There's a reason why toaster ovens are so popular. With generous multi-layered internal capacities and plenty of user-friendly settings, they act as a second oven in your kitchen and also eradicate the need for a dedicated toaster!
I recently gave my grandparents a toaster oven to make cooking for two more manageable and less physically demanding than bending over to use the oven.
The ability to broil bacon, air fry potato wedges, and bake cakes all in a countertop appliance has made them feel so much more in control of their lives and diet.
So while I've personally chosen one of the best air fryers for my own kitchen, it's easy to see the appeal these gadgets can have for all sorts of users.
In order to help you find the right toaster oven for you, we tested market-leading ovens from the likes of Breville, KitchenAid, Ninja, and Hamilton Beach to determine the best toaster oven you can buy. Our top pick is the Ninja Prestige, which features two ovens that can cook independently or simultaneously. If you want a more affordable option the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven impressed us with its brilliant value for money.
The quick list
The Ninja Prestige Smart XL Oven is a super-powerful choice that can easily outperform your oven. This modern option from Ninja deserves the top spot desipite its higher price because it's just that good. It's got 10 settings for all sorts of meals, and we used it to roast, bake, toast and broil when we put it to the test.
This Cuisinart toaster oven offers a traditional, good-looking design. With analog controls, operation is intuitive, but it still has several modes including bake, broil, air fry and toast. It was great at roasting and toasting on test, but the accessories aren’t dishwasher safe.
With high scores for every recipe we tested, this Ninja toaster oven is a top pick for those who want a double oven option. It’s brilliant at toasting bagels as well as baking cookies, plus the double doors allow you to cook two things at once for greater versatility. It’s intuitive to use despite this.
This Breville toaster oven delivers across the board — exceptional at baking as well as roasting. Plus, it’s more versatile than most with slow cooking, dehydrating and proofing settings. The LCD screen gives it a premium appearance that other models can’t match.
If you want a machine that looks great without compromising on performance, the Wonder Oven is a top choice. It's a little compact and the analog controls aren't the most accurate, but it handled a full range of recipes very well in testing.
With smart connectivity, you can monitor this Breville toaster oven from your phone — accessing recipes and receiving notifications. Plus, you can control settings and timers via Alexa or Google Assistant. 13 programs gives it immense versatility, and it was one of the best for frying chicken wings and frozen French fries.
The best toaster ovens you can buy today
You might note that the Ninja Prestige Smart XL Air Fryer & Countertop Oven is classed not as a toaster oven but a countertop oven, but it takes on the same role as your toaster oven and then some. It has an impressive 90-second preheat time and claims to cook your food 30% faster than the average oven, and in our testing, we could see why.
When reviewing this oven we cooked a range of proteins from chicken to salmon, and found that we had to watch out for how fast they cooked. It's an easy adjustment to make though, and one which will save you time. A harder adjustment could be the noise, because this toaster oven is notably noisier than many of the other models in this guide.
In our baking test we found that the 90-second preheat didn't quite hold true, and allocated a few extra minutes to make sure our cookies, which require quite precise timings, came out perfectly cooked. The oven did a great job of cooking a large batch, and across the two 9x9" trays we were able to get through a dozen in one go. However, the trays do have grooves around the sides, meaning the bases were a little wonky.
Read out full Ninja Prestige Smart XL Oven review.
Best budget toaster oven
An oldie but a goodie, the Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven has been in this guide for years. What can we say, it's just that good. This is a reliable toaster oven that's continued to deliver every time we test and re-test it. Our latest set of tests took place in early 2025, and while you can find options that get rid of analog time and temperature controls and opt for smarter pre-set cooking modes, not everyone will want that, and we thought it did a great job regardless.
Reviewer Erin found that this oven is immensely easy to use. It's great for those who don't want to deal with complex and confusing settings. Like a classic oven, you can control the time and temperature using a simple dial. Our main complaint is that this feels less precise than using a more modern control panel. As for settings, you won't be missing out. You can air fry, roast & pizza, bake, keep warm, grill, panini & toasties, and toast with the Cuisinart.
We made everything from toast to chicken nuggets in this oven, and it was consistent across the air fry basket with no obvious hot spots. Our main warning is to be aware that this oven heats up fast, so be prepared to take a few minutes off your regular recipe cooking times to prevent burning.
Read our full Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven review.
Best double oven toaster oven
We think the Ninja 12-in-1 Double Oven with FlexDoor DCT401 is an exceptionally convenient appliance. In addition to serving as a toaster, oven, broiler, and air fryer, it has two ovens so you can cook two different food-types simultaneously. Not only can it do a lot, it can do everything well. Air fry one batch of Brussels sprouts in this machine and you’ll know why air frying is so popular. In our tests, it was no slouch at air frying frozen or homemade French fries either. It also excelled at baking cookies, making a frozen rising-crust pizza, and roasting a chicken. In terms of toasting, not only can the Ninja DCT401 toast nine slices of bread at a time, it browns them all evenly and doesn’t take much longer than a pop-up toaster.
To test the double oven capabilities, we successfully cooked a savory dish and a sweet dessert simultaneously without finding that fishy or garlicky flavors were transferred between the two. While it may sound like this multifunctionality could make the oven complicated to program, we found the controls totally intuitive to use too. The biggest negative about this product is that the glass door gets super hot during cooking — reaching temperatures as high as 270°F (a similar problem for most toaster ovens). It’s also noisy; with a dBA reading of 65.8 — the loudest of any toaster oven or air fryer we’ve tested.
Read our full Ninja 12-in-1 Double Oven with FlexDoor DCT401 review.
Best air fryer toaster oven
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is a whole lot more than a humble toaster oven. In addition to making toast and heating frozen pizza, it can just about replace your full-size oven for everything from baking cookies to making a roast dinner. Come the holidays, it can handle the biscuits or the sweet potato casserole. It’s larger than a typical model and comes with a steep price tag, but with all its capabilities and handsome appearance, we think it’s worth the countertop space and the splurge.
In addition to the air frying, toasting, baking, and broiling settings found on most toaster ovens, the Breville has ones for slow cooking, dehydrating, proofing, and reheating. It does just about every task well, excelling at roasting a chicken, baking cake, and air frying breaded chicken cutlets.
A large LCD screen displays the settings which are selected by using dials and buttons. With brushed stainless steel surfaces, the Breville has a beautiful upscale look. However, it can get excessively hot during cooking — the top of the glass window reached temperatures as high as 252°F during our tests. Thankfully, the towel bar handle and controls stay cool enough to touch.
Read our full Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro review.
Best looking toaster oven
The brand behind the viral Always Pan came out with its Wonder Oven in 2023, and it's been one of the most exciting small appliances launches we've seen in some time. The Wonder Oven sold out fast, but once we got our hands on it we were impressed by its powerful performance despite its small frame.
We were particularly impressed by the toasting and baking performance in this toaster oven. Or bagel slices came out evenly toasted and still soft inside thanks to the steam cap that infuses the cooking chamber when baking. When air frying, we thought that it didn't live up to the performance of a conventional air fryer, but we were still able to achieve a crispy and even finish.
This is an analog air fryer, meaning it's simply controlled by dials for setting, time, and temperature. This does mean it's a less accurate machine, but it's not unlike many of the models featured in this guide from Cuisinart and Hamilton Beach. If looks matter to you, but you still want a capable machine, the Our Place Wonder Oven is an excellent choice.
Read our full Our Place Wonder Oven review.
Best smart
This toaster oven looks identical to the winning Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro — that’s because it’s actually an upgraded version of this model. For that reason, off the bat, we can tell you that the design, accessories and cleaning instructions are all very similar. However, where the Joule toaster oven differentiates is in its smart capabilities.
It can connect to the Breville Joule Oven app, which gives you access to a hoard of recipes with step-by-step guidance. Plus, with 13 settings to peruse, you’ve got plenty of options to choose from. On top of that, the smart connectivity means you can change settings or set timers via Alexa or Google Assistant, although we admittedly found this a bit pointless.
Performance is where the Joule Oven and its predecessor somewhat differed. The Joule oven came out on top when toasting bread. It was the stronger of the two at crisping up chicken wings and frozen French fries as well. However, we found the Smart Oven fared best when preparing French fries from scratch, and it produced better breaded chicken. The predecessor came out slightly on top as a result, although every dish from the Joule oven still impressed — particularly the roast chicken which scored full marks. It’s worth flagging however that this model still gets hot to the touch, especially on the glass. It’s a costly toaster oven to boot. But, if you love to have the latest tech and you care about aesthetics, it’s worth considering.
Read our full Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro review.
Largest toaster oven
We think the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven DT201 is an exceptionally well thought out product that gives an excellent cooking performance, no matter which setting you use. The digital controls and readout are all contained on the handle, which puts them at eye level where they’re very easy to see and read. It also means the size of the product is the size of the oven cavity, so you make the most use of the space.
With the Ninja, you get two oven racks which can be used to heat up two 12-inch pizzas at once. You can also use one rack along with the air frying basket to cook a roast and a mess of veggies at the same time. Not only can the Ninja toast nine slices of toast at a time, it actually browns them all evenly.
When you select a function on the control panel, the oven tells you which rack position to use. Our only complaint about the Ninja is that the glass door gets super hot when it’s running — reaching temperatures as high as 282°F. It is also somewhat noisy, with a dBa reading of 61.3, which was on par with the loudest toaster oven we saw on test.
Read our full Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven DT201 review.
Best for toasting
If you’re really fussy about how your toast comes out, you’ll love the KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven With Air Fryer. It produces evenly browned bread that matches the chosen setting. However, you can also use it for roasting, air frying, baking, and broiling. Even though it’s more compact than other toaster ovens, it has enough room to roast two chickens or bake a large lasagna. In particular, the KitchenAid excels at air frying, turning out made-from-scratch French fries to rival the ones you get at your favorite bistro.
On this model you use a dial and a series of buttons to select your settings, which are displayed on a small LCD screen. As on most toaster ovens, the glass door can get very hot. We measured temperatures as high as 278°F during the air fry mode, although the controls remained cool enough to touch.
The KitchenAid is average in terms of noise at 54.4dB, but you can chat over it as you cook. You get a large, shallow enamel baking pan with this oven. While the pan and the racks are dishwasher safe, the manufacturer recommends hand washing them. Before you buy, take a look at our KitchenAid promo codes to see if you can lower the cost.
Read our full KitchenAid Digital Countertop Oven With Air Fryer review.
How we tested
Our testing team
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
I'm Tom's Guide's Senior Home Editor, I've been testing and reviewing the best toaster ovens and air fryers for five years.
Because I live in a two-person household, my oven is mostly used to store various pots and pans that I can't fit in my cupboards. As for the cooking, well, I leave that to my air fryer, which means I've put in well over 500 hours testing these smart cooking gadgets
Erin has been testing air fryers and toaster ovens since joining Tom's Guide in 2024.
She's quickly become a total convert to this convenient way of cooking, especially because it makes the cleaning process so much easier than using multiple pots and pans to prepare one meal.
Camryn is a freelance product reviewer based in Rhode Island.
She's tested more than a dozen different air fryers, as well as several countertop ovens. She frequently uses a toaster oven in her own kitchen to cook frozen foods and make recipes like chicken wings.
When testing, she look for models that are easy to operate (and clean) can evenly cook a variety of ingredients, and create a browned and crispy exterior.
Helen is a home economist turned product reviewer with nearly 20 years of experience in testing the latest and greatest home gadgets.
She started reviewing home and kitchen appliances at the Good Housekeeping Institute in 2007 and has never looked back.
Helen is now a freelance product reviewer and tests all sorts of appliances from her home in a pretty village in England.
Our testing process
To find the best toaster ovens, we tested a range of popular models to determine how well they toast, air fry, bake, and broil as well as how convenient they are to use.
It's important to us that we use these ovens the way you will in your home when you buy one, so while we have some pre-set recipes we follow to enable us to compare between models, we also use them in our day-to-day lives in order to experience all the little quirks and nuances you might miss if you only used an oven for a few hours in a lab.
As for our pre-determined tests? French fries are always a must. Not only do they show how well toaster ovens can crisp up foods, but they also display any hot or cold zones inside the oven which could lead to burning or uncercooking your food.
We also like to test an entire tray of toast. Again, this shows consistency of temperature but it also allows us to determine how easy it is to replace your toaster oven with this appliance. Typically we test toast at a number of different brownness levels to give you a sense of the range of settings with each machine.
If a toaster oven has a pizza setting, which most do, we will use it to crisp up a cheesy top on a pizza or frozen equivalent. This will also give you a sense of the internal capacity.
Cooking meat such as a whole chicken (if it fits) is a key part of the testing process. This will prove just how capable this appliance is of replacing your oven for entertaining or cooking for the whole family. We look for golden chicken skin, juicy meat, and how long this takes.
And finally, we test any special features on offer with these models. For example, the Our Place Wonder Oven has a steam feature, so we used that to bake a cake and see if it would come out moist and bouncy, like we'd look for in a regular oven.
Finally, ease of cleaning is a huge factor. Toaster ovens can be tricky to keep clean, it's actually one of their major drawbacks, so we consider how easily they clean up after a few weeks or months of use. If fat and crumbs get baked-on easily, we take that into account.
How to choose the best toaster oven
Toaster ovens vary in size, capacity, functionality, and price. The most expensive ones can do a lot more than toast and reheat — they can also air fry, roast, bake and pretty much serve as a second oven. However, they will also take up a lot more of your precious counter space compared an air fryer.
Here are the five things to consider when shopping for a toaster oven:
Size
Be sure to measure the space on your countertop where you plan to keep your toaster oven before making a purchase.
Don’t forget to check if your over-head cabinets will get in the way, and make sure the toaster oven will have space around it to vent as well.
Capacity
Start by considering what you cook regularly and plan to cook in your toaster oven. Models come with a wide range of capacities. The most compact ones can toast four to six slices of bread at once, while the largest can toast nine slices.
In a smaller oven, you can reheat frozen foods, but may not be able to fit a 12-inch pizza. Most of the newer ovens on the market are able to roast a chicken and some can even cook two birds at once, or a small turkey.
However, if you don’t cook for more than one or two people and your repertoire doesn’t include roasting, you may not want an oven with a large capacity monopolizing your countertop space.
Type of Controls
Dial controls are simple to use, but offer less precision. To set the time you’re basically turning a mechanical timer that dings when time is up.
That might be fine for most tasks, except baking where exact timing is critical — one extra minute and your cookies are dry.
While digital controls can take a little more work to figure out, they are exact and allow for presets for various types of cooking, so you don’t have to guess at what temperature to use and how long to cook.
Other functions
While by definition toaster ovens take the place of two appliances, today’s models can also air fry, slow cook, dehydrate, and more. This gives you more versatility and means you’ll have fewer products hogging space on your countertop.
However, it also adds to the price of the toaster oven, so be realistic about whether or not you need the extra functions.
Price
You can spend anywhere from $80 to $400 on a toaster oven. While the best ones tend to be pricier, you can get a very good one for about $100.
If you need a toaster oven primarily for toast, melted sandwiches, and quick reheats, there’s no need to spend top dollar.
