6 Best Toaster Ovens, Tested by Kitchen Appliance Experts

• Balmuda The Toaster: One of the best-looking models we tested, this small Balmuda oven is designed for toasting and baking. It uses a little bit of steam for moisture and performs well, but it's expensive and doesn't accommodate other cooking functions.
• Bella Air Fryer Toaster Oven: We were most impressed by the size and cost of this toaster oven. While it took longer to air fry wings and broil steak, it's large and costs under $130. The toaster oven is comparable to other models we tested and had similar results for a fraction of the price.
• Hamilton Beach Easy Reach: This small, basic toaster oven performed well in our tests. It was our best value pick for several years, but in our latest update, we replaced it with a larger, newer model with more features.
• KitchenAid Digital Air Fry Countertop Oven: In our tests, this sleek KitchenAid toaster oven didn’t distribute heat evenly when baking cake or cooking frozen fries and mozzarella sticks. That said, it’s user-friendly, with simple controls and an easy-to-read display. One GH home tester has used it for more than a year and says, “It’s extremely easy to use, which is why I love it so much; my whole family uses it without any issues.”
• Midea Flexifry French Door Toaster Oven: This Midea toaster oven was one of the best French-door-style models we’ve tested. Other similar models allow a lot of heat to escape while cooking, but we didn’t notice that with the Midea. The 26.4-quart model is spacious with enough room to cook on two racks simultaneously. While it performs better than other French door models we’ve tested, it took longer to roast a chicken and to broil a steak.
  
• Ninja Foodi: This Ninja toaster oven cooks evenly and air fries well. It can be stored upright to save space. It's shorter than other toaster ovens and can't quite fit a whole chicken.
  
• Ninja French Door Premier Toaster Oven: Ninja’s newer model has the sleek look of a professional oven. It’s easy to operate but tends to burn or overbrown toast, pizza and chicken.
• Our Place Wonder Oven: We tested both the original Wonder Oven and the newer, large version from Our Place. Our team agrees that the ovens are stylish and come in beautiful colors, but they would easily overcook foods like cake and pizza. Since this model tends to heat quickly, we recommend adjusting the cooking time and checking your food regularly.
• Panasonic FlashZpress Compact Toaster Oven: We love that this Panasonic model makes excellent toast and has a small footprint, but it has a dated control panel and doesn't stand up to the competition for baking, roasting, or air frying.
• Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven: The latest Panasonic model features dial temperature control and a modernized control panel compared to the original version. While this performs well with toasting and reheating, we found it a bit too powerful when baking.

Experts in the Good Housekeeping Kitchen & Cooking Lab evaluate toaster ovens using a consistent set of tests to compare performance across models. We first assess ease of use, looking at control design, user manual clarity, the number of rack positions, interior visibility, audible alerts, and how easy the oven is to clean.

✔️ Space: Consider how much room you have and what you plan to use the oven for. If space is not an issue, dream big: Ovens like the Breville Joule Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro can fit a small turkey. For those tight on space, a good compact oven can still fit six slices of bread or a 13-inch frozen pizza.

✔️ Design: Since your toaster oven will most likely live on your counter, aesthetics matter. Digital toaster ovens with stainless steel housings are typically sleeker and more modern-looking than their counterparts with knobs and dials.

✔️ Rack positions: Most toaster ovens have two rack positions, but the largest have three or four. The extra rack positions add versatility, letting you cook multiple components of a meal at once. In general, the top position is used for broiling, the middle for toasting bread and baking, and the bottom for large roasts or pizzas.

✔️ Accessories: Most toaster ovens come with at least one rack and a baking or broiling pan. (Note: Heavier baking pans tend to resist warping over time.) Many have a removable crumb tray for quick cleaning. We appreciate dishwasher-safe accessories, which help prevent caked-on gunk from building up inside the appliance.

✔️ Additional features: Some toaster ovens with air fryer functionality include an air frying basket/rack, others have pizza stones or pans or rotisserie spits, and many include an interior light that lets you see inside without opening the door. We find this feature very useful and were also pleased with toaster ovens with large, glass doors for easy viewing.

✔️ Settings: Toaster ovens come with a variety of different settings and functions. While some only have a few, such as toast, bagel, bake, broil, pizza, and reheat, others have over 200 settings, including convection, air fry, dehydrate, grill, slow cook, proof, roast, and warm. If you're trying to replace multiple kitchen appliances with one, make sure the toaster oven you pick can perform the functions you need.

Some cooks use their toaster oven more than their full-sized oven. It's great for toasting bread, baking small sheet-pan meals, cooking veggies and proteins quickly, and air frying. In the Kitchen Lab, we find it easier and faster to make lunch in a toaster oven than on a range or in a wall oven. It's also easier to clean.

If you don't have room for both a microwave and a toaster oven, know that your toaster oven is often the better option for reheating, since it won't make food soggy.

We recommend toaster ovens to almost everyone who asks us about the most important kitchen appliances—and we get that question often!

Lizzy Briskin is a contributing writer and product tester in the Kitchen Lab, where she's tested everything from meat cleavers to ice makers. She firmly believes that a toaster oven is the superior appliance for making toast and reheating leftovers.

Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou oversees all content and testing related to kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets, and gear. She's been testing kitchen appliances professionally since 2013 and helped develop several popular models. She conducted a round of toaster oven testing and uses one daily.

Raena Loper is a contributing analyst for the Kitchen Appliances Lab. She conducted our most recent toaster oven test and has tried more than 15 models for Good Housekeeping.