The Best Instant Pots and Pressure Cookers

This is the one to buy if you've never owned a pressure cooker. The Duo does the seven things people use — pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, rice, yogurt, keep warm — and it doesn't bury any of them behind a submenu. Instant Pot says it cooks up to 70% faster than slow cooking, and that's the part you'll feel on a Tuesday night. Beans, chili, and rice all land in the same pot.

The inner pot is 18/8 stainless with a tri-ply bottom, and that matters more than the function count. You can brown short ribs in it, scrape up the fond, then lock the lid and walk away. Nothing flakes off after two years the way a nonstick coating eventually does. Scrub it with steel wool or run it through the dishwasher; it doesn't need babying.

Reliability is the real argument here. Consumer Reports' owner survey found that fewer than 5% of Instant Pot owners ran into a problem within the first three years, the best predicted reliability in the electric pressure cooker category. The Duo is also the model most recipes are written against. So when a blog says eight minutes at high pressure with a ten-minute natural release, it means this pot.

Steam release is the part beginners dread, and the Duo handles it better than you'd expect. Wirecutter found its quick release quieter and more controlled than the Instant Pot Ultra's, with less splatter across the counter. You still get a startling hiss the first few times. But you're not standing there in an oven mitt, poking at the valve from arm's length with a wooden spoon.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The display is a small red LED readout, and it tells you almost nothing. There's no live pressure indicator, and the countdown doesn't start until the pot reaches pressure, so the first ten or fifteen minutes feel like nothing is happening. Something is happening. You just have to trust it.

The lid has nowhere to go. There's no hinge and no slot on the base to park it in, so it either balances on the rim or drips onto your counter. It's a small annoyance, but you'll meet it every single time you cook.

Everything good about the Duo carries over. Same 6-quart size, same 18/8 stainless pot with an anti-spin tri-ply base, same core programs. What changes is the screen. The Duo Plus puts cooking time, temperature, and pressure on a proper display instead of a bare red number, so you can tell at a glance whether the pot is still climbing to pressure or already counting down your recipe.

Sous vide is the addition you'll actually use. It holds a low water temperature steadily enough for chicken breasts, salmon, and steak you plan to sear afterward. It won't match a dedicated circulator for precision or capacity, and there's no circulation, so you'll want to give things room in the water. For an occasional weeknight steak, though, it saves you from buying another gadget.

The sterilize mode is quieter than it sounds but genuinely handy if you have a baby in the house or you can jam. It runs hot enough to sanitize bottles, pump parts, and jars without you boiling a stockpot. The detachable power cord is the other small mercy — you can coil it separately and slide the pot into a cabinet instead of wrestling a fixed cable.

This is the version to get if the Duo's stripped-down interface bothers you but the Pro feels like more machine than you need. You're paying a modest step up for legibility and two extra modes, not for a different cooking experience. The food comes out the same. Your relationship with the control panel gets noticeably better.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

The steam release is the same basic switch as the Duo's, which means the same abrupt hiss and the same fine mist of soup on your cabinets if you quick-release a full pot. Point it away from the wall and use a natural release for anything starchy.

There's no altitude adjustment. If you live above 3,000 feet, this pot will consistently under-cook beans and tough cuts unless you extend times yourself, and that means trial and error with every new recipe.

The steam release alone justifies the upgrade for a lot of people. Instead of a spring-loaded valve that goes off like a kettle, the Pro uses a gentle release switch with a diffusing cover, so the pressure bleeds out quietly and the spray stays contained. If your kitchen is open to a living room, or a sleeping toddler is twenty feet away, that difference is not subtle.

Altitude adjustment is the other reason. Water boils at a lower temperature as you climb, which means a standard high-pressure setting doesn't get as hot as it does at sea level. America's Test Kitchen found the Pro's altitude compensation essential above 3,000 feet, where uncompensated cookers reliably turn out beans that are still chalky and pot roast that hasn't given up. Denver, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City — this is your pot.

The small stuff adds up over a few hundred meals. Both the lid and the inner pot go in the dishwasher, so the worst cleanup job becomes someone else's problem. Instant Pot says it preheats about 20% faster than earlier models, which trims a few minutes off the dead time before the timer starts. And the 28 one-touch programs cover more of what you'd otherwise set by hand.

The cooking range widens too, with sous vide, bake, and sterilize joining the usual lineup. None of those turn the Pro into a specialist appliance. But if you'd rather not own a yogurt maker, a rice cooker, and a steamer basket you dig out twice a year, this consolidates the lot into one pot that lives on the counter.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It costs meaningfully more than the Duo, and the food it makes is the same food. If you pressure cook once a month and your kitchen is at sea level, you're paying for refinement you won't notice.

Twenty-eight programs is a lot of menu. Most of them are just time-and-pressure presets you could dial in yourself, and hunting for the right one can take longer than setting it manually.

The two-lid setup is less awkward than it sounds. You pressure cook with the sealing lid, swap in the air fryer lid, and crisp the same food in the same pot without moving anything. Barbecue chicken thighs go tender under pressure, then get sticky and browned under the fan. Carnitas work the same way. It's a genuinely different way to cook, not a checkbox.

The air fryer half is a real air fryer, not a token setting. Instant Pot's EvenCrisp system runs from 70 to 450 degrees and claims 95% less oil than deep frying, and it handles the standard weeknight lineup — frozen fries, wings, broccoli, salmon — without a separate machine on the counter. Roast, bake, and dehydrate come along too.

At 8 quarts, this is the batch-cooking size. That's a whole chicken with room to spare, a double batch of stock, or enough chili to freeze half. If you cook for six on Sunday and eat it through Wednesday, the extra capacity is the point. The inner pot is 18/8 stainless with a tri-ply bottom and silicone handles, and it's safe on the stovetop and in the oven.

You're trading counter space for versatility, and that's a fair trade only if you'd otherwise own two appliances. Someone who already has an air fryer they like should buy the Duo or the Pro and stop there. Someone starting from an empty counter in a small apartment gets a lot of range out of one plug.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

It's big. At more than 15 inches tall and over 22 pounds, it won't slide under standard upper cabinets, and moving it takes both hands. Measure before you buy.

The air fryer lid is heavy, hot after use, and has to go somewhere while you're pressure cooking. Most owners end up dedicating a shelf or a corner of the counter to it, which quietly claws back some of the space the combo was supposed to save.

The 8-quart size needs more liquid to reach pressure and takes longer to get there, so quick weeknight cooking for two feels slower than it would in a 6-quart pot.