7 Best Personal Blenders of 2026, Lab-Tested and Reviewed
We tested options from Ninja, NutriBullet, and 17 other brands to find the best choices for on-the-go smoothies and small-batch meal prep
When you shop through retailer links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. 100% of the fees we collect are used to support our nonprofit mission. Learn more.
A personal blender can be handy for whipping up breakfast smoothies on a busy morning or for chopping ingredients for a small batch of soup or salsa for dinner. Most aren’t intended for hardcore blending; for that, you’ll likely need a full-sized blender.
Of the 7 models we recommend here, four combine the best of both worlds: They’re full-sized blenders with a personal blender attachment. The other three are single-serve personal blenders only. All are listed in alphabetical order.
Want more options? See our complete personal blender ratings, which include more than 30 models. Not sure which to choose? Consult our blender buying guide for advice before you shop.
Full-Sized Blenders With Personal Attachments
These blenders come with both full-sized and personal blender attachments. For these scores, we test them using the personal-sized cup.
Stand-Alone Personal Blenders
These blenders make single-serve batches of smoothies, soups, and salsas. Despite their size, they also earn impressive marks for icy drinks, purées, and durability.
The budget-priced, 600-watt NutriBullet Original NBR-0801 Personal nailed the functional aspects of our lab testing, earning excellent ratings for ice crushing, making icy drinks, puréeing raw vegetables into soup, and durability. That elevates it to one of the highest-rated, most budget-friendly, and lightest personal blenders (weighing only 4 pounds) in our ratings. But it disappoints with mediocre scores for predicted reliability, owner satisfaction, noise, and convenience (it’s push-down operated and has only one speed).
How CR Tests Blenders
Consumer Reports tests all blenders on the criteria below. For blenders that come with both full-sized and a personal-sized blender jars, we test each separately. Those models have two separate scores, one for personal blending and one for full-sized blending. Both sets of ratings can be sorted to highlight models with either a personal or full-sized attachment.
Icy drinks: In our lab, we make batches of nonalcoholic piña coladas and use sieves (with diminishing mesh sizes) to evaluate smoothness and thickness. When a blender earns an excellent score in our icy drink tests, it means it produces drinks with a smooth, consistent texture.
Ice crushing: For our ice-crushing tests, we use a second set of sieves to separate the larger chips from the finer particles. A blender that garners a top-level score serves up ice that looks uniformly like snow, while a very good score tells you the ice is more like a snow cone. (The lower the score, the bigger—and more irregular—the ice chips.)
Puréeing: In this test, we blend veggies and other ingredients in water three times for each model, operating on the manufacturer’s recommended speed (or high) for 15 seconds.
Convenience: We measure a machine’s convenience by how easy it is to use its controls, clean its base, and remove and replace the blade, among other factors.
Durability: Our durability test involves crushing seven ice cubes (four for personal blenders) without liquid for one minute on the highest setting.
Noise: To gauge the noise level, CR blends one cup of water and takes an average decibel reading over 30 seconds.
BEST TIME TO BUY:
