5 Best Toaster Ovens for Every Kitchen

Upgrade your kitchen with this easy-to-use Compact Smart Oven by Breville. Electronic controls and preset cooking programs for bagels, cookies and pizza (up to an 11-inch pie) make it simple for even the most cooking-challenged people to get it up and working. It browned toast quickly, baked a beautiful cake and had no trouble roasting tender potatoes and chicken in our tests. Its nonstick interior makes cleaning a breeze. While testing, our experts liked that the control panel was very intuitive, and also appreciated how solid the stainless steel design felt. We're not the only ones that think so — this toaster oven has a 4.5-star rating on Amazon from more than 4,700 reviews. Plus, it ships within two days if you have Prime.

Take note that this toaster oven only fits four slices of bread, compared to other models we tested with six to nine-slice capacities. If you're looking for a larger capacity, the Breville Smart Toaster Oven Air, which can hold nine slices of bread or a 5-quart Dutch oven, also performed well in our tests. Or, if you're looking for something a little more advanced (and versatile), we like the Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro that easily connects to their Joule Oven app to view a variety of pre-loaded air frying recipes developed by chefs.

This pick from Hamilton Beach may seem a bit basic, but that's what makes it such a great option for less experienced cooks and those that just want a classic model to toast, bake and roast. It has easy-to-use controls, and it toasted bread and baked pizza very evenly in a relatively short amount of time. The small footprint won't take up too much space on your countertop but can still fit six slices of bread and a 13-inch frozen pizza, so you won't sacrifice size or usability.

Its air frying abilities are what impressed our experts the most: in our tests, it made crispy and juicy wings and crispy fries that weren’t dried out. For those that want to cook something that takes a bit more time, the timer only goes up to 30 minutes so you'll need to reset it at that time. It has two rack positions and comes with a metal mesh basket for air frying, bake pan, broil rack and slide-out crumb tray.

There’s no shortage of things to love when it comes to this KitchenAid toaster that has an exceptionally large capacity size, especially in relation to its fairly small counter footprint. It's sleek and space-efficient yet can fit nine slices of bread at one time (although the brand only recommends six). We appreciate that it has special functions for everything from cookies, roast and pizza to bagels and toast. It also features functions for baking, broiling, reheating and keeping warm, so you don't need to fuss around with exact temperatures or times if you're not quite sure what to set it at. In our tests, this model broiled steak that was juicy with nice browning around the edges and mostly toasted bread evenly.

We particularly like its very straightforward interface with two basic dials plus start and cancel buttons (an underrated feature for the control it gives you to stop or reselect the cooking cycle). The display is easy to read as well.

We plan on testing KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven with Air Fry in the future, which is a similar model to this, but with air frying capabilities.

Looking for something that does double duty air frying and toasting? This pick from Cuisinart can do just about anything: air frying, toasting, roasting and more. It's our best overall air fry toaster oven because it air fries quickly with no additional preheat time. It made chicken wings super crispy in 20 minutes, as well as fries in even less time. Its power is impressive and it's comparable to the best free-standing air fryers. However, that quick cook time means you should keep an eye on food when experimenting for the first few times to prevent accidental burning. It uses a basket that sits atop the broiling pan to air fry, which prevents grease from dripping onto the elements and makes cleanup easy; all accessories are dishwasher-safe.

When you switch over to using the traditional toaster over functions, our experts found that bread toasted well and evenly. A cake baked quickly with just a small dome that needed to be trimmed. Frozen pizza cooked in no time, as did broiled steak. We appreciate that the oven comes with a user guide loaded with cooking charts and recipes; plus, the oven is programmed with more than 10 settings — five of which are specific to air frying. One of the features unique to this product is the ability to dual cook: It allows you to program the oven for two different times and temps at once, useful for starting foods at a high temp to crisp up the skin and lowering it to finish cooking inside. We've also tested the Cuisinart Convection Oven in the past with rave reviews from our experts.

An Amazon favorite pick with over 6,400 five-star reviews, we're betting you'll like it just as much as the online reviewers. Though we have not tested this oven in our Lab, our experts appreciate its compact size (it will fit a nine-inch pizza), so it's ideal for small kitchens and apartments — or big kitchens with limited counter space! It features preset cooking times with buttons for a variety of classic dishes like toast, rolls, waffles and frozen foods such as pizza and hash browns. Unlike the other picks on this list, the rack is attached to the door of this toaster oven so it automatically pulls forward as you open the oven. We also like that there is an auto shut-off to stop the toaster oven after the cooking time is over to prevent burning.

Keep in mind that the oven will heat for a maximum of 25 minutes, so it’s perfect for many prepared frozen foods, but for longer bakes you’ll have to restart it. Reviewers noted that the pan is difficult to clean and rusts easily. We suggest covering it with a fitted layer of foil before placing food on it.