Best Toasters of 2025
Impressive performance and innovative features distinguish these top two- and four-slice models
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Despite all the accolades for countertop appliances that multitask, there’s something satisfying about a great toaster. It does one thing and does it really well, consistently serving up beautifully browned slices. Whether you’re making avocado toast, a PB&J, or a crispy-chewy bagel, a solid toaster is almost as important as the ingredients themselves.
That’s why we take our toaster testing seriously. You’ll see more than 40 brands in Consumer Reports’ toaster ratings, including Breville, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, and more.
While manufacturers tend to adhere to the tried-and-true toaster design, they have added a few new features along the way. The most basic toasters have a simple lever for lowering the bread and a dial for selecting the desired level of toasting. But more models today have touch controls, settings for specific types of bread, and even digital displays.
Kelly Moomey, Consumer Reports’ market analyst for small kitchen appliances, says features like those and the materials used in toaster construction can drive up the cost. The prices of toasters in Consumer Reports’ ratings range from $10 to more than $300.
But being feature-packed is one thing; performance is quite another. “A higher price doesn’t mean it toasts better, as proven by our testing,” Moomey says.
Of more than 100 toasters in our ratings, a majority earn top marks in our color range test—a measure of how well each toaster produces both very light and very dark toast—and our full batch test, which reflects an even level of toasting among all the slices in a batch. But just a third of the models excel at toasting one slice to the ideal shade of golden brown, and even fewer receive top marks across all three categories.
It’s worth noting that two brands, Breville and Cuisinart, dominate CR’s toaster ratings, with multiple two- and four-slice models from each brand vying for the top rankings. For that reason, and because models within each of these brands performed so similarly to one another, we’ve grouped them together in our listings. Below those two groups, we’ve included two- and four-slice toasters from several other brands that performed admirably in our tests.
CR members can go to our toaster ratings for a full breakdown of how each model we tested performed. For more information on features and brands, see our buying guide for toasters and toaster ovens.
Top Breville Toasters
The stylish Breville A Bit More BTA720XL, Breville A Bit More BTA730XL 4-Slice, Breville Die Cast Smart Toaster BTA820XL, and Breville Lift & Look Touch BTA630XL all have controls that are simple to set, along with a button labeled “A Bit More” that lets you add a little more time to your toasting. Slots on each model are wide enough to accommodate bagels. A frozen setting helps defrost those store-bought waffles and toaster strudels, thawing them first before toasting, and slide-out crumb trays eliminate the need for you to pick up your toaster for cleaning. The "smart" model here allows you to slowly lower your bread with the push of a button rather than requiring you to push down a lever. The Lift & Look model is a four-slice toaster with two 9.8-inch slots, meaning each slot can accommodate two standard slices of bread or a longer slice of artisan bread. A button on this model briefly lifts your bread so you can take a peek at it to make sure it’s browning as you’d expect.
Top Cuisinart Toasters
The Cuisinart CPT-520 2-Slice toaster allows you to customize your toast by selecting a specific type: white bread, pastry, whole wheat, waffle, or English muffin, for a toast job optimized for that specific texture. Plus, there are seven shade settings to choose from. The Cuisinart CPT-415 Countdown Metal 2-Slice and the similar Cuisinart CPT-435 Countdown Metal 4-Slice are also high scorers. All three models have a bagel setting that allows you to toast one side of the bagel more than the other, giving you a crispy bite on one side and a nice chew on the other. On the four-slice Cuisinart model, there’s one set of controls for two slices on one side and a separate set of controls for two slices on the other.
Top Toasters from Beautiful by Drew Barrymore and Hamilton Beach
Attractive, budget-friendly, and high-performing pretty much sums up the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore 19039 two-slice toaster. This lever-activated model excels at every toaster test we put it through, heating single slices and full batches to golden-brown perfection in very little time. Plus, it makes an audible beep to let you know when it’s done. It has seven browning shades and a separate setting for gluten-free bread.
You won’t be waiting long for your toast with the Hamilton Beach 24910 4-Slice toaster. It excelled in our toasting time test. In fact, it performed admirably in all of our tests. A high-lift toast boost feature means you won’t need to reach down into the slot to fish out smaller pieces of bread. This toaster is also one of the more cost-conscious ones among the four-slice models at the top of our ratings.
Do You Need a Toaster if You Have a Toaster Oven?
In many households, a toaster oven might be the hardest-working kitchen appliance on the countertop. But for those who love a perfectly crisped slice of bread, the traditional pop-up style toaster is still best.
Our tests have found that few toaster ovens excel at making perfectly browned toast. Plus, there’s the matter of timing: The pop-up toasters we’ve evaluated can crisp up two slices of bread quickly, while our top-rated toaster ovens can take several minutes to toast a slice.
Given those limitations, toast lovers should consider purchasing a dedicated toaster.
How CR Tests Toasters
Our test engineers toast hundreds of slices of bread to find the best and worst two-slice and four-slice models, scoring every slice against an industry-standard toast color chart established by the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. It has nine colors, ranging from very light to burnt.
While set to medium, each toaster is judged on how well it makes a single slice of toast and a full batch of either two or four slices, depending on the model. The best of these models delivers an evenly browned medium toast that matches the shade on the toast color chart. We also time how long it takes to achieve that perfectly toasted slice, with models that toast bread faster getting a higher score.
In addition to tests that help you determine the quality of your toast, we consider convenience factors, including how easy it is to use each toaster and how much effort is needed to clean it.
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