Which Instant Pot should you buy? Here's a breakdown.

This is the model that caused the Black Friday stampede. The 7-in-1 Duo is a cult favorite and one of Instant Pot's all-time best sellers. Though its "successor," the Instant Pot Duo Nova, comes with an extra safety feature and cooler screen, anyone who prefers a more straightforward approach may prefer the classic Duo.

The loyalty to the Duo lies in its combination of function, simplicity, and price. It's a slight step up from the 6-in-1 Lux function-wise, adding the yogurt-making function. (Now that the Lux has been discontinued, it's technically now the cheapest Instant Pot.) Since the birth of the Duo Nova, the six-quart Duo's retail price of $99.95 is almost always slashed to $79.95 or less. $79.95 was the original price of the six-quart Lux, so that's essentially getting the yogurt-making function for free. Other distinctions from the bare-bones Lux include the ability to switch between high- and low-pressure cooking.

Read our full review of the Instant Pot Pro Plus.

The newest Instant Pot isn't the most expensive or fanciest in terms of how many appliances it can replace (though only the Pro Crisp beats it), but it is the smartest. The "plus" in Pro Plus refers to its wireless connectivity to the Instant Brands app, which holds over 800 Instant Pot-specific recipes that the Pro Plus already has memorized. Guided instructions on the app tell you when to stir, 

Of all the things you can do from your phone, the remote steam release is the most clutch. While the other pots require you to be present to hit the steam release button, the Pro Plus can be vented through the app. Food can be fully ready to serve upon your arrival.

The Ninja Foodi is shaking, honey. What was previously its advantage over any Instant Pot — a single lid used for pressure cooking and air frying — is no longer with Instant Brands' summer 2022 introduction of the Ultimate Lid. The pot itself features a redesigned display with a combination of a dial and touch screen buttons, including one for bread proofing. The only other Instant Brands proofer is the Precision Dutch Oven, which doesn't pressure cook.

The new 2-in-1 lid comes with the upgraded version of the Duo Crisp, which is significantly shorter than the swirly, funnel-shaped air fryer lid included with the old Duo Crisp when closed. Frustratingly, Instant Brands didn't hop on the most obvious way to one up the Foodi: making the Ultimate Lid completely removable. It hinges and requires space above the counter to flip upwards.

Instant Pot dropped a juicier version of the Duo Crisp amid holiday shopping madness in November 2020. The sophisticated chrome charcoal exterior is home to new additions like side handles, a safer lid, a stovetop-friendly pot insert, and a thermometer that hits 450 degrees — a temperature jump perfect for air-fried steak.

Like the Ninja Foodi, the Pro Crisp comes with two interchangeable lids. (The regular Instant Pot Pro is the same thing, sans the crisping lid.) One transforms the pressure cooker (among other things) into an air fryer, with one lid dedicated to EvenCrisp technology. Unlike the Ninja Foodi, the crisping lid is completely detachable. The Pro Crisp covers 11 functions total, with lid-specific functions lined up on the same side.

After a rather undercooked release of the Instant Vortex and Vortex Plus, the Duo Crisp came out as Instant Pot's first true pressure cooker and air fryer combination. The Pro Crisp shows it up function-wise, but for $100 less, the Duo Crisp covers a lot.

The convenience of not having to switch appliances to complete multiple steps in a recipe can't be overstated. A blogger at The Salted Pepper mentions how easy the Duo Crisp made a ribs recipe: The pressure cooking lid can be used to speed up the thawing and thorough cooking of frozen meat, and a simple lid swap lets you air fry in the same pot.

The mere existence of the regular Instant Pot Pro alongside the Pro Crisp and Pro Plus feels muddled, but it's really quite simple: The Pro skips the air-frying lid and WiFi connectivity to offer 10 of Instant Pot's most useful functions without going over the $150 mark. If you opt for the 6-quart, the Pro is almost always on sale between $129.95 and $109.95 — the obvious champ over the older but still similarly-priced Ultra or Duo Plus.

The classic, but make it even better: The other #1 best-seller in the fam, the Duo Plus, has undergone a drastic makeover. Between the touchscreen display, newly-added dial, and modern dark gray rubber details instead of black, it doesn't even look like the same cooker.

What doesn't look super different is the price. An overwhelming list of upgrades only pushes MSRP about $20 or $30 above the old Plus, depending on whether there's a sale or not.The new Plus series keeps the cake feature that the Duo doesn't have and replaces the egg cooker with sous vide.

One of Instant Pot's most highly-awaited and talked-about releases, the Instant Pot Max was in a league of its own when it came out in fall 2018. Its major upgrades include two new appliance functions: sous vide and pressure canning, along with the expected functions of its predecessors (officially a 12-in-1 cooker.) The Max also uses NutriBoost technology, which uses a boiling motion to supposedly add nutrition and flavor to soups and broths. (We're skeptical about the nutrition claim, but that's not likely to be your reason for buying, anyway.)

Let's focus on something positive: It'll look hot sitting on your counter. Like the Ultra, it features a sleek LCD screen with functions on the screen rather than on buttons along the outside. Unlike the Ultra, it's the first Instant Pot with a touchscreen, offering seamless controlling and a futuristic look.

Experienced cook and second-time Instant Pot buyers like that the Ultra allows for more precision and experimenting instead of being locked into the built-in settings. (PSA: There is no Ultra Pro. Just the Ultra. This is it.)

The dial and an upgrade from buttons to touch screen-like buttons let it blend seamlessly with a kitchen full of modern appliances. But the update that you should really care about lies in the bottom right corner of the display: the Ultra button. With it, nit-picky foodies can tamper with every part of the cooking process from pressure level, to temperature, to time settings. Once you find a combination that renders your desired results, the program can remember those custom settings for next time. 

From dough proofing to searing, the new Instant Precision Dutch Oven simplifies intricate recipes that typically require a careful eye. It can hold 77 degrees for hours (a cool environment preferred for yeasted bread that's lower than many traditional ovens go) or spike the temperature on command for searing. 

This Instant Brands cooker isn't going for "fast" — it's going for "right." The cast iron inner pot is ideal for low, slow cooking compared to the stainless steel inserts in the pressure cooking Instant Pots, and the colorful outer shell is kind of giving Le Creuset. Its ovular shape is optimized for roasts and flat dishes.

Rice is one of the easiest side dishes to pair with a meal and, coincidentally, one of the easiest dishes to screw up. The Instant Pot Zest could save you from a lot of overcorrections to sticky rice, as well as add perfect quinoa, couscous, steamed veggies, and dumplings to your home menu. Just press the white or brown rice button, close the lid, and come back when it beeps. 

The 20-cup Zest Plus is where you can really add some zest to your meals. Mixed grains, barley, couscous, bulgur oatmeal and risotto are added to the lineup, plus four smart programs for sauté, steam, slow cook, and keep warm. You can even cook quinoa on the bottom while using the steam basket simultaneously.