Best Paper Towels

Bounty is probably the first brand you think of when you think about paper towels, and after our evaluations, we see why it’s so popular. For water absorbency, it earned the highest score, absorbing an average of 49 grams of water per square foot of paper towel. The second-best paper towel wasn’t too far behind, though (more on that below). Its scrubbing strength was similarly impressive, surviving 15 cycles in our sandpaper-equipped apparatus before it showed any signs of ripping. After wetting, wringing out, and allowing it to dry, it was also the paper towel that retained its shape the best and consistently picked up chunky oatmeal better than any of the other paper towels.

Though it was the most expensive of the options we considered (both per roll and per sheet), because of its reusable nature and its stellar scores across most of our evaluations, we think it’s worth the extra 2 cents per sheet compared with the competition. A pleasant surprise, our tester found that when he calculated the amount of paper towels you get in each roll of Bounty based on the square footage, you’re actually getting nearly two more sheets of paper than what’s listed on the paper towel’s label. It’s also the paper towel I found myself reaching for most consistently when I tried them all at home because it was familiar and wiped up my kitchen spills easily.

No surprises here, Brawny is actually pretty brawny. It earned the second-highest Overall Score. To evaluate the strength of each paper towel, our tester, José Amézquita, created a test in which he added steel shots to a cup held by a wet paper towel. The weight of steel shots each paper towel was able to hold before it ripped determined how strong it was. Brawny withstood the highest mass, holding an average of 483 grams before it ripped. When we compared the results of our water absorbency and scrubbing strength evaluations, we found that these paper towels lagged behind the highest-scoring product, the Bounty, by very little. The Brawny absorbed an average of just 3 grams of water less than the Bounty and ripped after 14 cycles in our scrubbing evaluation—one cycle less than the Bounty. Similarly, faux vomit pickup was slightly worse than Bounty’s paper towel performance, leaving behind significantly more mess after one run than in another. 

With the same number of ply as Bounty, a few more sheets per roll, and half the price per sheet, Brawny is a great alternative if you’re trying to save a few dollars and don’t want to lose out on performance.

There are few things to praise about Amazon’s Presto Flex-A-Size Paper Towels, but also few things to complain about. Across our evaluations, they consistently ranked in the middle of the pack, only inching to second place (in a tie with Brawny) in our test for ease of detaching a sheet. On average, these sheets absorbed 45 grams of water and made it through 12.5 cycles of sandpaper scrubbing before they ripped. In the wet oatmeal pickup test, these paper towels showed good, consistent results—better than some. In keeping with its theme of not being the best or the worst, it ranked fourth in wet strength, holding an average of 353 grams of steel shots before it gave out.

With a price of 2 cents per sheet, Presto is consistent with three other paper towels we evaluated, though in our calculations, you’re getting about 1.6 fewer sheets per roll than what’s stated on the packaging (calculated by square footage).

The only single-ply option we evaluated, Scott surprised us with its ability to pick up chunky oatmeal. It tied with our overall top-ranking paper towel, Bounty, in this category, but it didn’t perform as consistently as Bounty across multiple test runs. In our wet strength evaluation, it earned the third-highest score, holding an average weight of 375 grams of steel shots before it ripped. This strength wasn’t ideal when we tried to detach a sheet from the roll of paper towels, with sheets tearing haphazardly during our ease-of-detachment evaluations. For water absorbency, it earned the second-to-last ranking, absorbing just 2 grams of water more than the worst-ranking Sparkle. When I used these paper towels, I found that they had the roughest texture, which could be helpful if you need a little abrasiveness to remove any stuck-on messes from a kitchen counter. 

Though they clock in at $2.87 per roll, because each roll of Scott Choose-A-Sheet Paper Towels has just 65 sheets, it’s the same price per sheet as Bounty’s Select-A-Size Paper Towels.

Priced per sheet, Amazon Basics has the cheapest paper towels of the six we evaluated, but that low price comes at a cost. If you plan to pick up heavy messes with them, consider what our tester had to say about their wet strength: “Do not bother with Amazon Basics. It can start bursting as early as 200 grams,” says Amézquita. It earned the lowest marks in our wet strength evaluations, ripping with less than half of the mass that the strongest paper towel was able to hold. It consistently left behind the greatest amount of wet, chunky oatmeal in our lab and was the only paper towel to rip when Amézquita attempted to lay the sheet to dry in our reusability evaluations. A tester found that the reported number of sheets per roll was 2.4 sheets fewer than what was reported on the product’s packaging. This was the paper towel with the most significant difference between the reported and calculated sheets per roll.

Two separate testers ranked this paper towel as the easiest to rip a sheet of paper from the roll, which, if you’re willing to ignore all the other performance issues, is a great feature. The texture of the paper was also the softest of the six in our evaluation. If you’re looking for a gentle option to clean up soft baby cheeks after dinner, this is likely the least irritating option.

Sparkle paper towels are half the price of the most expensive paper towels we evaluated, but it didn’t perform half as well. Even though it ranked fifth out of six in faux vomit pickup, scrubbing, and wet strength evaluations, because it absorbed the least amount of water, it was demoted to the lowest place in our rankings. On average, this paper towel absorbed just 25 grams of water compared with the most absorbent paper towel’s 49 grams. 

To end on a positive note, it was found to be reusable (like every other paper towel we tried), and it wasn’t too difficult to rip a sheet from a roll. According to Amézquita’s calculations, because the reported square footage of each roll was just a tiny bit less than the number reported on the label, the difference was less than one. I didn’t find that it was particularly soft or rough at home.

*Editor’s Note: Based on price at publication time.