Toast made in the Oster model.
The model’s performance remained strong with other foods. When I toasted bagels on shade setting 3 (with the bagel preset selected), the bagel came out warm and perfectly toasted after two minutes and 25 seconds. (During this test, I appreciated the model’s extra-wide slots, which comfortably accommodate large New York City–style bagels.) Frozen waffles, too, popped out feeling crispy with very light browning, while the Pop-Tarts it made were fully warmed through with little browning.
My only issue with this toaster is the location of the crumb trays, which are in the back of the machine. Front- and side-facing crumb trays, by comparison, are easier to empty. That said, I didn’t find this toaster difficult to clean, and overall, I appreciated its design.
Best Splurge 4-Slice Toaster
A Luxe Model With Smart Finishes
Zwilling Enfinigy 4-Slice Toaster
Our score: 9 | Dimensions: 11.5 x 11.3 x 8.1 inches | Weight: 8.4 pounds | Temperature settings: 7 | Functions: Bagel, defrost, reheat
Best for:
- Home cooks who like the look of a subtle, sleek design
- Home cooks who value the dependability of a high-end brand like Zwilling
- Home cooks who want a consistent and dependable toaster
Skip if:
- You love to toast bagels, as this model fell short
If you prefer the look, feel and performance of high-end appliances, the Zwilling Enfinigy 4-Slice Toaster is a sleek, easy-to-use powerhouse fit for larger households. While its overall build is slightly bulky, it’s nonetheless attractive, with its modern white and silver finish and minimalist buttons. It also—unlike many models out there—has crumb trays in the front for easy access and cleaning. And in the opinion of Adam Goldberg, founder and CEO of PopUp Bagels, “the ability to clean the bottom and get the crumbs out easily” is invaluable.
As for its performance, this toaster leaves little to be desired. Featuring seven shade settings and added presets including bagel, defrost and reheat, this toaster yielded uniformly brown pieces of toast on various settings, frozen waffles that came out crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and warmed-through Pop-Tarts. With bagels, though, the toaster never got them fully crispy—even on higher settings. This wasn’t a major drawback, though, especially considering the rest of the toaster’s strengths.
Best Value 4-Slice Toaster
A Basic Pick At A Wallet-Friendly Price
Proctor Silex Wide Slot 4-Slice Toaster
Our score: 7 | Dimensions: 10.5 x 11 x 7.5 inches | Weight: 4.1 pounds | Temperature settings: 7 | Functions: None
Best for:
- Home cooks on a budget
- College students and first-time apartment dwellers with limited space
- Anyone who wants a no-frills model
Skip if:
- You prefer a toaster with more customizable features
If you’re in the market for a no-frills, petite 4-slice toaster, this model from Proctor Silex is a reliable pick. Though it’s not exactly sleek (it has a white or black plastic exterior and generally feels budget), it delivers good results for the price.
Equipped with seven shade settings (and no additional functions), this model produced consistently brown toast, crispy but soft-centered frozen waffles and golden Pop-Tarts. While it also yielded pleasantly warm and crispy bagels, it’s worth noting that they came out toasted on both sides, as this toaster doesn’t have a bagel preset. Lastly, like the Oster model, this toaster also features two crumb trays located in the back of the toaster, which makes them more difficult to access. For the price, though, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better budget-friendly pick.
Best 4-Slice Toaster For Bagels
A Retro-Style Option That Excels At Toasting Sliced Bagels
Buydeem Retro 4-Slice Metal Toaster
Our score: 8 | Dimensions: 7 x 12.2 x 11 inches | Weight: 5.1 pounds | Temperature settings: 7 | Functions: Bagel/muffin, defrost, reheat
Best for:
- Toasting bagels, thanks to its extra-wide slots and great results
- Design lovers who appreciate a range of colorful options
- Home cooks who want an all-around dependable toaster
Skip if:
- You’re looking for a toaster that excels at toasting different food products
Despite being an Amazon bestseller, I didn’t have the highest of hopes at first for this stainless steel toaster, which looks like a knockoff Smeg model. But during testing, it far exceeded my expectations. While it made good toast, frozen waffles and Pop-Tarts, it excelled at toasting bagels.
A bagel made in the Buydeem toaster.
To start, the toaster is equipped with extra-wide slots and a bagel/muffin setting, the latter of which is especially important. “These settings prevent them from becoming excessively crunchy, ensuring they maintain the perfect balance of crispy outside and chewy inside,” says Melanie Frost, COO of Ess-a-Bagel. The Buydeem toaster also features a clear graphic on top so you know exactly which way to insert the sliced bagel for the best results. On shade setting 4, the bagel toasted in exactly three minutes and came out evenly brown and crispy.
One more nice thing: If you’re a home cook who loves a pop of color in your kitchen, this model comes in pretty yellow and mint green hues.
Best 4-Slice Toaster For Waffles
A Reliable, User-Friendly Model That Delivers Delicious Waffles
Cuisinart 4-Slice Touchscreen Toaster
Our score: 8.5 | Dimensions: 10.4 x 11 x 7.2 inches | Weight: 7.4 pounds | Temperature settings: 6 | Functions: +30 seconds, bagel, single slice, defrost
Best for:
- Anyone who likes to start their morning with frozen waffles
- Those who want to invest in a tried-and-true brand like Cuisinart
- Those drawn to higher-tech appliances
Skip if:
- You don’t care for a modern touchscreen interface
If you’re more of a frozen waffle person than a bagel person, this Cuisinart made the absolute best out of the bunch during testing. Using shade setting 3 plus the defrost feature, the waffles came out perfectly warm, consistently brown and crispy on the outside in just under two minutes.
Waffles made in the Cuisinart 4-Slice Touchscreen Toaster.
While this model really shone during the waffle test, it’s not a one-trick pony. For instance, it produced Pop-Tarts that were warm and mildly browned, as well as lightly crispy bagels. Its overall design is nice, too: The control panel is a touchscreen, which I found user-friendly. The toaster also has a “+30 seconds” button if your food needs just a little more time to brown, which isn’t a common setting. The only test that left me disappointed? Toasted bread. While one side of the sandwich bread came out with even coloring, the other side was always significantly darker.
Best Compact 4-Slice Toaster
A Slim, Inexpensive Pick That’s Ideal For Small Spaces
Elite Gourmet 4-Slice Stainless Steel Long Toaster
Our score: 8.5 | Dimensions: 7.1 x 14.7 x 7.7 inches | Weight: 5.7 pounds | Temperature settings: 6 | Functions: Defrost, reheat
Best for:
- College students, apartment dwellers and anyone who has a small kitchen
- Home cooks on a budget
- Those drawn to compact, streamlined appliances
Skip if:
- You want a toaster that has a few more features, such as a bagel setting
Featuring a slim, lightweight design, the Elite Gourmet 4-Slice Stainless Steel Long Toaster is the model for those with little countertop space to spare. In addition to six shade settings, the toaster has buttons for defrosting and reheating, and it’s brilliantly designed with a crumb tray located on the left side for easy access and cleaning.
During testing, this toaster yielded evenly brown and crisp bagels, and it managed to keep sliced bread slightly soft while delivering golden color. It underwhelmed me only when I used it to make frozen waffles, which popped out looking pale yellow and still soft on a midrange shade setting with defrost mode activated. Still, this toaster is up for most tasks, and its compact build makes it great for smaller kitchens. One more nice perk: It’s equipped with a pop-up rack to warm up items that wouldn’t fit in the slots, like croissants or halved baguettes.
Other 4-Slice Toasters I Tested
In addition to the six toasters listed above, I also tested nine other popular 4-slice toasters, ranging in price from $30 to $480. Here’s how they stacked up against the winners:
All-Clad Digital Stainless Steel 4-Slice Toaster (3.5/10): From the beeping noise it makes just before releasing the toasted bread to its four smart settings including reheat, defrost, bagel, and more time, there’s a lot to like about this toaster from a design perspective. However, the performance didn’t measure up. Bagels, which were toasted on a midrange setting, came out cold, soft and unevenly browned; ditto for frozen waffles, which lacked consistent browning. Plus, its shiny stainless steel finish highlights each and every fingerprint.
Breville “A Bit More” Toaster (6.5/10): I really wanted to recommend this model—it’s well designed, never got warm to the touch and delivered perfectly toasted frozen waffles. However, it ran quite hot, and, given there are only five shade settings to choose from, I found it difficult to determine the best setting for my desired results. What’s more, it started smoking when I tried to toast a slice of bread on the highest setting.
Breville Die-Cast 4-Slice Smart Toaster (6.5/10): This model is nearly identical in performance to the brand’s “A Bit More” version—except that it’s designed like a traditional 4-slot toaster. Like the aforementioned model, this one also smoked heavily on the highest setting and produced rock-hard, completely black toast.
Cuisinart Four-Slice Motorized Toaster (6.5/10): Is there such a thing as having too much power? Yes. This toaster boasts a panel with so many customizable features that it quickly becomes confusing. With seven different browning shades and six different bread types (you can even distinguish between white and whole-wheat bread), I could see how some users may like having every option under the sun. But at the end of the day, there are many other toasters that offer nearly as many features and are much easier to understand.
Hamilton Beach 4-Slice Toaster With Extra Wide Slots (4.5/10): This toaster felt cheaply constructed and ran hot, delivering inconsistent, too-dark slices of bread. While I was impressed with how evenly crisp the bagels appeared after toasting for under three minutes, the brand is overselling its extra-wide slots, which felt snug.
KitchenAid 4-Slice Toaster With Manual High-Lift Lever (4/10): This KitchenAid toaster is poorly designed and struggles to perform against comparable models. While it features a handy beeping noise that sounds just before the food pops up, it’s loud and alarming. It also required nearly Herculean effort to push the levers down and lock them into place when toasting everything from sliced bread to Pop-Tarts.
Krups 4-Slice Stainless Steel Toaster (7/10): While this 4-slice toaster from Krups performed well for toasting Pop-Tarts, it didn’t deliver on bagels and frozen waffles. When testing bagels, I used a middle setting (3 out of 6) and selected the bagel feature; after two minutes and 20 seconds, the cut side was still pale, and the exterior was completely soft.
Smeg 4×4 4-Slice Toaster (4.5/10): This toaster runs quite hot. (Similar to both Breville models, this Smeg toaster started smoking on settings 4 and 6.) When I tested Pop-Tarts on shade 2, the toaster pastries popped out warped and quite dark for such a low setting. While the model is certainly pretty, I found it to be unreliable.
Wolf Gourmet 4-Slice Toaster (5/10): At nearly $500, this was, by far, the most expensive toaster I tested. However, there was nothing about this toaster that made it significantly better than others that were half the price. While I appreciated some of its design choices—namely, the extra-wide slots and crumb trays located on the right and left sides of the toaster—I don’t think they justified the price. Additionally, Wolf advises against heating up toaster pastries of any kind in this toaster, making this model less versatile.
There are two popular toasters that I excluded from testing: the Revolution InstaGlo R270 Toaster and the Smeg 4-Slice Toaster. My parents have owned the former for over three years and have been disappointed since day one, owing to its inconsistent browning results. The latter is the model I’ve owned for the past two years and, while it’s certainly attractive, it tends to run cool and requires a higher setting than other toasters to achieve my desired brownness. Plus, when a slice of bread finishes toasting, it launches from the machine like a rocket, often landing on my countertop or, worse, in my kitchen sink.
How I Tested The Best 4-Slice Toasters
I started my search for the best 4-slice toasters by looking at a variety of brands at different price points on the market. I considered best-selling and top-rated models from trusted kitchen brands including All-Clad, Breville, Cuisinart, Hamilton Beach, KitchenAid, Smeg and Wolf Gourmet. That said, I also considered a few models from less-known brands that are popular on Amazon (or another retailer).
I tested 15 toasters total and four different food products in each toaster: plain bagels, frozen waffles, white sandwich bread and frosted and unfrosted Pop-Tarts. During testing, I assessed each model’s overall design and materials, temperature settings and additional functions, speed of toasting and browning consistency, as well as the location of the crumb tray for easy cleaning.
In each toaster, I toasted sliced white bread on three different settings to assess the consistency of browning, plus the efficiency. I toasted sliced bagels at least once per toaster—and in some cases, twice—assessing whether the bagels came out thoroughly warm, with one crispy and evenly brown side. With Pop-Tarts, I first warmed up the popular breakfast treat on the lowest setting, which was recommended by most manufacturers; then, I used a midrange setting to look for hot spots, warping and browning. When testing frozen waffles (with either a normal setting or a defrost setting, if the toaster had one), I assessed if they thoroughly defrosted and managed to stay soft and fluffy on the inside while getting crispy on the outside.
My Expertise
I’m a professionally trained cook and food writer with six years of experience developing recipes, researching cookware and writing in-depth product reviews. As a former line cook, I’ve also had the opportunity to cook with high-end, professional-grade appliances. I’ve been an editor at reputable lifestyle publications including Food52 and Martha Stewart Living, and my work has appeared on Allrecipes, Epicurious, Food & Wine, The Kitchn, Real Simple and more. For Forbes Vetted, I’ve tested and reviewed Dutch ovens, Instant Pots and waffle makers.
For additional guidance, I consulted three food experts: Melanie Frost, COO of Ess-a-Bagel, a New York City–based chain of bagel shops and cafés; Adam Goldberg, founder and CEO of PopUp Bagels; and Sophie Godwin, a London-based chef, food stylist and author of Sundays: A Cookbook.
