Mornings move fast, and no one wants to wait for their turn at the toaster. While our guide to the best toasters covers everyday options, a four-slice model is ideal for families, roommates, or anyone who loves a good BLT night.
To find the best 4-slice toasters, I toasted 120 slices of bread, 72 waffles, and 54 bagels. The Cuisinart CPT-640P1 4-Slice earned the top spot for its consistent results, intuitive controls, and smart settings. For a more affordable pick, the Hamilton Beach Classic 4-Slice delivers solid performance for about $30 less, though it’s not quite as user-friendly.
Top picks for the best four-slice toasters
Best overall: Cuisinart 4-Slice – See at Amazon
Best budget: Hamilton Beach Classic 4-Slice – See at Amazon
Best design: Smeg 4×4 4-Slice – See at Williams Sonoma
Best wide-slot: Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice – See at Williams Sonoma
Best long-slot: Breville “A Bit More” Long Slot – See at Amazon
Best overall
Cuisinart toasters outperformed all other brands. We tested two Cuisinart toasters for this guide, and they finished in first and second place in our testing. The Cuisinart 4-Slice Custom Select Toaster (model CPT-640P1) got the overall best four-slice toaster nod because it excelled at toasting bread quickly, evenly browned, and perfectly shaded. A light shading only took a minute, while the darkest shade was ready in three.
Toasts evenly with quick, precise results. The Cuisinart Custom browned bagels and waffles well on the low and medium settings, but it struggled to produce a dark color on high. No problem: just put the bagels and waffles in for a few minutes longer if you want them as dark as a moonless night.
Simple controls with useful specialty settings. The controls are basic and easy to use, even with rare features like English muffin and pastry settings. It also has separate waffle and defrost settings, though we didn’t notice a difference in performance when using these functions together versus separately when toasting waffles.
Minor flaws, but not dealbreakers. While it’s the best four-slice toaster we’ve tested, the Cuisinart isn’t perfect. After putting bagels in the wrong direction several times, we discovered that the Cuisinart toasts bagels better when facing outward instead of toward the middle. Additionally, the left toaster lever didn’t stay down easily. It usually took multiple tries. Lastly, the crumb tray is only accessible from the back, so you may have to pull it away from the wall to clean it.
Best budget
A cheap 4-slice model with a good number of trade-offs. Of the best 4-slice toasters we tested in the $50 or less range, the Hamilton Beach Classic 4 Slice Toaster was the best, but the budget category wasn’t too impressive overall. We recommend going with one of the best toasters with two slots instead for a value pick.
Toasts bread well but unevenly. First, the good: the Hamilton Beach Classic was among the best at toasting bread, especially on the lower settings. While it was fast and roughly averaged out to the target shading, the resulting toast was uneven.
Bagels and waffles need higher settings. The speed was there again with bagels and waffles, but they came out underdone, suggesting you should go up a shade or two to get your desired color. The waffles were uneven on each test, while the bagels were more uniform.
Controls are confusing but usable. The Hamilton Beach toaster has buttons for one slice, bagels, and defrost. However, the shade dial was confusing. You can choose on a scale from a black bread slice to a white bread slice. Maybe, it’s my neurodivergent side coming through, but it wasn’t intuitive to me that the white bread slice was the darkest shade.
Good value despite minor quirks. Also, the bagels face outward, but, fortunately, there are little icons to clue you in. Lastly, thicker bagels don’t fit in easily. We had to push them down to get them to toast. Ultimately, we think these minor negatives are easy to look past at this price point.
Best design
The Smeg 4×4 4-Slice Toaster was clearly the best-looking toaster we tested, though its browning performance was just average.
A toaster that commands attention. I’m one of those annoying people who like to post food photos on social media. One morning, I was particularly proud of a bagel breakfast sandwich I made. I inadvertently included the pink Smeg 4×4 4-Slice Toaster in the background, and people went nuts. Forget the sandwich, they wanted to know where to get the toaster. The $280 price tag will be a dealbreaker for most people, but if you want a retro piece available in eight colors to make your kitchen Instagram-worthy, this is the best 4-slice toaster for design lovers.
Weak bread performance, better with bagels and waffles. The Smeg was almost eliminated after our initial round of bread toasting; it performed among the worst, toasting slowly and unevenly. However, it did much better with bagels and waffles, toasting faster and more evenly. Overall, the shadings were a little lighter than the setting would suggest.
Elegant details elevate the user experience. We liked the little luxury touches, like the stainless-steel lever that feels nice to press down. You press the back-access crumb tray in, and it pops out. The cord wraps around the base for easy storage.
Confusing icons and unclear bagel orientation. Yet, it wasn’t all roses. Bagels face outwards when toasting, which is fine, except nothing indicates that’s the case. We learned through trial and error. The icon for bagels was hard to read: the flat thing with heat waves coming off it looked more like stinky pancakes than bagels.
Best long-slot
The Breville “A Bit More” Long Slot Toaster is a modern and thoughtfully designed, high-performance appliance with easy cleanup and user-friendly controls.
Not technically a four-slice toaster. Long-slot toasters typically only have two slots. That said, they can usually fit four slices at a time, making for a more compact option if you’re toasting for a crowd. The Breville “A Bit More” Long Slot Toaster took the top spot in our guide to the best long-slot toasters.
Excels at evenly toasting bread and bagels. The Breville “A Bit More” Long Slot Toaster combines sleek aesthetics with performance. The brushed stainless steel exterior exudes charm. The intuitive controls feature clearly labeled LED-lit buttons. A progress light above the browning switch lets you know precisely where your bready goodness is in the toasting process.
“A Bit More” button fine-tunes browning. This toaster shined in the bagel and bread toasting tests. In our long-slot tests, we used frozen bread, and the “frozen” setting on the Breville produced even browning. Tobin particularly liked the “A Bit More” button, which allows users to extend the toasting cycle.
High Lift and “Lift and Look” add safety and control. Another convenient feature is the High Lift lever, safely elevating toast from the heat source to protect your fingers. “Lift and Look” allows for mid-toast peaks at your bread without interrupting the cycle. Lastly, the crumb tray is easily accessible, discreet, and great at catching seeds and crumbs.
Ideal for long or standard slices alike. This is the best four-slice toaster if you’re looking for one that can handle both long slices of artisan bread and four slices of reasonably sized delights.
Best wide-slot
This 4-slice toaster produces near-perfect toast, is solidly made, and offers dual controls so you can toast on two different settings at once.
A beast of a toaster with automation. All of the cool features of our favorite long-slot toaster are available in the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Toaster. The main differences are this toaster costs twice as much and has four wide, not long, slots. It has the same “Lift and Look,” LED progress tracking, and “A Bit More” elements; plus, you can toast two sets of bread separately. The toaster automatically lowers the bread with the press of a button; no lever to fuss with.
Outstanding bagel performance with perfect browning. If we had a category devoted to the best 4-slice toaster for bagels, the Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Toaster would win by a landslide. It toasted quickly and evenly, nailing the shading in our tests. The bagels fit in an intuitive fashion. Unfortunately, the performance was less impressive with bread and waffles. The bread was pretty even and the right shade on the lower settings, but it made the kitchen smoke on high. Waffles were undercooked, uneven, and slow, even with the “frozen” setting engaged.
Easy to use, clean, and ideal for bagel fans. That said, this was the easiest toaster to use and clean. The buttons are intuitive, and the crumb tray is accessible from the front for easy emptying. We strongly recommend this one to families of bagel lovers.
What to look for in a four-slice toaster
Four-slice toasters are ideal for homes or offices where several people might be toasting at once. Our testing found that the cheapest ones don’t perform as well as the mid-range models, and the most expensive ones aren’t necessarily worth the price. Here are some other factors to consider when shopping for the best four-slice toaster:
Slot sizes: Your favorite toasted products should guide you when choosing the ideal slot sizes for your toaster. For example, go with a long-slot toaster if you like artisanal bread with long slices. Wider slots are ideal if you love those burly New York bagels. Most units can handle your typical sandwich bread or frozen waffle.
Ease of use: Look closely at the toaster’s controls on the product page or in-store. Make sure you can easily decipher the settings. For instance, if you love bagels, can you easily tell which buttons to press to achieve your ideal bagel shade? If you can’t easily tell, you may get frustrated using it. Toasters must also be effortless to clean. Look for models with easily accessible crumb trays. Lastly, if you don’t have counter space for your toaster, choose a model with cord storage and a lightweight design.
Settings: Several shade options are a must, as well as bagel and defrost settings. Other features may be nice, but generally aren’t necessary. For instance, the Breville models we tested allow you to add “a bit more” time to the toasting cycle. While highly convenient, this benefit may not be worth the added cost over our top pick.
Performance: A toaster should toast evenly and quickly and achieve the browning level you indicate on the shading dial. You can’t gauge this by simply looking at the appliance. Fortunately, our reviews give you the details. See the next section for how we test performance and more.
How we tested four-slice toasters
We chose 10 of the best four-slice toasters on the market to test for our guide. Here are the tests we put them through.
Bread: In each toaster, we toasted four slices of sandwich bread on low, medium, and high. We timed how long the toasters took and evaluated how close the average shade was to what was expected and how evenly they toasted.
Bagels: Using four bagel halves, we performed the tests again on low, medium, and high with the bagel setting engaged. Similarly, we timed how long it took and assessed the evenness and shading. We eliminated the three models that did the worst.
Frozen waffles: Using frozen Eggo waffles, we put the remaining six toasters through the same tests above with the defrost or waffle setting. Again, we evaluated speed, evenness, and shading.
Ease of use: While performing the tests above, we paid close attention to what made each unit easy or hard to use. For example, toasters lost points if we struggled to get the lever to stay down. We considered toasters “hard to use” if they required bagels to be positioned counterintuitively (facing outward.) Functions needed to be effortless to decipher and use.
Design and storage: We noted when toasters had trouble fitting bagels and other practical design issues. We also ranked the six finalists by how attractive they were. The Smeg won by a landslide. You’ll likely want to store your toaster if you have limited counter space. We looked at how heavy and large each toaster was and if they had easy cord storage.
Cleaning: We cleaned the toasters after each testing round and noted what made them hard or easy to clean. We assessed how accessible the crumb trays were. Bonus points were awarded if we could access the crumb tray from the front.
Four-slice toasters FAQs
How do toasters work?
The red glowing coils inside a toaster produce infrared radiation, which dries and chars the surface of the item you’re toasting. When you press the lever down, a timer starts based on the shade you select. Once the time is up, the toast pops up. Contrary to popular belief, the shade numbers do not correspond to the minutes the toaster will toast.
How long do toasters last?
While most modern toasters have a warranty of just a year, they should last between 5 and 10 years. To lengthen the life of your toaster, you should clean it regularly. For how to do that, check out our article on how to clean a toaster.
Are expensive four-slice toasters worth it?
It depends on what you’re looking for. You’ll likely need to splurge on a pricier model if you’re after fancy features and designs. A cheaper model will work fine if you just want a good workhorse, though we’ve found the cheapest toasters just don’t pass muster when it comes to toasting evenly and accurately.
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