7 Best Toaster Ovens of 2026, Expert-Tested and Reviewed
One of these multitasking models deserves a spot on your kitchen counter
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The small but mighty toaster oven has evolved far beyond making a great piece of toast. You can use one to roast vegetables, bake cookies, broil burgers, "you can reheat fried plantains, lasagna, and pizza, bake kielbasa, beer-battered fish, and more,” says Elias Arias, the Consumer Reports test engineer who oversees our toaster oven tests.
With the right techniques, you can even cook an impressive meal (like these Caribbean dishes) and bring leftovers back to life. Newer models have features that let you air-fry, slow-cook, and dehydrate foods.
Because of its small capacity, a toaster oven heats up quickly and can replace a conventional oven for daily use by singles and smaller households. Toaster ovens also come in handy when your kitchen oven and cooktop are maxed out and you need more cooking capacity to prepare elaborate meals. And on hot summer days, a toaster oven won’t heat up your kitchen the way your full-sized oven would.
But CR’s independent testing reveals that some toaster ovens work better than others. CR members can check out our toaster oven ratings to see how dozens of them perform in our labs. For more details on choosing the right toaster oven, consult our toaster oven buying guide. You can also read more about our top picks below, which appear in alphabetical order.
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With a temperature range of 120° F to 450° F, the 1,800-watt Breville The Smart Oven BOV800XL does a nice job of baking food and turning out an even batch of medium-brown toast. It’s better than many other toaster ovens at reheating food. It’s a cinch to operate and easy to clean. Plus, CR members give Breville high praise for reliability and owner satisfaction. There’s one minor drawback, though: Our testers found that this model is only so-so at toasting a single slice of bread, and it doesn’t toast as quickly as some other models.
The DeLonghi EO141164M may look like a simple toaster oven, but its performance in our labs is impressive. It aced our color-range and full-batch tests, meaning it can achieve that perfectly browned, crispy slice of toast just the way you like it and consistently turn out a full batch to medium brown. It earns top marks in our ease-of-use evaluations, meaning its controls are easy to understand and operate, and cleaning its interior and exterior is a breeze.
The GE G9OAAASSPSS receives top marks in our one-slice, full-batch, and color-range tests. It’s also very good at baking, which we test by analyzing how evenly it bakes corn muffins and cookies. This model also aces our ease-of-use tests, thanks to its clear digital display, dials, and push-button controls. Plus, it’s exceptionally easy to clean. It has an air-fry mode, comes with an air-fry basket, and maxes out at 450° F. Like many toaster ovens, it receives a middling score in our tests of how evenly it reheats lasagna.
The Hamilton Beach 31156 is the only model in our ratings to receive top-notch scores in all of our tests for toast, and it does a solid job at baking. The only area where it delivers a so-so performance is in reheating. And it’s not the most user-friendly model you can buy. But it does have a novel design: a bread slot for toasting, like you’d find on a dedicated toaster, with a low oven cavity underneath. This simple model is best suited for people who would use the oven in a limited capacity. CR members find Hamilton Beach toaster ovens fairly reliable, but the brand receives only a passable owner satisfaction score.
If you tend to pack up leftovers for later enjoyment, the KitchenAid KCO124BM’s reheat function won’t disappoint. Its reheating performance was very good in our tests. It could take longer than you’d expect to toast a full batch of bread at the medium setting, but this model still received very good scores for both a full batch (six slices) and single slices. It reaches a max of 450° F, but its baking performance could be better. When baking corn muffins and cookies in our labs, the results were uneven. Note that the oven’s height is relatively low, so taller items may not fit.
The KitchenAid KCO255BM does an excellent job of turning out perfectly browned toast, though you’ll have to wait a while to get it on your plate. The push-button controls and digital display are user-friendly, and the interior won’t take too much elbow grease to clean. Like the KitchenAid model above, this one can handle a host of functions, including convection-bake, air-fry, keep warm, proof, and dehydrate. Its score in our baking tests is very good, but its score for reheating is middling. This large oven can also fit a whole chicken, a 12-inch pizza, and a 9x13-inch pan.
The Ninja 2-in-1 Double Oven DCT401 is an overall top performer, earning high to top-tier scores in nearly all of our lab tests. The one area where this 1,800-watt model falls slightly short is in reheating, for which it earns just a middling score. In our labs, this model stands out for its unique design—it has two separate ovens in one—its ease of use, and how well it bakes and toasts. Still, a temperature range of 100° F to 450° F, a digital display, and an air-frying function make this Ninja a solid pick. Plus, it receives excellent scores for reliability and owner satisfaction based on our member surveys.
How CR Tests Toaster Ovens
Our engineers put toaster ovens through a series of rigorous lab tests. We assess how well these appliances deliver a nicely browned slice of bread and how evenly they toast a whole batch. We also evaluate the range of toast color options, from light to dark, and how easy the appliances are to use and clean. We test how evenly they can bake cookies and muffins. And to test their reheating ability, we reheat lasagna, then use thermocouples to measure how uniform (or not) the temperature is throughout the food.
But we don’t stop there. Each model’s Overall Score factors in brand reliability and owner satisfaction ratings gathered from 2021 and 2024 surveys covering 30,619 toaster ovens purchased new since 2016. The data allows us to calculate ratings on 28 toaster oven brands. We have found that brand reliability varies widely, with only a handful of brands snagging an excellent predicted reliability rating.
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