Best Cordless Drills of 2025
Consumer Reports put cordless drills from DeWalt, Milwaukee, Skil, and other brands to the test. These models came out on top.
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Whether you’re hanging a shelf, installing a ceiling fan, or building a deck, a cordless drill is a must. We would even argue that it’s the single most important item in your toolbox.
In the past decade, cordless drills have grown lighter, more powerful, and more energy-efficient, making corded drills practically obsolete. These improvements are due to advancements in lithium-ion battery technology and the introduction of brushless motors, which are more powerful despite requiring less energy.
These changes aren’t unique to cordless drills. Many of the power tools we test now have lithium-ion batteries, which can be used in any tool you buy from a single brand.
“You can use the same batteries for drills, chainsaws, string trimmers, leaf blowers, and the like,” says Courtney Pennicooke, CR’s market analyst for cordless drills. “Simply make sure you buy the bare tools that match your preferred battery platform [voltage and manufacturer] in order to reap the benefits without having to purchase additional batteries.” That means your cordless drill choice can actually save you about one-third of the cost of a tool with a battery and charger. Of course, you’ll also be tied to one brand for all your power tools, something important to keep in mind as you shop.
In our latest round of testing, we looked at about a dozen models from DeWalt, Makita, and Milwaukee, among others. Here are the top performers, broken down by light-duty, general-use, and heavy-duty models.
You can also compare more than 50 models in our comprehensive cordless drill ratings, available to CR members. The drills at the top of our ratings score the highest on metrics like power and speed, as well as the amount of time they can last on a single charge and how long they take to recharge.
Best Light-Duty Cordless Drills
The voltage of a drill dictates the size of the job it can tackle. Light-duty drills are best suited for small jobs around the house, such as assembling flat-packed furniture, changing a light fixture, or drilling into drywall. Their batteries range in power from 12 to 20 volts, but their relatively small motors don’t spin or drive with the same force as heavy-duty or general-use drills even of the same voltage.
This DeWalt DCF610S2 drill will make quick work of projects, boasting an above-average speed. It may need to be charged midway through a project but will charge quickly for minimal downtime. This drill weighs 2.1 pounds, making it lighter than average.
What’s included: two 1.3-amp-hour batteries and a three-year warranty.
Best General-Use Cordless Drills
Lower-voltage drills, which we call general-use drills in our ratings, typically use about 12 volts. They offer plenty of power for most household tasks, like hanging a shelf or tightening screws, and they weigh less, in some cases coming in at half the weight of heavier-duty models.
This Hercules HCB91K1 drill has the power for the most demanding applications and exceptional speed. It can last through very long projects on a single charge and will charge very quickly. This drill weighs 4.3 pounds, making it heavier than average. The grip is comfortably sized.
What’s included: a 2-amp-hour battery and a five-year warranty.
This Milwaukee 3403-22 drill is extremely powerful and has a respectable speed. It can last through very long projects on a single charge and charges quickly. This drill weighs 2.5 pounds, making it lighter than average. The grip is comfortably sized. It’s a little noisy, though.
What’s included: a 4-amp-hour battery and a five-year warranty.
If cost is your chief concern, the Skil DL529002 really delivers. It packs the power of a much pricier drill, plus it’s equipped with the same half-inch chuck as the Milwaukee above. And like the Milwaukee, it earns top marks for power and handling, though run time is only average. It’s also a bit noisier than the competition and it’s one of the few models that comes with only a single battery, so you may need to recharge in the middle of a project or buy a backup. Skil earns average marks for predicted reliability and falls below average when it comes to owner satisfaction.
What’s included: a 2-amp-hour battery and a five-year warranty.
This Skil DL6290A-10 drill is impressive with a powerful speed. It will complete most projects with minimal downtime for charging and will recharge very quickly. This drill weighs 2.6 pounds. The grip is comfortably sized. This model doesn’t have a storage case or bag, though.
What’s included: a 2 amp-hour battery and a three-year warranty.
The brushless 12-volt DeWalt DCD703F1 delivers solid performance in CR’s tests overall. This lightweight 2.5-pound model earns strong ratings for speed, handling, charging time, and noise at ear level, plus a stellar rating for power. It’s a good choice that costs a bit less than the Milwaukee but still offers a battery that’s usable on a broad platform of other tools. It comes with a single battery, and it has a ⅜-inch chuck, so it can’t take the largest bits.
What’s included: a 2-amp-hour battery and a three-year warranty.
The general-use Makita FD07R1 is a 12-volt cordless drill that weighs just over 2 pounds and stands barely 6 inches tall. Despite its petite profile, this model shines in our power test, making it a solid alternative to some of the larger 18- and 20-volt models. It doesn’t rate as well as some others for run time, but the kit comes with two batteries and a rapid charger, which tops off an empty battery in an impressive 60 minutes. This option is slightly limited by a ⅜-inch chuck.
What’s included: two 2-amp-hour batteries and a three-year warranty.
This DeWalt DCD701F2 drill has excellent power and above-average speed—plus, its handling is very good, too. It won’t take long to charge, nor will it be especially noisy while it works. This drill weighs 2.4 pounds, making it lighter than average. That said, it has a plastic chuck and doesn’t come with any bit storage.
What’s included: two 2-amp-hour batteries and a three-year warranty.
Best Heavy-Duty Cordless Drills
Higher-voltage drills, which we call heavy-duty in our ratings, generally have 18 to 20 volts of power or more. They’re typically heavier but also more capable of tackling difficult tasks like boring a large hole through studs or joists, or driving hundreds of screws on a single battery charge (something you’ll need to do when building a deck).
The Makita GFD02D boasts a staggering 40-volt battery, which works in Makita’s outdoor lawn tools, too. It has above-average power and is fast to drill and drive, earning top marks in that test. It’s also fast to charge and offers exceptional run time. Weighing in at 4.2 pounds, it’s beefy and quite a bit heavier than lighter-duty models. For a little less you can score the Makita XFD16T, which actually packs a tiny bit more power but takes longer to charge.
What’s included: two 2.5-amp-hour batteries and a three-year warranty.
The 24-volt heavy-duty Flex FX1171T-2B features a half-inch chuck and a 5-amp-hour battery, providing long run times. At 5.1 pounds, it’s heavier than most of the competition, but it offers performance on a par with the pricier Makita model above. The Flex aces our tests for speed, power, run time, and charge time while costing less than many other models in its class.
What’s included: two 5-amp-hour batteries and a five-year warranty.
The 20-volt heavy-duty brushless DeWalt DCD991P2 is one of our best performers across all three drill types, snagging top ratings for power, speed, and run time. But the hefty 5-amp-hour battery that produces all that power makes this drill heavy, unbalanced, and a bit awkward to handle. Unlike most drills in our ratings, this DeWalt is equipped with three speed settings, providing a handy middle option for drilling into soft metals, such as aluminum, when the slow speed required for steel isn’t enough and the fast speed for wood is too much.
What’s included: two 5-amp-hour batteries and a three-year warranty.
The budget-friendly Kobalt KXDD 1424A-03 is a 24-volt cordless drill that aces our tests for power, speed, and run time. This brushless model also offers two speed ranges. On the downside, it takes around 85 minutes to charge an empty battery, which is longer than many other heavy-duty drills we tested.
What’s included: a 4-amp-hour battery and a five-year warranty.
How CR Tests Cordless Drills
For our cordless drill tests, we narrow the field to the most widely available models and run them through a series of tests in our lab, where we use a device called a dynamometer, which measures torque under different loads. We translate those readings into scores for power, speed, and run time, defined as how long a drill’s battery lasts per charge.
We also assess how long each model takes to fully recharge a discharged battery, how easy the tool is to handle, and how much noise it makes at the user’s ear.
Finally, we incorporate ratings for predicted reliability and owner satisfaction, based on data from CR’s member surveys.
If you’re unsure about what kind of cordless drill to buy, start with our cordless drills buying guide. CR members can also explore our comprehensive cordless drill ratings. You can filter dozens of drills according to your needs, including category, price, weight, and noise level.
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