![Breville Smart Oven displayed on a black countertop next to kitchen utensils](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.foodandwine.com/thmb/syxREhJSWw2XpkQ76cd0mQnVznk=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/faw-product-breville-smart-oven-convection-toaster-oven-wdickey-9-1-1-22c40abcd2c84f85b7d35e0fbdd46a5e.jpeg)
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Invented in 1910, toaster ovens have long been taken for granted or maligned as unnecessary countertop obstructions offering duplicative services other major appliances provide. While they are far from new-fangled gadgets, toaster ovens provide distinct advantages to a modern home cook. And, in some instances, advances in cooking technology have beefed up the options newer toaster ovens offer.
A toaster oven’s size and convenience make it an ideal choice for specific places and people. Compact, using standard electricity, and requiring no hood, a toaster oven is more than just a standard toaster or 4-slice toaster; it’s the optimal solution for small spaces, like dorm rooms and offices — spaces that don’t allow for a full-size oven or open flame cooking. A toaster oven’s compact size and quick warm-up time make it a perfect option for singles, college students, and families with kids who enjoy cooking for themselves. They’re also incredibly energy efficient.
In addition to toasting bread and bagels, the average toaster oven can be used to cook homemade pizza, bake cookies and salmon, roast vegetables, crisp bacon, and reheat leftovers. Newer, high-end toaster ovens also function as convection ovens, rotisseries, or even air fryers. In order to find the best toast ovens, our lab tested 24 toaster ovens by melting cheese, baking cookies, and testing each oven’s toast heat map. Find out which toaster ovens made our list below.
Best Overall
Breville Smart Oven
This multi-purpose appliance can double as a convection oven.
If not purchased for its added features, this is a pricey toaster oven.
Breville is a go-to brand for many home cooks. When it comes to toaster ovens, two of its more popular models ranked high enough in our tests to land in our top picks. For many dedicated cooks, having single-use tools and equipment wastes space. However, the Breville Smart Oven heeds that call as it is a multi-purpose countertop appliance if ever there was one. It may not slice and dice, but it does toast, bake, grill, roast, and slow cook, thanks to its convection oven feature. We loved that each setting has its own dedicated section laying out temperatures, what you can cook, and where you can cook it.
Although multi-purpose appliances can sometimes be intimidating, getting acquainted with this model wasn’t too complicated, making it great for beginners to ease into or for experienced cooks to dive right in. But it is worth mentioning that, while this toaster oven performed to our liking during the toast and cookie test, we did notice a few spots with varying temperatures.
Capacity: 28 liters | Dimensions: 11.1 x 18.5 15.7 inches | Temperature range: 120 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit | Display: Digital | Functions: Convection-powered, toast, bagel-toast, bake, roast, grill, pizza, cookies, reheat, warm, and slow cook
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Best Value
Black+Decker Toaster Oven
This oven maintains high heat, toasts evenly, and has a curved interior that allows for pizza.
It's not the most modern-looking product offered today.
When you hear the words “toaster oven,” of those we tested, the Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster Oven is probably the closest match to the vision you’ve conjured in your mind. It can toast four slices of bread, two bagels split into halves, or bake a pizza. It can maintain high heat for broiling and, once hot, holds within five degrees of the temperature selected. It has a unique curved interior allowing it to accommodate a 9-inch round pizza and includes a baking pan, broil rack, and removable crumb tray/drip pan. Its appearance won’t turn any heads, but its stripped-down utilitarian function may score more points with some users.
Despite its lack of looks, modest size, and low price, the Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster Oven toasts evenly and works well at all levels of its temperature range; we were blown away by how much this little toaster oven excelled at the basics. This approachable and accessible model features two simple dials and a 30-minute timer that allow you to access its ability to bake, broil, toast, and keep food warm with little fuss.
Capacity: 13 liters | Dimensions: 11.18 x 15.47 x 8.3 inches | Temperature range: 200 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit | Display: Analog | Functions: Bake, broil, toast, and keep warm
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Best Compact
Breville The Compact Smart Oven
It has a sleek and intuitive design that makes it easy to start using right out of the box.
The pizza pan and cutting board are sold separately with this model, and we noticed some uneven toasting.
For those with limited counter space, the features and utility of any kitchen tool we invest in are all the more important. Wasting space is the last thing we want to do with cluttered or limited counters. The Breville Compact Smart Oven is the fun-size solution to this exact problem. With a perfect size to make the most of your kitchen’s surface area, this toaster oven is simple to clean and comes with several presets we were pleased with (it particularly shined in the broiling category). The ease of use here is nearly unrivaled in all of our tests. The contemporary style of the dials and buttons is clear and simple enough to use that we felt the instruction manual was hardly necessary.
With its compact size, we did notice uneven toasting during the bread and cookie test. That said, if you’re a first-time buyer or a home cook looking for the perfect toaster oven for a tight-fitting space, the Breville Compact Smart Oven is our pick. "I've owned one for many years, and it is still in perfect working order, " says Food & Wine Senior Writer Jennifer Zyman. "I use it every day and love its versatility, especially during holidays when my ovens are filled to the brim."
Capacity: 17 liters | Dimensions: 10.2 x 16.7 x 15.6 inches | Temperature range: 120 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit | Display: Digital | Functions: Toast, bagel-toast, bake, broil, pizza, roast, cookies, and reheat
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Best Air Fryer Toaster Oven
Instant Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Oven
With multiple features like a convection fan, rotisserie function, and air fryer capabilities, this toaster oven does it all.
Besides the higher price tag, there’s not much we could find that we disliked.
On top of your standard bake, broil, roast, toast, warm, and reheat, the Instant Pot Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Oven offers a dehydration feature that is perfect for drying fruit or making jerky as well as complete air frying capabilities. It also has a convection fan that allows you to cook excellent rotisserie-style chicken. Big enough to hold an entire chicken, it even comes with the rotisserie spit and forks you need to do it right. In addition, you can expect an enamel baking tray, stainless steel oven rack, air fry basket, and a lift tool. To boot, all of its accessories are dishwasher-safe and are easy to disassemble.
Apart from handling toasting tasks and simple bakes, plus 13-inch pizzas and whole chickens, this oven is a more than capable air fryer. It exceeded our expectations when it came down to crisping life into frozen french fries. They were cooked evenly, and we were particularly pleased with their texture and how evenly they browned. You can’t go wrong with a perfectly crisp and ultra-low-effort batch of fries, are we right?
Capacity: 18 liters | Dimensions: 16.53 x 15.74 x 13.89 inches | Temperature range: 85 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit | Display: Digital | Functions: Convection fan “rotisserie,” air fry, bake, broil, dehydrate, reheat, roast, toast, and warm
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Our Favorite Toaster Oven
The Breville Smart Oven was by far our Best Overall pick. Our test kitchen found that it has even heating and browning properties for a perfect cook every time. It’s also super easy to clean, is sleek and modern in its design, and offers exceptionally high value for the price. If you’re also in the market for an air fryer, we recommend the Instant Pot Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Oven.
How We Tested Toaster Ovens
To find which toaster ovens performed above the rest, we put 24 top-rated models through rigorous side-by-side testing. In the testing, editors judged each product on several factors:
- Heating accuracy: While not entirely crucial for toasting bread or melting cheese, preheating becomes extremely important when using your toaster oven for just about anything else. This is why we carefully monitored how long each oven took to come up to temperature and how well it held the set temperature we selected.
- Heating consistency: It’s best that a toaster oven can heat its entire cavity from corner to corner. Otherwise, there’s wasted space in an already compact design. To test this, we loaded each toaster oven with bread from single slices up to six slices, depending on each toaster oven’s capacity. We toasted the slices and looked for even browning but also for the oven’s heat map. The heat map shows how the heating element in the oven either does or doesn’t allow for even cooking through the entirety of its interior.
- Baking: The temperature isn’t the only important feature of a toaster oven. The material of everything from the baking sheet to the metal racks can affect baked goods made in the appliance. We measured how well each toaster oven performed on this front by baking some cookies from pre-made refrigerated chocolate chip dough.
- Broiling: We decided to test the toaster ovens’ broil functions on an ingredient that can both melt and brown beautifully: cheese. After broiling cheese on toast, we rated how efficiently and evenly it melted under the broiler.
- Crisping: The toaster ovens with both a convection fan and perforated basket were tested alongside all the best air fryers to determine how well they crisped up delicious French fries and other breaded foods.
- Ease of use and cleanup: We took a detailed look at the instruction booklet provided by the manufacturer. From pre-operation warnings to cleanup instructions, we confirmed whether or not the information provided was clear and thorough enough to be considered user-friendly. We also disassembled and cleaned the toaster ovens several times, noting any pros or cons along the way.
![Hand using a potholder to pull a sheet of baked cookies from the Instant Pot Omni Plus Air Fryer Toaster Oven](https://www.foodandwine.com/thmb/tF1Lbsb0UaswK6N4EdxpB7azCoQ=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/toaster-oven-test-instant-pot-omni-plus-air-fryer-toaster-oven-wdickey-15-3418-02787b664dd84ad2b2c508d0b1614168.jpg)
Food & Wine / Will Dickey
Factors to Consider
Size
How big you need your toaster oven to be — or rather how much room you have for a toaster oven on your countertop, is as unique to each user as their fingerprint. Be sure to measure for specs that work in your kitchen (provided in the dimensions noted underneath each oven description). Finally, consider what you’ll want to toast, bake, roast, or broil in the oven when deciding how big the toaster oven you need is.
Features
With so many options on the market today, discovering the right perfect toaster oven largely depends on the settings you’re likely to use. Are you looking for a toaster oven to mainly toast and reheat leftover foods? Or, are you also looking to whip up a pizza or air fry salmon for easy weeknight dinners? Price will vary depending on the added features, but determining your use cases with the added settings will help you make an informed decision.
Racks and Accessories
Despite the ease of shipping these days, it can be hard to find just the right accessories for a toaster oven. Buying one with everything you need makes this less of a hindrance. We considered the accessories provided with each oven, evaluating the quality of each item and how easy it was to clean after use. When purchasing, consider if the price of the added accessories and the space they will inhabit in your kitchen is worth it.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Is it worth buying a toaster oven?
According to Tim and Brie, the founders of Toaster Oven Love who have created a hub of toaster oven resources for fans of the small but mighty countertop appliance, despite flashy settings, toaster ovens are really just small ovens that heat up quickly and bake efficiently. Whether it’s worth buying one is going to depend on your lifestyle and what you’re trying to cook with it. "For our small two-person household, it is definitely worth buying a toaster oven."
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Besides small households, who else needs a toaster oven?
"They’re a practical appliance ideal for cooking in compact spaces like office lunchrooms, cabins, and RVs," says Tim and Brie. During the holidays, a toaster oven makes a handy second oven for side dishes and desserts or to keep things warm before serving. And in the summer, you can bake a batch of gooey chocolate chip cookies without heating up the whole house.
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How do toaster ovens work?
Most toaster ovens have heating elements that are located at the top and bottom of the oven. They heat the oven based on the cooking function, temperature, and time set on the oven’s control panel.
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What is the difference between a toaster oven and a toaster oven with a convection setting?
"A convection toaster oven has a fan that circulates heated air around the inside of the oven," explains Tim and Brie. The warm circulating air keeps the oven’s temperature consistent, which results in food that’s cooked more evenly and usually faster. Convection cooking also helps to remove surface moisture from the food, so it gets crispy and browned outside while staying tender and moist inside.
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What is the difference between a toaster oven and an air fryer toaster oven?
"An air fryer toaster oven usually has an air fry setting," says Tim and Brie. With that setting, the convection fan is moving at a faster speed, and on some ovens, the heating elements may be set at a higher intensity. Also, to allow for maximum airflow and extra crispiness, food is usually placed in a perforated metal basket during cooking.
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Can you put aluminum foil in a toaster oven?
Yes, aluminum foil is safe to use in a toaster oven, but take the necessary precautions written in the manufacturer’s booklet. When covering a dish with aluminum foil, most manufacturers recommend placing the dish on the lowest rack possible. By doing this, you distance the foil from the upper heating elements of the toaster oven and prevent a fire risk.
Many people line the bottom of their toaster ovens with aluminum foil to catch crumbs. Manufacturers often advise against this practice, since the aluminum foil can get close to the heating element and pose a fire risk. It’s best to wait for the device to cool and clean the crumbs out often to avoid unwanted emergencies. Luckily, many of the best toaster ovens have a removable crumb tray for easy cleanup and no need for metal foils.
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How do you clean a toaster oven?
No matter the toaster oven you decide to purchase, be sure to take a look through its manufacturer's booklet or setup instructions. Inside it should be a detailed set of instructions for cleaning and applicable disassembly.
Generally, it's fine to remove all grates and pans from within the toaster oven. Then, using a mild cleaning solution, wipe clean the interior walls of the toaster oven with a soft towel or non-abrasive sponge. Check the user manual to confirm whether grates, pans, and other accessories are dishwasher-safe or hand wash only. Dry all components before re-assembly, wipe clean the outside of the toaster oven, and it'll be good as new.
Other Toaster Ovens We Tested
Strong Contenders
Cuisinart Chef's Convection Toaster Oven ($300 at Amazon)
Though this toaster oven was simple and easy to use with large, easy-to-read display buttons, we found the oven to be a bit too spartan with limited timer functions for certain foods.
Hamilton Beach 4-slice Countertop Toaster Oven & Pizza Maker ($60 at Amazon)
Despite its reasonable price point and everyday functionality, we found this analog-style toaster oven to be a bit too basic, lacking crucial features, including an interior light and broil timer.
Cuisinart TOB-40N Custom Classic Toaster Oven Broiler; 17-Inch ($100 at Amazon)
While toast came out consistently brown during our tests, foods like cookies and grilled cheese sandwiches cooked near the back of the oven were unevenly cooked. Since this toaster oven does not have a controllable timer, and the toasting feature is the only available smart feature, we found this oven yielded uneven cooking results.
De'Longhi 10-in-1 Digital Toaster Oven ($350 at Amazon)
This toaster oven works best as an oven or air fryer, yielding evenly-baked chocolate chip cookies and French fries. For quick everyday cooking tasks like toasting single pieces of bread, we found inconsistent results with too many functions to choose from.
Panasonic Toaster Oven FlashXpress ($170 at Amazon)
This toaster oven worked well for simple, individual tasks like reheating leftovers. However, we found an overall inconsistency in cooking, as the oven got hotter in the back and cooler towards the door.
What Didn't Make The List
Although the convection baking functionality was somewhat consistent with toaster ovens like the one we tested from Oster, we found inconsistent results when toasting bread, broiling, and baking cookies. Despite its extensive features, we found the testing and convection performance of other products like certain Black + Decker devices to be subpar, with inconsistent results between modes. Other models, such as BALMUDA's, are beautiful, but overall performance was lacking in tasks like baking and cooking.
Our Expertise
- Christa Glennie has been a freelance writer and food editor for nearly 20 years. She is also the author of two cookbooks and specializes in food and drink trends, agriculture, the regional foodways of Western New York, and the restaurant business. Her respect for simplicity and uncluttered counters in the kitchen ultimately fuels a desire to find and own well-designed, multi-purpose, best-in-class kitchen tools.
- Food & Wine Updates Writer Dillon Evans contributed updates to this article. He's a lifelong home cook and baker whose work can also be found in EatingWell. In Dillon's kitchen, you can find one toaster oven — or more — which aids his obsession with potato fries, tenders, and other crispy foods.