on all fronts: it cooks wonderfully, is abundant in space, and offers quick preset functions for convenient cooking. This translates to it comfortably handling a 3-pound chicken and a tray of vegetables, delivering juicy and caramelized meat simultaneously.

Breville Mini Smart Oven

Best Small

With solid build quality and easy cleanup, this countertop toaster oven is a satisfying addition to any kitchen. We recommend the oven for quickly toasting bread or pizza and roasting chicken wings to crisp perfection. Its high-wattage heating, well-constructed outer shell, and neat control panel provide everything you need for daily use. Convection capacity is the only thing this nice little oven lacks.

Black+Decker CTO6335S Large Convection

Best Value

This oven offers everything you need in a good toaster oven at a shockingly low price: it’s sturdy, simple to use, and features convection capability. It also comes with an array of convenient functions and presettings that are perfect for inexperienced cooks. And its somewhat lackluster wattage may mean less accurate heating, you can get around that by tinkering with the temperature manually.

Panasonic NB-G110P FlashXpress

Quick and Easy

With powerful integrated quartz/ceramic heating elements, relatively high wattage, and a space-saving footprint, this oven whips up hot, fresh meals just like that. Enjoying interesting retrospective design features and conveniences like its auto-pull rack and handy cooking presets, this mini toaster oven is perfect for home cooks who are looking for a compact yet capable unit.

How We Test

To evaluate each toaster oven’s performance, we use four test dishes that resemble daily meals to accurately gauge their real-life applications. Each dish will require the use of different functions and temperature settings. For the sake of fairness and data accuracy, we make sure that all the ingredients/foods used in testing share the same conditions (dimensions, weight, starting temperature, etc.):

1. Toast Test: We aim for the perfect medium toast—crispy, golden brown on the outside, soft and moist inside—then score two consecutive batches based on color and taste.
2. Pizza Test: We bake a 9-inch thick-crust meat pizza at 450°F to a golden crust with melted cheese, and evaluate the cooking time, crust, toppings, and overall taste.
3. Whole Roasted Chicken: We roast a 3-pound chicken at 350°F aiming for the golden color of perfectly crispy skin, and then assess the cooking time, skin texture, and flavor after.
4. Baked French Fries: We bake 12 ounces of frozen fries at 400°F and score the batch based on cooking time, texture, and taste.

In terms of design, we pay close attention to each unit’s build quality and the overall attention to details. That includes exterior as well as interior features influencing the precision of heating (heating elements, convection, etc.) and the quality of cooking (insulation, ventilation, chamber volume, lighting, etc.)

We also draw on each member’s experience with the ovens during the performance procedures for insights in regards to their general usability (user friendliness, cleanability, etc.)

Check out How Shouldit Tests and Scores toaster ovens for more information.

For small/mini toaster ovens, we modify the performance tests and design a different set of procedures to obtain more appropriate, therefore more accurate, results. 

How We Choose

The following ranking list is based on the data from our evaluation categories, which includes Performance, Design, and Usability, and the pricing of the products in question. Additionally, we take into account the brands’ popularity, customer support, and the consensus of people who have hands-on experience with the products.

Cuisinart TOA-70 Air Fryer Toaster Oven w Grill

Best to Buy

The Cuisinart TOA-70 is easily the best choice right now, with top-quality construction, unmatched temperature precision, and very forgiving pricing. The oven’s spacious, well-insulated chamber is perfect for either simple meals or complex dishes and its analog controls promote more traditional cooking, which is a nice change of pace in today’s market.

$210

(Price at time of publish)

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Based on what we’ve observed, the oven consistently delivers excellent dishes, with effective and stable heating. Its biggest strengths lie in its air fry function and basket accessory, providing amazing convection heating for savory snacks as well as pizza and whole roasted chicken tests.

With store-bought pizzas, it impressively crusts and caramelizes the toppings and melts the cheese usually in less than 4 minutes, which is very fast. Preheating and using the included griddle as a hot surface helps a lot with this particular process, especially if the dough is fresh and with more moisture.

As for whole chickens, the oven's excellent infrared heating allowed the meat to reach a near perfect doneness in the ideal window of 40 minutes. This maintains the tenderness and juiciness of the meat. Better yet, the skin is consistently golden and crispy around the thighs and wings. To put things in context, we have yet to taste a tastier whole-roasted chicken coming out of the other ovens, not even something premium like the Breville Air Fryer Pro.

The top-mounted convection fan is very quiet while still giving our powerful, even heating. While the oven doesn’t offer many convenient functions due to its simplistic design, they all deliver where it counts. The exterior and the door handle are thoroughly insulated to prevent accidentally burning users. 

What’s more, the glass window makes it easy to keep taps on your food and how it’s cooking. The oven also stops running when you open the door, just to be safe. The cooking chamber is polished to minimize built-up grease, making it easy to clean and maintain.

The Cuisinart TOA-70 may appear stripped-down due to its lack of so-called “convenient features”, but its precise and straightforward operation is more user-friendly than models with poorly explained functions. Given its affordability, the oven certainly deserves the recommendation spotlight.

Read our Cuisinart TOA-70 Air Fryer Toaster Oven w Grill in-depth review

Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

Premium Pick

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the highest-scoring model we’ve had our hands on and is an excellent upgrade option for those looking for both versatility and efficiency in their toaster oven. It has a wide range of quality-of-life functions consistently delivering impressive performances, and a streamlined design that none of the other models could rival.

$400

(Price at time of publish)

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In terms of cooking performance, this oven goes shoulder to shoulder with our favorite Cuisinart TOA-70 when it comes to baking pizzas and toasting bread, sometimes even better, despite slacking off slightly when roasting whole chickens.

Most of the toasts done with the oven have beautiful golden brown hues that’s crispy on the outside yet moist inside. Plus, the quality stays consistent batch after batch. As for the pizzas, the Breville also produces crisp and golden brown crusts owing to its precision heating and the included 13-inch pan that can be preheated as a hot surface. 

However, the topping cheese usually doesn’t melt too well; this is most likely due to the convection fan being on the side wall, not the top, of the chamber.

Besides the solid cooking, the oven is also rich with plenty of high-end, niche features. It’s equipped with door magnets for auto rack pulling, a backlit LCD with a comfortable display, Elements IQ that optimizes heating for each function, Phase Cook feature that allows you to chain multiple functions, Rotate Remind to keep track of the cooking process, and more. It can even act as a dough proofer, slow cooker, and dehydrator, guaranteed to aid in your cooking journey. 

This oven takes it a step further with a super intuitive digital control on top of industry-leading build quality. Its smart heating system allows for top-tier cooking performance and works hand in hand with the Breville+ cooking app that you can download on your phone, providing straightforward recipes and instructions. If you want to add functionality to your kitchen, this toaster oven is one of the most capable model money can buy.

Read our Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro in-depth review

Ninja DT201 Foodi XL Pro Air Oven

Best Air Fryer Oven

This air-fryer oven is a versatile yet efficient solution for small places. It is an excellent toaster oven on all fronts: it cooks wonderfully, is abundant in space, and offers quick preset functions for convenient cooking. This translates to it comfortably handling a 3-pound chicken and a tray of vegetables, delivering juicy and caramelized meat simultaneously.

$279.99

(Price at time of publish)

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The Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air DT201 can roast 3-pound whole chickens beautifully without hassle, owing a large part to its third-element convection that heats up fast and caramelizes savory dishes well. The chicken always cooks through completely, evident by the crispy, golden skin and succulent meat. 

Most impressively, out of the dozen we’ve tested for this category, this oven delivers some of the quickest yet most delicious results we’ve had.

The oven’s powerful convection also works wonders on French fries and baked goods, with consistent textures and fetching hues of brown. Whether it’s bread or frozen fries, our in-house chef has given the oven approving nods more times that we can count. Though surprisingly, the oven doesn’t do too well with baking store-bought pizzas, specifically the 9-inch variant.

This Ninja’s oven has a spacious cooking chamber that easily holds a 12-pound turkey. It has a total of 4 rack levels and typically utilizes 1 level at a time for a cooking function. However, there’s a 2-level function that optimizes the chamber’s heating on two recommended levels. This allows for, for example, cooking a tray of meat and another for vegetables at the same time. 

The control panel and the digital display shows all the information in an aesthetically uncomplicated manner. Button design and placements are intuitive even for first-time users, and when a function is selected, the appropriate rack position is shown on the display. You’ll find the recommended ‘Rack Level’ change accordingly as you cycle through functions.

Additionally, each cooking function has its specific temperature range that corresponds to its intended use. The functions are matched to specific recipes in the manual so make sure to check it out to fully enjoy this powerful appliance.

Read our Ninja DT201 Foodi XL Pro Air Oven in-depth review

Breville Mini Smart Oven

Best Small

With solid build quality and easy cleanup, this countertop toaster oven is a satisfying addition to any kitchen. We recommend the oven for quickly toasting bread or pizza and roasting chicken wings to crisp perfection. Its high-wattage heating, well-constructed outer shell, and neat control panel provide everything you need for daily use. Convection capacity is the only thing this nice little oven lacks.

$154.13

(Price at time of publish)

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The Breville Mini Smart Toaster Oven performed great in toasting bread, so we would say it accomplished its main goal. Thanks to its high wattage, this machine has the fastest cooking cycle for toast among the toaster ovens we tested thus far.

At the optimal toasting level, the oven produced four slices of bread with mottled light golden to golden-brown color that looked quite appetizing. The color was not evenly distributed due to the oven’s lack of a convection system to circulate hot air, though.

The first batch of toast was nicely crispy outside while still soft and moist inside. Our head chef, Tuyet Pham, determined they would go well with pretty much anything, including an omelet, eggs benedict, and particularly sandwiches.

Even though the oven automatically adjusted the timer to 2 minutes 36 seconds, the color of the second batch was a bit darker. Also, the second batch was crispier than the first which made it more suitable for soup. Remember to reduce the heat by one level if you want the same result.

The oven was able to produce acceptable results in roasting a whole chicken and baking fries. However, it showed a weakness in baking pizza.

The Breville BOV450XL has a durable stainless steel casing with a slide-out crumb tray and tray-level indicators on the glass door. Its cooking chamber is more spacious than most small models and has a non-toxic non-stick coating. With 1800 W, it’s got plenty of power for four quartz heating elements.

Besides the basic features, the Breville has a few interesting presets for pizza, cookies, and reheating. The LCD screen combined with a function dial allowed for easy readjustment of the cooking settings during use.

As for the oven’s unique features, we found the Temperature Conversion button useful, especially for international users. On the other hand, the FROZEN FOODS and A BIT MORE buttons didn’t live up to their advertising claims.

It was easy to clean up the toaster oven, especially the non-stick interior and even the caramelized bits on its accessories.

Read our Breville Mini Smart Oven in-depth review

Black+Decker CTO6335S Large Convection

Best Value

This oven offers everything you need in a good toaster oven at a shockingly low price: it’s sturdy, simple to use, and features convection capability. It also comes with an array of convenient functions and presettings that are perfect for inexperienced cooks. And its somewhat lackluster wattage may mean less accurate heating, you can get around that by tinkering with the temperature manually.

$86.01

(Price at time of publish)

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Performance evaluation tells us that the Black+Decker CTO6335S is at its best roasting 3-pound chickens as opposed to the other food categories. Even after one hour of roasting with convection, the meat remains juicy. However, the skin is typically a little pale, so try increasing the heat a little for some extra browning if you want a deeper color on the skin.

The oven also delivers better toasting and pizza baking scores overall. At 1500 watts, it can’t really compete with the likes of the 1800-watt Ninja Foodi XL Pro when it comes to baking frozen fries. What you can do to get the most out of this oven is to crank the temperature to the maximum of 450°F.

Regardless, the Black+Decker is comparatively more robust compared to other units around $100. The oven is easy to operate thanks to its backlit LCD and neatly laid-out buttons. Other worth-noting features include its baking pan and broiling rack combo, easy-clean interior, and quartz heating elements.

Unfortunately, the door can be a bit dodgy and the buttons are less than responsive. The cooking presets themselves sometimes feel unreliable, owing mostly to the low wattage, which makes adjusting manually the preferred approach at times.

Read our Black+Decker CTO6335S Large Convection in-depth review

Panasonic NB-G110P FlashXpress

Quick and Easy

With powerful integrated quartz/ceramic heating elements, relatively high wattage, and a space-saving footprint, this oven whips up hot, fresh meals just like that. Enjoying interesting retrospective design features and conveniences like its auto-pull rack and handy cooking presets, this mini toaster oven is perfect for home cooks who are looking for a compact yet capable unit.

$153.64

(Price at time of publish)

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The Panasonic FlashXpress closely rivals the Breville BOV450XL when it comes to roasting chicken wings, achieving even crispier and browner skin in the same time frame. Notably, it set a record for the quickest pizza-baking time among our tested toaster ovens, completing a successful attempt in just 3 minutes.

However, we notice that the oven’s heating can be too focused using its presets, which may lead to drier meat and overcooked pizza crust and toppings. In our toast test, it also showed uneven heat distribution, likely due to its short cooking time. Even on the lowest Toast shade setting, going any higher would have resulted in overly dark toast.

The Panasonic NB-G110P boasts high build quality, justifying its price, along with unique features like an auto-pull rack and preset cooking functions. That said, as clever as the auto-pull rack is, it reduces cooking space. We’d also like to see more precise time and temperature adjustments.

Read our Panasonic NB-G110P FlashXpress in-depth review

Honorable Mentions

We could only have so many slots, so here are some of less prominent models are still solid choices on their own merits:

• Cuisinart TOA-60: The previous model of our best-to-buy choice. A fully analog, straightforward, and robust convection toaster oven that produces consistently great foods but with much room for improvement.
• Instant Omni Plus 18L: This oven excels in air frying, with smart features like automatic reminders, preheating, and an easy-to-use touchscreen. However, its price tag is a little too hefty and its cooking chamber can be better utilized to fit its rotisserie kit.
• Cosori CO130-AO: This oven impresses with its versatility, ease of use, and consistent results. Unfortunately, there have been some concerns about its durability and lifespan.
• Breville Smart Oven Pro: A large stainless steel toaster oven with attention to features of design and usability at a high price. Hence, it’s only suitable for someone prepared to invest in a high build quality, easy-to-operate control panel, and easy-to-clean accessories.

Our Expertise

Along with the Research, Testing, and Review (RTR) Lab of Shouldit, Alan Nguyen began the quest to find the best by sifting through hundreds before purchasing 20 distinctive models and putting them through a series of comparative tests regarding cooking performance, design, and user-friendliness. Follow along as we go through our journey via a video series if you prefer watching.

Most notably, our performance tests required roughly 90 hours of development and execution time. The process includes toasting over 50 packs of white bread (That’s over 500 slices of toast!), baking more than 20 nine-inch pizzas, not just 20 three-pound whole chickens, and something over 15 pounds of frozen french fries.

In the end, the team honed down to the best ones each for a specific budget, culinary purpose, and home interior.