The best toasters of 2025, tried and tested

CNN

6 days ago

The best toasters we tested
Best toaster: Breville 'A Bit More' 2-Slice Toaster
Best budget toaster: Cuisinart 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster CPT-122 Even as kitchen appliances get more advanced and further outfitted with modern tech, traditional slot toasters will never go out of style. They're tiny, reliable and — if we're being honest — the source of one of the most satisfying moments in the world of cooking. You know that click. When your toast pops up with a perfect golden tint, everything that hits your senses is a delight. Call me a purist, but no toaster oven or air fryer can scratch that same itch.
Already reaching for the butter and jam? You'll need a toaster that can consistently produce that crunchy crust to lather up. It should be able to handle other toasting tasks too, like frozen waffles, toaster pastries and chunky bagels. Luckily, I put seven different toasters through a series of trials using precisely those foods so you don't have to. Ultimately, two units delivered the results I wanted at a price that was hard to beat.
Breville 'A Bit More' 2-Slice Toaster
Key features that grant a sneak preview at your toast's progress and the option to add just "a bit more" time to reach your desired doneness make this stainless steel toaster a winner.
Cuisinart 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster CPT-122
What this model lacks in premium materials (it literally has "plastic" in its name) it makes up for with undeniable value as a fast-working master of the basics. While all the toasters I tested were adequate at browning bread to my liking, none of them packed as many useful features into an attractive package at a compelling price quite like Breville's 'A Bit More' 2-Slice Toaster. Its thoughtful design will be appreciated by those who want their toast to the perfect level of doneness, whatever that is according to their preferences.
Sure, it's not all that different from any other slot toaster — drop in your bread, push the lever, wait — but that's where the Breville gets interesting. A countdown bar ticks away as your toast cooks, letting you know when it's almost done. Feeling impatient? A 'lift and look' lever lets you take a peek at your toast without fully interrupting the cycle. Worried you're going to have to push it back down once done because your toast wasn't done? Just tap that 'a bit more' button to add some extra time.
The guts of the toaster get the job done too, of course. It doesn't overtoast bagels. It gave a crust to pastries while warming the filling within. On regular white bread, the medium setting led to a perfect gold every time. It took about two minutes and 30 seconds to get there, but only the Revolution R90, a digital toaster more than triple the price, worked significantly faster. As far as doneness, the difference was negligible.
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While testing this toaster, I couldn't help but think that serious toast enthusiasts devised its design. Unlike most slot toasters, the main interface is on the long side of the unit, so it sits horizontally on your counter instead of vertically. It's different, but it makes sense because it provides a larger surface for the buttons and settings you'll want to see every time you use it. Sure, the crumb tray (which has tall rails to prevent spillage) and the lever are moved to the sides instead of the front. But the former is one section you won't visit often, and the latter is something you can use without a direct view anyway.
Aside from a brief one-year warranty, the only other flaw on the Breville toaster is the clearance from the toasting slots to above the unit. When finished toast pops up, it doesn't leave a lot of room for you to grab it, even when you use the lever to push it up an extra smidge. You'll have to watch your fingers or consider picking up a pair of toast tongs to avoid burns.
Any modern kitchen won't need much adjusting to welcome the 'A Bit More' to its ranks, as its stainless steel finish matches the standard look for fridges and ovens. If the look and features have sold you but the two-slot sizing is coming up short, a long-slot version of the same toaster is just $10 more. It should fit longer styles of bread and four slices of your typical loaf.
Sure, it might cost, ahem, a bit more than what you'd find in the bargain bin, but getting this kind of precision and performance for making toast, all for less than $100, is a value that's hard to top.
The Cuisinart 2-Slice Compact Plastic Toaster shows it doesn't cost much to get good toast if that's all you're after. While it doesn't include all the bells and whistles of my top pick or far pricier options, it will deliver what you want out of it without breaking the bank.
Despite being priced at the bottom of my testing pool, the Cuisinart toaster produced results that ranked closer to the top. Though I found it to come on a bit strong when cooking a bagel or pastry at a medium setting — its bagel function doesn't decrease half of the heating coils like most toasters — it thawed and browned a frozen waffle to perfection in less than two minutes. It truly shined when tested on consecutive white bread toasts, finishing in give or take two minutes with proper crisping achieved.
Though the build on this plastic toaster is not as robust as others I tested, keep in mind that it's just a toaster. It doesn't need to be professional grade or boast designer looks. I ran it through a lot of toasting during testing, and I have even purchased one for my sister-in-law when she requested a toaster for Christmas. All reports have indicated it's holding up just fine, and any issues that do arise will be covered for now; Cuisinart backs this toaster with a three-year limited warranty.
So, who should buy this instead of the Breville? For starters, it's a compelling alternative to my top pick because it's less than half the price. That may be worth it for you without needing another reason, but if speed is important and looks are not, zero in on the Cuisinart because that's its specialty at its core. Also notable is that the four-slot version has separate levers for each side, allowing for different toasts at the same time. It, too, is super cheap.
Especially if you don't plan to tinker with settings or toast different varieties of bread, the 'lift and look' and 'a bit more' functions on the Breville are likely not worth the added cost. Just go with the Cuisinart, set it and forget it.
I blew past recommended carb intake levels by toasting white bread, frozen waffles, breakfast tarts and bagels to see how each toaster handled the different items. I defaulted to the medium setting on each unit — typically level 3 out of 6 or level 4 out of 7 — then adjusted from there depending on the initial results. I also made several sets of toast consecutively to see how residual heat from the previous session affected the next. Throughout it all, the following criteria guided my evaluations.
Toasting performance
Accurate browning: Whether you prefer a golden crisp or a borderline burnt charring, it's vital for a toaster to toast to the appropriate doneness based on your selected setting and preference. I noted which toasters had continuous toast settings or those that moved up in notches.
Consistency: What about when your family member wants to pop their bread into the toaster immediately after yours? I made back-to-back-to-back sets of toast to see how that carryover heat affected consistent results.
Options: Is there a frozen setting? What about bagels? The toasters that allowed users to really dial in on how they wanted their item toasted — to a degree more specific than just levels of brownness — gained standing in my rankings.
Speed: When you or your kid have a bus to catch, there's a big difference between a toaster that finishes its job in 90 seconds and another that takes three minutes. I timed my toasts to get a handle on which units still delivered acceptable results with speed.
Design
Slot size: Are the bread slots wide enough for a bagel? How about some brioche? I kept a close eye to see how thicker items fit into the toaster and if their edges got too close to the heating element.
Levers and toast retrieval: Nothing spoils the joy of freshly popped toast quite like burning your fingers trying to pick it up. I noted how much clearance there was from the top of the toaster to the top of any contents in the slots, accounting for the ability to further raise the bread with the toaster's lever.
Crumb tray and cleaning: Toasters can be crumb magnets, so I valued those that minimized the mess and made it easier to clean up. Placement and size of the crumb tray mattered, as did the exterior surface of the toaster.
Aesthetics: Every design choice in your kitchen contributes to the overall vibe, so I accounted for the visuals of each toaster. Did it look modern and sleek? Retro and charming? Cheap and tacky?
Value
Price: How much you plan to use a toaster will affect how you feel about its price. I put each model against its price tag to see if it provided adequate value.
Warranty: I compared the term and scope of each manufacturer's warranty.
Are two slots enough?
The volume of toast you make during a given session will provide your answer here. It's probably not wise to buy a two-slot toaster if breakfast in your home involves feeding lots of mouths. Though those compact models were the focus of our testing in this exercise, four-slot and long-slot toasters will usually double your toast output. The best four-slot toasters will allow the two halves of the toaster to work independently of each other. Many of the models I tested come in larger iterations that do just that.
But if you don't need extra toasting capacity, a two-slot toaster is a simple solution to making breakfast better. It doesn't take up as much space on your counter, there's less of it to clean and, as I showed with my tests of consecutive toasting, a good one will be able to handle a few servings of toast one after the other.
Do I need a toaster oven?
It can feel redundant to own both a slot toaster and a toaster oven. The latter can even overlap with an air fryer. And to have all three on your countertops? Enough.
While it's tempting to opt for a do-it-all appliance such as a toaster oven, I'd argue most of those can't match the convenience of a slot toaster, especially if you know you're going to be making toast frequently, being able to pop some bread into the toaster and have it easily accessible while, say, frying an egg or making coffee is well worth the investment (which, by the way, is usually less expensive with slot toasters).
How much is too much to spend on a toaster?
The next part of this article will unveil a $300 toaster. It might be hard to fathom ever spending that kind of money on slightly warming bread, but depending on how often you make toast and how important it is to your daily routines — you know what they say about the most important meal of the day — the value of a toaster varies by user. I don't make toast daily, but I come close to that frequency because I chef up more breakfast sandwiches than is good for my health.
But look the other way and you can see the benefit of a toaster at a tenth of the price, such as our budget pick from Cuisinart. It works. It isn't flashy. You won't feel like you have to use it because you shelled out big bucks for it. But when you do have a hankering for toast now and then, it will be there.
Revolution R90 Digital Toaster
The R90 ditches dials and knobs for a touchscreen interface that specifies what you're toasting and how brown you want it. It works well — if you want to pay for it. The Revolution R90 excels at making toast precisely how you want it. The touchscreen menu reveals six options — toaster pastries, English muffins, bread, bagels, waffles and Revolution's sandwich cooker, the Toastie Press — then seven levels of doneness. You can tip off the toaster that your contents are frozen or if they need a few more seconds to reach perfection, as with my top pick from Breville.
The results of my tests were largely elite. Though using the frozen function overcooked the waffle, the R90 lightly toasted the outside of the bagel while maintaining a doughy interior. When toasting white bread, this model produced the fastest and most consistent results. Every time, I had perfectly golden brown toast in a little more than 90 seconds. I'd be more than pleased with this kind of quality at an overpriced brunch, and if toast is a vital part of your breakfast habits, the R90 is worth consideration to bring that ability home.
Though the R90 fancifies one of the most basic kitchen appliances — it automatically lowers your bread without pushing a lever, and a chime replaces the coveted click of a traditional toaster popping up — it doesn't overthink all the basics. A convenient grip on the front helps when moving it back and forth from underneath your cabinets. Its matte black finish doesn't get as dirty as a chrome appliance, and its Amazon Echo-esque look blends right in because the screen turns off when not in use.
The only thing holding the R90 back from a higher spot in my rankings is its price. At $300, you could buy three of my top picks from Breville and still have cash left over. That cost doesn't include Revolution's Toastie Press sandwich cooker, which turns your toaster into a vertical panini press, though you can bundle it for $20 extra. Considering the R90 is Revolution's budget model and not quite a 'smart toaster' — the brand has two units priced higher, including the $400 R180 Connect Plus that features a digital picture frame and current weather conditions on the front — I would have liked to see this two-slot toaster a little more competitively priced.
Revolution's site argues the R90 makes toast more fun than ever before. I don't disagree, and if you're in that same camp, you'll love the R90. But your money will be better spent elsewhere if you're only looking for a toaster for its utility.
Smeg 2-Slice Toaster
If aesthetics are your No. 1 must-have, the retro vibes from this Smeg toaster are worth a long look. Hidden under its facade is terrific durability. If my inbox is any indication, toasters are one of the product categories CNN Underscored readers care a lot about. Before this round of testing, one reader implored me to try a toaster from Smeg because his had been toasting for eight years strong, making it the best he and his wife had owned in 49 years of marriage.
Could he have been a sleeper agent for the brand? Sure. But after including Smeg's two-slice toaster in this round of testing, I found no evidence that his claims were artificial. Though a dashing retro exterior may draw you in — I tested a beautiful matte black finish — the heavy, durable build is what won me over.
Toasting performance wasn't lacking either, as the Smeg granted plenty of clearance for retrieving toast and a 1-to-6 dial that clicks for every half step. Of course, you'll have to pay up for the entire package, making the Breville a better buy in my eyes.
Haden Bristol 2-Slice Toaster
Combining a matte putty finish with chrome accents, this toaster had a polished look without a preposterous price. Its performance wasn't too shabby either. If the Smeg toaster catches your eye but you can't bring yourself to spend that much, Haden's Bristol toaster is a handsome alternative. This model is a Williams Sonoma exclusive with a matte tan or putty color and chrome finishes. If I had one gripe with its design, I would've liked a bit more clearance for grabbing toast off the top of the unit.
The Bristol's toasting performance was largely positive. Though it vastly overcooked the toaster pastry on a medium setting, it nailed bread toasting in the same amount of time as my top pick. Consistency was its strongest quality, delivering nearly identical toasts no matter how quickly I started the next cycle after the last.
Oster 2-Slice Touchscreen Toaster
Slow toasting times and a touchscreen that wasn't easy to interact with pushed the Oster down in my rankings despite a few strong features. This affordable model from Oster has a touchscreen (like the $300 R90) and gives users the ability to peek at toast before it's done (like the $90 Breville). But I found some flaws in its toasting performance that were hard to overlook when considering the benefit of those features. It has only six heat settings and took longer to finish a medium-level toast than everything else in my product pool. It unevenly overcooked bagels, removing any semblance of chewiness.
Its touchscreen was also harder to view and use than the one on the R90, which is tilted up toward your face. The Oster screen, with blue letters on a black background, is flat, facing outward, which is kind of awkward.
Zwilling Enfinigy 2-Slice Toaster
A carryover from my own kitchen, this toaster is sturdy and reliable but doesn't do much to warrant a splurge. I had this toaster in my kitchen for more than three years, and it scores durability points for surviving the grind of heavy use. Its toasting performance gets the job done too, frequently handling all sorts of breads and bagels with satisfactory results. But its several flaws were enough evidence compared to the competition in my testing pool that I wouldn't buy the same toaster if it kicked the bucket tomorrow.
The Zwilling Enfinigy has a small crevice between its toaster slots and the rest of its exterior shell. It's where crumbs go to die, an impossible cavern that's such a pain to clean that I rarely do. Despite only being a two-slotter, this toaster has some serious heft too, at about 10 by 8 by 13 inches. It doesn't do much to justify costing more than both my overall winner and budget pick.
The following FAQs were answered by the author of this guide, CNN Underscored associate testing writer Joe Bloss.
Why does my new toaster smell?
Why does my new toaster smell?
Don't worry, as every toaster I tested produced a nasty burning smell the first time or two I used it. It's totally normal. What you're getting a whiff of is manufacturing oils and packaging debris burning within the toaster. It'll go away, and it's not dangerous.
Do I need a slot toaster if I have a toaster oven?
Do I need a slot toaster if I have a toaster oven?
I'd argue yes. A good toaster oven can whip up great toast, but a slot toaster delivers quick convenience that's hard to replicate, especially for a reasonable price. Even our favorite budget toaster oven, the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore Air Fryer Toaster Oven, is more expensive than my top slot toaster, the Breville 'A Bit More' 2-Slot Toaster.
CNN Underscored editors thoroughly test nearly all the products we cover and provide full transparency about how we test them. We have an experienced team of writers and editors with many years of testing experience who ensure each article is carefully edited and products are properly vetted. We talk to top experts when it makes sense to ensure we are testing each product accurately and speaking about the pros and cons of each.
For this article, associate testing writer Joe Bloss stuffed loads of bread, bagels, waffles and pastries into a variety of toasters to find the best options for your kitchen. Don't worry, these were grocery store bagels, not the real thing from a New York deli, which should never be toasted. Bloss is just as serious about his breakfast as he is about product testing. He's penned guides on the best food processors and French press coffee makers.