Bake, Air-Fry, Steam, Dehydrate, and Proof: Our 3 Favorite Smart Countertop Ovens Go Way Beyond Toast

In my house, the question is not whether our countertop oven is used every day but rather how many times. It’s the first thing I fire up in the morning for toast and the last thing to cool down after a post-dinner batch of cookies or midnight fries. In between, I turn to it for reheating leftovers, roasting veggies, slow-cooking meats, keeping dishes warm, and even drying bunches of herbs from my patio garden. It’s faster and more efficient than cooking with the “big oven” (as I call it) and helps keep the kitchen cool in the warm summer months. 

But with more must-have appliances vying for counter space than ever, it can feel like a major commitment to devote the room to an extra—albeit mini—oven. To find which countertop ovens were worthy of the spot, I tested seven models ranging from $300 to $1300. We’ve already covered toaster ovens and air fryer toaster ovens, so I focused on models that could do everything they could, plus incorporate smart features like app compatibility and extra cooking modes (think steaming, dehydrating, and bread proofing). My three favorites pulled double, triple, and even quadruple duty to make cooking easier and faster—and they replaced several other gadgets along the way.

The Tests

• Capacity Test: To determine if the ovens could be used with standard cookware, I individually placed an eighth sheet pan, quarter-sheet pan, pie pan, and 9- by 11-inch casserole dish into each oven and noted which ones fit.
• Single Slice of Toast Test: I toasted a slice of white bread in each oven to test how quick and easy it was to operate for a simple, everyday task. I used the oven’s toast mode if there was one. If there wasn’t, I found a recipe on the oven’s app for making toast or tried to use the closest equivalent cooking mode, like broil or convection bake.
• Toast Heatmap Test: I repeated the toast test, but this time, I used six slices of white bread set in a grid pattern to check for hot or cool spots. 
• Frozen Pizza Test: I baked a frozen pizza in each oven to evaluate if the pizza fit inside, how evenly it browned the crust, and how intuitive it was to operate. I used the oven’s app to find a frozen pizza quick-start recipe, scanned the pizza’s barcode for cooking instructions, or used the oven’s pizza mode, as applicable. I paid close attention to how well each model cooked the bottom of the pizza and marked down ovens that left the crust pale or doughy.
• App Recipe Test: For ovens that had apps, I found and made a recipe for salmon fillets using the app’s instructions. Where possible, I used the app to send instructions to the oven and control it during cooking.
• Roast Chicken Test (Winners Only): I roasted a chicken in each top-performing oven, using a recipe from the app if it had one.
• Cleaning and Usability Tests: Throughout testing, I noted how straightforward and intuitive each oven’s user interface and app was to operate. I also cleaned the ovens after each cooking test and noted any difficulties.

What We Learned

Apps Were Surprisingly Helpful

Applications for smart appliances have a reputation for being glitchy and unhelpful, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well many of the apps worked. It was nice when there was a collection of specialized, chef-tested recipes to explore, and the apps for the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro and Anova Precision Oven had particularly flushed-out libraries. The Tovala Smart Oven Pro’s app was also great. Although its recipes tended to be simpler, it could be used to scan or search Tovala’s list of preloadable grocery items for quick meals. The GE Profile Smart Oven’s app only had a small selection of 15 guided recipes, and it relied mostly on its AI-powered recipe generation feature, which felt cheap and unreliable. When I prompted it to create recipes for pork, almost none of the ones it gave me applied to the oven at all. Instead, it produced stovetop recipes for pan-seared chops, stir-fry, and soup complete with surreal, AI-generated cover photos. When I used its “Picture to Recipe” generator with a whole chicken, it gave me recipes for chicken nuggets (which, to be fair, was the right ingredient, but not in the spirit of what I was searching for). While good for a laugh, this was hardly a useful tool.

I appreciated when I could dial in on my ideal cooking modes, set timers, and toggle functions like the oven light or the convection fan directly from my phone. The Breville and Anova both provided that, as did the Tovala and the GE Profile. Except for the GE, their apps could even be used to set up multi-stage sequences that would automatically switch the oven’s cooking modes after the specified amount of time (for example, you could set it to convection bake a casserole for 30 minutes, then go straight into a minute of broiling to brown the top). The Anova app could even start the oven remotely, but I preferred the others that required me to press a button on the oven itself to avoid accidentally turning it on when I wasn’t home. 

Steam Was Nice, but Added Complexity

Three of the models in the lineup had steam-injection capabilities: the Anova, Tovala, and Fotile ChefCubii 4-in-1 Steam-Combi Oven. The Anova could be set anywhere from 0% to 100% relative humidity inside to achieve its sous vide mode, and it had a huge gallon-and-a-half reservoir on its side to support long steam sessions. The Fotile had a much smaller steam well (it only held a few cups) and could be switched between either 10% or 100% steam. The Tovala held a single cup at a time, and its steam setting wasn’t adjustable. Any steam option was a bonus, as it could help dishes cook quicker and more evenly, keep leftovers moist while reheating, and improve the rise of baked goods. But, as commerce editor Grace Kelly talked about when she reviewed the Anova Precision Oven, most of us don’t have experience with steam-injection baking, and there aren’t a lot of recipes out there since this kind of tech isn’t common in home appliances (not yet, at least). The Fotile didn’t have an app, but the recipes on the Anova and Tovala apps gave me a handy place to start while I got accustomed to the added capabilities. 

Some Models Offered More Convenience, While Others Provided Better Control

While testing, I mentally put each oven on a scale from “convenient” to “controllable.” On one end of the scale was the Tovala, which could apply instructions from scanned meal kits or packaged goods without requiring me to press any button except “Start.” The Brava Smart Oven was also on this side of things; I could pull a preset recipe up directly on its display screen, and it would lead me through each of the steps. On the other end was the Anova, which allowed me to toggle its sous vide mode on and off, select the temperature, set the percent of steam (down to the integer), choose which heating elements I wanted to turn on, and pick how fast I wanted the convection fan to run as well as add time or probe thermometer thresholds for each cooking stage. 

Having so much control over the Anova’s settings was exciting at first, but the process quickly became cumbersome. The oven didn’t have presets for things like toast; instead, it relied on its app to provide a shortcut in the form of a loadable recipe. During my tests, I started with two recipes I found on the app that utilized the Anova’s steam function, since that can help keep toast fluffy and soft inside, with a crisp exterior. Both recipes had three different heating stages and took more than six minutes to complete (versus three to five minutes for other models). The first recipe produced crisped but barely browned toast, and I had to stop the second one before it was done to avoid burning it. If I wanted to keep the framework of either recipe but adjust the cooking time for the type of bread I was using, I’d need to start over from scratch (since there wasn’t an option to add time or copy the recipes) and re-enter all of the settings for each step with my adjustments. 

Over time, cooking in the Anova would undoubtedly get easier as the user got acquainted with the oven’s settings and built up their library of custom recipes, but I found myself frustrated with the process it would take to get there. Ultimately, I found that countertop ovens that included general, convenient options (like a toast mode) were more adaptable and user-friendly. The Anova was better suited for bread bakers, who may be willing to trade off general usefulness in favor of ultra-specificity. 

A Bottom Heating Element Was Important

In a traditional oven, the heating element on the bottom of the oven usually does most of the work of maintaining the general temperature inside while baking, and the top heating element is reserved for broiling. A few of the models I tested flipped this concept around and mainly relied on their top burners (along with their convection fans) for heating. Namely, the Panasonic HomeCHEF 4-in-1 Multi-Oven, which didn’t have a bottom burner (since it was primarily a microwave). Toast had to be flipped to cook both sides, and the pizza I made was browned on top but completely uncooked and doughy underneath. The Anova had a bottom burner, but it was underpowered compared to the oven’s top and rear heating elements. It could only heat up to 356°F, versus their 482°F max. It was also hidden underneath the floor of the oven to provide indirect heat while proofing and dehydrating. Like the Panasonic, the Anova yielded toast that was pale on the bottom. Its pizza was deeply browned on top and around the sides, but the bottom stayed pale and soft even after I switched it to its bottom burner-only mode and let it cook for 15 more minutes. On the other hand, all three of my winners had capable bottom and top burners that produced much more even results.

Low Visibility Was a Disadvantage

I took points away for models that made it hard to see what was going on inside. Since a countertop oven is so small, it can lose a lot of heat whenever you have to open the door to check on the food. This can slow down cooking times and make the oven less efficient as it has to reheat to compensate. The Brava Smart Oven didn’t have a window in the door since it cooks using super bright lamps; instead, it had a camera inside the oven that projected a video feed to the oven’s display (and to its app). Unfortunately, the lights inside alternated and flashed so quickly that it was hard to get the whole picture from the small (and somewhat unclear) video. (Note: Brava does have a windowed Brava Glass model, but I didn't test it). The Panasonic did have a window, but it was so dark from its mesh patterning that it was difficult to see through. Many of the modes for the Panasonic were also designed to cook food on an elevated rack, which made it even harder to see the top where most of the browning took place.

The Criteria: What to Look for in a Countertop Oven

Countertop ovens are perhaps one of the most varied categories of kitchen appliances; each model I tested had a unique set of pros and cons. Most had features that set them apart from the rest, like the Anova’s built-out steaming capabilities, the Tovala’s convenient shortcuts, or the Panasonic’s dual purpose as a microwave. The best one for you comes down to how you like to cook, what capacity you need, and how much counter space you have. I appreciated when an oven could inject steam while baking, but it wasn’t a must-have. An effective bottom heating element, on the other hand, was essential to achieve even browning from top to bottom. My favorite countertop ovens were easy to check at a glance and had intuitive apps that let me monitor their status and set cooking modes from my phone. They balanced usability, giving me guided recipes and quick-start functions, with the ability to adjust their temperatures, convection fans, and heating sequences to fit my needs.

Our Favorite Countertop Ovens

The Best Countertop Oven

Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro

$550 $450 at Amazon $400 at Williams Sonoma $400 at Sur La Table

What we liked: The Breville did a lot, and it did it well. It offered all the functionality of a standard oven, and replaced a toaster, air fryer, proofer, slow cooker, and dehydrator—all in one handy machine. It had one of the largest capacities of the lineup and could fit up to a 13-inch pizza or 14-pound turkey. Its super convection mode helped get food extra crispy and cut down on cooking times. I also appreciated that it had buttons to remind me to rotate food while it was cooking, create favorite modes, and add “a bit more” time at the end of a session (instead of starting over with a new timer).

The Breville+ app was full of useful guides (like a step-by-step for cleaning the oven) and could be used to create custom cooking sequences with access to app-exclusive modes like bottom broil. It had a wide variety of recipes from well-established sources, including the Breville Test Kitchen, NYT Cooking, and even some from Serious Eats (although I didn’t know about those until I started testing, and they weren’t a contributing factor to my ranking of the oven overall). The recipes were thoughtfully designed with helpful videos and simplified screens for individual steps. I loved the app’s Autopilot feature, which automatically shifted the oven from one stage to the next according to the recipe.

What we didn’t like: It didn’t have the most even browning in the toast heatmap test. The bread nearer to the oven's back center got deeply browned, while the slices in front and to either side stayed pale. This unevenness was less evident in the other tests, though. The oven’s racks could be positioned in eight different ways, and it was easy for me to forget to reposition them as directed by the oven’s display (which could feel cluttered with info) before I started to cook. None of the ovens I tested were necessarily easy to clean. Still, it was tough to wipe around the Breville’s delicate quartz heating elements that ran along its top and bottom (which the user manual instructs users to avoid touching) and the deep ridges where the oven racks slid in. It’s also fairly pricey.

Key Specs

• Dimensions: 21.25 x 15.75 x 12.75 inches
• Cord length: 57 inches
• Interface: Manual, with three dials for adjusting mode, temperature, and time, and buttons for start/stop, oven light, convection fan, adding “a bit more” time, and cooking from frozen
• Functions: Toast, bagel, bake (convection, super convection, or conventional), air fry, broil, roast, pizza, cookies, proof, reheat, slow cook, keep warm, dehydrate
• App: The Breville+ app has exclusive cooking functions (like Bottom Broil) and a wide selection of step-by-step chef-tested recipes. It can be used to send instructions to the oven, but the user must press a button on the oven for it to begin heating (it won’t start remotely). It also has a collection of Autopilot recipes, which, once started, will automatically guide the oven through multiple stages of pre-programmed functions.
• Temperature range: 120°F to 480°F
• What’s included: Crumb tray, 13-inch nonstick pizza pan, two reversible wire racks, 9- by 13-inch broiling rack and roasting pan, and an air frying/dehydrating wire mesh basket
• Care instructions: Unplug the oven and let it cool completely before cleaning. Wipe the exterior and interior with a soft cloth dampened with a mild cleaning solution. Glass cleaner or a mild detergent can be used to clean the oven door. Avoid touching the quartz heating elements when cleaning the inside of the oven.
  

Another Fantastic Countertop Oven

GE Profile UltraFast Smart Air Fry Oven

$449 $300 at Amazon $24 at Walmart $449 at Target

What we liked: The GE oven had impressively even cooking all around. The toast in the heatmap test was perfectly golden all the way across, and the pizza was crisped on the bottom and browned on top. It was intuitive to operate via the touchscreen interface and through its SmartHQ app. The GE Profile was the most effective model at incorporating its preheat cycle into the cooking time and required no adjustments when I jumped into baking. It was a little smaller than the Breville, but it still easily fit a quarter-sheet pan and casserole dish. It was also about $200 less than the Breville at the time of writing.

What we didn’t like: This model’s door opened by flipping up and over the oven with a click of a button (kind of like gull-wing doors on a fancy car). While it was a snazzy detail, it did make it a bit harder to clean. It also had suspended heating elements similar to the Breville, which required extra attention to avoid touching while wiping out the oven’s interior. Its touch panel was responsive but could lag a little if it got greasy or dirty. The oven’s interface had no option for selecting odd numbers of bread slices for the toast function, so there wasn’t a way to set the oven for just one piece (the app did add options for three or five slices but still had no option for a single piece). Its app was convenient for setting up cooking functions, but it had a limited selection of “real” recipes. Instead, it had AI-generated recipes that weren’t very reliable.

Key Specs

• Dimensions: 17 x 18.25 x 11.25 inches
• Cord length: 40 inches
• Interface: Digital touchscreen panel
• Functions: Warm, toast, broil, pizza, pastry, remote, reheat, bagel, roast, cookies, bake, air fry
  
• App: The SmartHQ app can set up the cooking mode and send it remotely to the oven, although the user must press start on the oven to begin cooking. It can also use AI to generate recipes based on written or photo prompts, but the recipes aren’t created specifically for the oven (and aren’t tested).
• Temperature range: 170°F to 500°F
• What’s included: Crumb tray, wire rack, baking pan with a rack insert, and an air fryer basket
• Care instructions: Unplug the oven and let it cool completely before cleaning. Clean the exterior and interior with a sponge or soft cloth dampened with soapy water. Do not use abrasive or aggressive cleaning materials or detergents. Do not attempt to clean the heating elements. The included baking pan is dishwasher-safe.
  

The Best Countertop Oven for Convenience

Tovala Smart Oven Pro

$390 at Amazon View on Tovala.com

What we liked: The Tovala countertop oven was the MVP for effortless meals. It stood apart from the rest with its ability to automatically load cooking instructions from an item’s packaging, either from a phone or via a scanner on the oven itself. It supported over a thousand grocery store brands, plus offered a rotating menu of QR-coded meal kits for even more ease. Its app was simple to use and could remotely send cooking instructions to the oven. It had a library of straightforward recipes that included a nice mix of basic sides and proteins as well as more intricate dishes, like Creamy Braised Chicken Thighs and Vegetables or Pepper Jelly-Glazed Halibut with Roasted Lemon Asparagus.

It wasn’t just for convenience foods, though; it also had standard cooking modes (like convection bake and broil) for traditional recipes. It was the only one of my top picks to include steam functionality, which could be used as a single-stage cooking method or would run automatically during the preprogrammed toast and reheat modes to keep food moist while cooking.

What we didn’t like: It was the most compact oven I tested. That meant it took up less counter space, but its diminished capacity made it better suited for one- or two-person households and busy parents who want to cook quick kids’ meals and snacks. A quarter-sheet pan was just slightly too long to sit flat on the oven’s rack, and the crusts of the 12-inch pizza I cooked were pressed against the door and back wall of the oven. 

During testing, I saw that the Tovala tended to cook hotter toward the back of the oven, so turning things halfway through cooking was necessary to achieve even browning. Since the automated toast, reheat, and preset recipe modes cycled through preset steaming, baking, and broiling stages, I could only make adjustments (say, if I wanted the toast a little darker) by starting the whole process over again, creating a custom recipe in the app, or switching to a single-stage mode (like bake or broil). I also had to check on food more often during those automated modes—especially when they included stages of broiling for several minutes—to ensure it didn’t burn or smoke. Lastly, the steaming reservoir only held a cup of water at a time, so it would need to be refilled for long steam cooks.

Key Specs

• Dimensions: 18.25 x 11.75 x 12 inches
• Cord length: 39 inches
• Interface: Manual, with three sections of push-buttons for cooking mode, temperature, and time, plus start and stop buttons
• Functions: Scan (automatically loads cooking instructions from QR codes on Tovala meal kits or barcodes on over a thousand convenience grocery items), bake/air fry, broil, reheat, steam, toast
• App: The Tovala app allows user to manage their meal kit subscriptions, scan or search compatible grocery items, access a library of preset recipes, or create custom recipes and cooking sequences. The app can communicate cooking instructions to the oven, but the user must physically press the start button on the oven for it to begin (it cannot be started remotely).
• Temperature range: 225°F to 450°F
• What’s included: Drip tray, oven rack, crumb tray, air fryer basket, sheet tray, and an oven mitt
• Care instructions: Unplug the oven and let it cool completely before cleaning. After each use, clean the interior and exterior with a soft cloth dampened with mild soap and water. Do not use oven cleaner or scouring pads. The included sheet tray is dishwasher-safe. Drain the water from the steam reservoir if the oven is not used for two days or more.

The Competition

Also Good

• Anova Precision Oven: We’ve tested this oven before and liked it for its complete feature set, which included a unique steam-based bagless “sous vide” mode. For a home appliance, it was exceptionally controllable: I could adjust which heating elements turned on, how strong the convection fan was, and tinker with the steam level down to single percentage points. The connected app helped teach me how to use the oven, but it took a lot of fiddling to achieve my desired results, whether I started with a preset recipe or not. I found the Anova to be pricey, less intuitive, and not as general-purpose as my top picks, but it may be a good option for someone who likes all the control and doesn’t mind enduring some trial and error to dial in on their perfect settings. It was the largest model of the lineup by far (with the capacity to match) and covered just over three square feet of counter space.

Not Recommended

• Brava Smart Oven: This model used bright, flashing lights to cook food and could be set to heat three individual zones separately but simultaneously. It was a cool technology, but the price of the Brava exceeded the cost of many full-sized electric oven ranges. It had a small capacity and fussy requirements, like making sure ingredients were all about the same height and weren’t too sparse or crowded in their zones. The Brava accessories slid directly into notches in the oven’s walls (and the oven didn’t include racks), so it wasn’t easy to use non-Brava cookware.
• Panasonic HomeCHEF 4-in-1 Multi-Oven: The Panasonic was a microwave with a broiler and convection fan. It rotated the food on its turntable while cooking, which helped toast the top of bread and pizza evenly, but it left the undersides completely uncooked since it lacked a bottom heating element. Also, the air fry mode only had one setting; it wasn’t clear what temperature it was set to, and it couldn’t be changed to suit specific recipes.
• Fotile ChefCubii 4-in-1 Steam-Combi Oven: This app-less model had really even browning, but its cooking modes were confusing and hard to differentiate. It required preheating, ran its convection fan, and emitted some steam whether I chose “Broil” or “True Convection.” Its temperature could only be set at predetermined steps in Fahrenheit (based on increments of 5°C), so if I wanted to bake at 350°F or 400°F, I had to put it at 356°F or 401°F (a minor complaint, but annoying nonetheless). Lastly, it took over 15 minutes to preheat to 401°F, three minutes longer than my standard range oven.

FAQs

How do you clean a countertop oven?

Cleaning a countertop oven is the same as cleaning a toaster oven; luckily, we have a guide for that. Most countertop oven manufacturers suggest letting the oven cool completely and unplugging it before wiping down the interior and exterior of the oven with a soft cloth or sponge dampened with warm water and mild soap. Doing this regularly (after every use, if you can) will help clear off crumbs, splatters, and greasy films before they bake on and stain. If your oven does accumulate some hard-to-remove gunk (it happens to the best of us), gently scrubbing with some baking soda, Bar Keeper’s Friend, or a Magic Eraser can help; just make sure to spot-test new cleaners before using them all over.  Most ovens also have a crumb tray, which can be removed and cleaned separately.

What can you cook in a countertop oven?

A great countertop oven can do basically everything a standard oven can do on a smaller scale. Our favorite ovens can bake, roast, and broil, and can be used as an air fryer, toaster, dehydrator, and dough proofer. Some—like our convenience pick, the Tovala Smart Oven Pro—can even inject steam to keep foods moist as they cook.

Can a countertop oven replace a regular oven?

Sure! If you have a nontraditional kitchen or just need another cooking zone, a countertop oven can do most of the same things as a regular oven. Just be mindful of the capacity you need. Some countertop ovens can fit standard casserole dishes and quarter-sheet pans, but not all. None of the models we tested could fit something as large as a half-sheet pan.

Is a countertop oven worth it?

It comes down to your budget and how you usually like to cook, but we loved our three favorite countertop ovens for their ability to bake, toast, air fry, broil, reheat, and more, all in one machine. They’re more efficient than heating a full-sized range oven, and they’re faster, too.

What are the “smart” features of a countertop oven?

A countertop oven's smart features can include steam injection, an integrated temperature probe, and the ability to scan grocery items for quick cooking instructions. The most common attribute of a smart oven, though, is an integrated phone app. These apps are often filled with helpful resources, like step-by-step recipes, notifications that alert you when the oven is preheated or done cooking, and remote control for multi-stage processes.

What’s the difference between a toaster oven, an air fryer toaster oven, and a countertop oven?

Countertop ovens are precisely what they sound like—small ovens that can sit on your countertop. Toaster ovens are a type of countertop oven primarily geared for making toast (hence the name). Air fryer toaster ovens incorporate a strong convection fan to emulate an air fryer. General-purpose countertop ovens can include toast and air fryer functionality and other capabilities like app-controlled cooking, dehydrating, broiling, proofing, or steam injection.

Is there a countertop oven big enough to cook a turkey?

Many countertop ovens have plenty of room for a turkey breast; a few could even fit the whole bird inside. For example, the Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro states that it can cook a turkey up to 14 pounds. However, we’d recommend measuring the inside of your specific oven and checking its user manual for weight and capacity limits before committing to cooking the star of Thanksgiving.

Why We’re the Experts

• Ashlee Redger is a freelance food writer who has been reviewing equipment for Serious Eats since 2022. She has interned at America’s Test Kitchen, created consumer products and restaurant menus, and developed hundreds of recipes for home cooks.
• Ashlee has written many reviews for Serious Eats, including boning knives and portable induction cooktops.
• To find our favorite countertop ovens, she used seven models to do everyday tasks, including toasting bread, preparing a frozen pizza, and roasting a whole chicken.
• We’ve previously evaluated toaster ovens and air fryer toaster ovens. For this lineup, we focused on ovens that go beyond toasting and air frying by incorporating smart features like steam injection and app-driven controls.