The 6 Very Best Toaster Ovens

Size: 18.5” x 16.25” x 11.25”  | Presets: Toast, bagel, bake, roast, broil, pizza, cookies, reheat, warm

This toaster oven is decidedly big (the second largest on this list). But in my own testing, I’ve found it to be an all-around great performer. It preheats in a matter of minutes, doesn’t make my whole space hot, and thanks to the stainless steel interior, is a breeze to clean. (Celia Lee, pastry chef at New York City’s NARO, expressed the same sentiment: Foods never stick to the tray or rack but if the inside needs a clean from crumbs, “it’s super easy to slide them out to put those parts through the dishwasher and wipe down the interior,” she says.)

The functionalities are intuitive to use: It has a dial to control temperature, another to control time, and a third to cycle through the different settings (bake, broil, and the like). Perhaps most impressively, it bakes, toasts, and broils super evenly, without hot spots.

For two years, recipe developer and newsletter author Caroline Chambers lived in a kitchen without a full-sized oven and had to use this in its place to create and test dishes. “It cooks things fast and efficiently,” she says. Jocelyn Delk Adams, a cookbook author and the recipe developer behind Grandbaby Cakes, notes the even heat distribution, too, which she says works just as well for making uniformly colored toast (like she does every morning) as it does for roasting a few salmon filets for dinner. She also likes it for reheating food, especially when she wants something to maintain its original crispiness, like fritters or pizza.

Size: 16” x 13.5” x 8.75” | Presets: Toast, bagel, pizza, reheat, cookies, roast, broil, bake

This second Breville model has different mechanisms for adjusting time and temperature from our best overall pick (buttons instead of dials), as well as one less designated setting (there’s no “keep food warm” option). But the biggest difference — and one worthy of warranting its own spot on this list — is the size, which is about three inches smaller in height, depth, and width and just a bit over half the capacity.

I grew up with this model and owned one for years myself before trading it for a slotted toaster a couple moves ago. It’s an efficient machine that perfectly toasts bread and uniformly broils bubbling cheese on top of open-faced sandwiches. The machine fits four slices of a standard square loaf and two of bigger sourdough — plenty of space for my needs (and most people’s, for that matter). I like that you can set an exact temperature to bake at; I used it all the time to toast nuts and seeds, a task that feels a bit small to heat your full-sized oven for. Recipe developer and private chef Jane Morgan has used the appliance extensively, too. “A lot of toaster ovens are bulky, but this one doesn’t take up too much space,” she says. “Also, a lot have unnecessary functions. This one is everything you want in terms of presets and nothing you don’t.”

Size: 12.2” x 16.4” x 9.6” | Presets: Toast, bake, broil, bagel, keep warm

There are only three toast settings on this machine — light, medium, and dark — but that’s a plus for recipe developer and cookbook author Jessie Sheehan, who says “otherwise there are too many choices and I get overwhelmed. Sometimes less is more.” Beyond toast, there are only a few other functions: bagel, broil, keep warm, and bake. She uses that last one to reheat leftovers, bake treats, and roast small batches of ingredients like nuts and coconut flakes. It preheats in mere minutes (as opposed to the 30-plus it can take in her full-size appliance) and has superior heat distribution, too (it cooks evenly with no hot spots, again unlike her full-size appliance). “There’s absolutely nothing sexy about it, and yet it is a workhorse that has never failed me,” she says.

Size: 14.1” x 12.6” x 8.2” | Presets: Sandwich bread, artisan bread, pizza, pastry

Balmuda’s steam toaster oven made a splash when TikTok and Instagram creator Emily Mariko started using it in her videos a few years ago — but in my own testing, I’ve found it lives up to the social-media hype because of its ability to impart moisture as it toasts. The machine works by pouring a small amount of water (it comes with a tiny cup to measure properly) into an opening at the top that generates steam as it heats. This ensures that whatever is inside gets crisp and browned (or in the case of reheating leftovers, stays crisp and browned) on the outside, but hydrated and soft on the inside. It works remarkably well.

The machine features several settings for different types of breads and pastries (makes sense, as this is where it really sings), as well as a few exact degrees (350, 400, and 450) for baking other types of food, and then a dial for choosing the amount of time. And as an added bonus, the machine itself looks elegant and less industrial than all the others on this list. (It’s also even a couple of inches smaller than the Breville Mini.)

Food writer and editor Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner says the effect “replicates a professional bread oven,” recreating the texture of just-baked bread, and recipe developer and cookbook author Samah Dada calls it a “refresher” for the way the steam breathes new life into days-old baked goods. Strategist writer Ambar Pardilla loves it for foods other than toast, too. “You get the flakiest pastries — that fluffiness of a croissant — and grilled cheese with the pulliest cheeses, like those Hubba Bubba commercials.” she says.

Size: 20.5” x 21” x 12.5” | Presets: Toast, bagel, bake, roast, broil, pizza, cookies, proof, air fry, dehydrate, reheat, warm, slow cook

Food writer and editor Alyse Whitney has been using this Breville for the last four years (and used an older, similar model for eight years before that). It works as an air fryer, a countertop oven (Whitney says there’s truly nothing she makes in her regular oven that wouldn’t work in here), and a toaster. It’s big, so not everyone might have the counter space — but if you do, Whitney says she can’t recommend it enough, calling it her “ride-or-die appliance.”

She makes toast in it at least a few times a week and says her bread gets evenly browned when she tells the appliance there are two pieces inside instead of one so that it knows to heat a wider surface area. (It can, in fact, fit up to nine slices at a time.) There’s also a frozen button for bread straight from the freezer. The other functions get a lot of use, too. She uses the broiler for “instant cheese melting or to get the top of a dip browned a bubbly,” the reheat function for leftovers “without sacrificing texture,” the air fryer to circulate convection heat for crispy food (the fan isn’t loud, she says), and the pizza which ensures a frozen pie comes out “evenly golden” every time. She says the dial and scrolling mechanism to switch between settings is easy to use and that the removable tray at the bottom comes right out to rinse clean.