If you fuel yourself with protein shakes, a good blender can make preparing them quick and easy. While you don't necessarily need a blender if you only use protein powder and water, additions like ice cubes, peanut or almond butter, and fruit like bananas require a blender for smooth results. Personal blenders are a great option for preparing your pre-work or post-workout snack. These compact blenders come with personal jars with resealable lids, so you don't have to pour your shake into another bottle. The best ones for protein shakes can crush ice, make a smooth blend with fruit, and are easy to clean when you're done.
We've tested more than 125 blenders, and below are our recommendations for the best blenders for protein shakes. If you're looking for a full-size blender, any of our best blenders for smoothies is also a good option for protein shakes. Of course, no one can live on protein shakes alone. Check out our recommendations for the best toasters if you're looking for the best way to prepare your morning carbs. If you need a compact way to prepare a crispy snack or a healthy meal, you might want to find space on your counter for one of the best small air fryers.
Quick Look
We've tested more than 125 blenders since 2020. We always buy our own products from major retailers, just like you, to keep our reviews independent and unbiased. Each blender goes through the same set of tests, so you can easily compare models, regardless of price or features. We keep the blenders we test even after the review is published, so we can go back and retest them to answer questions from our users.
Check out our How We Test Blenders article to learn more about our purchasing, testing, and writing procedures.
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Best Blender For Protein Shakes
Smoothies (Single Serving)9.2Ice Crushing7.3Build Quality7.5Jar Capacity3.0See all our test resultsNoise5.8The best blender for protein shakes we've tested is the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO. This personal blender comes with a pair of 24oz jars with resealable spout lids, so you can easily blend a shake and head out the door without pouring it into another bottle. It easily blends ice cubes and stubborn fibrous elements like kale into a virtually perfectly smooth mix. Its 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' jar is unique and can be helpful for preparing ice-heavy drinks or making homemade nut butter for your protein shakes. It features rotating arms that can stir your ingredients without requiring you to stop the machine, which is usually not possible with personal blenders. This feature helps make it much easier to use with thick recipes compared with many similar blenders.
Overall, it's very versatile but noisy. It has blending programs, so you can distance yourself from the machine while it's running, but its high noise level can still get annoying. The Beast Health Blender is a good, quieter option. It performs similarly, and it's quiet for a blender, so it's less likely to wake up the whole house, but it's also significantly more expensive.
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Best Mid-Range Blender For Protein Shakes
Smoothies (Single Serving)8.8Ice Crushing6.1Build Quality7.0Jar Capacity1.4See all our test resultsNoise6.8If you want something a bit cheaper, consider the Ninja Fit instead. It has fewer features than the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO, making it less versatile and convenient to use. However, it has the essentials: its two 16oz jars come with resealable lids, so you can easily bring a shake to go. It makes a smooth blend with a variety of recipes, whether your usual shake is limited to ice, liquid, and powder or includes additions like fruit and leafy greens.
It's easy to clean by hand, and all of its components are dishwasher-safe. It's also much quieter than the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO. However, it doesn't come with a 'Smoothie Bowl Maker' and isn't as easy to use for thicker recipes like nut butter. Plus, unlike the DUO, it doesn't have buttons or blending programs and is operated by pressing down on the jar. You need to keep your hand on the blender, or it stops blending, which can be annoying. If you want a blender with a more convenient design, the Magic Bullet Blender is a cheaper option with better controls. It's not as well-built or easy to clean by hand, and it only comes with one resealable lid for three jars. However, the jars lock into place on the base, so you can do something else while blending.
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Best Budget Blender For Protein Shakes
Smoothies (Single Serving)7.2Ice Crushing1.0Build Quality6.0Jar Capacity1.4See all our test resultsNoise7.3The best budget-friendly blender for protein shakes we've tested is the Beautiful Personal Blender. This simple blender is small and easy to store in a cupboard or on a shelf. It blends fibrous ingredients like fruit, seeds, and leafy greens almost as smoothly as the Ninja Fit, allowing it to create a well-blended shake with most recipes. Plus, the jar locks into place on the motor base, so you don't need to keep your hand on it to keep blending. It comes with 16oz and 13.5oz jars as well as some handy accessories, like a grinding blade for coffee or spices, a shaker lid, and a lid with a built-in straw, so you can take your shake on the go.
The main drawback is that it can't process ice on its own, and while that's an annoying limitation, you can use it to crush ice as part of a protein shake recipe. It's also not very good at processing thicker recipes, so if you want a unit that can also make nut butter, it's not a great option.
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Best Portable Blender For Protein Shakes
Smoothies (Single Serving)8.0Ice Crushing5.1Build Quality8.0Jar Capacity2.1See all our test resultsNoise8.1Consider a battery-powered blender if you want to blend a quick shake at the gym or during your lunch break. The best one we've tested is the nutribullet Flip. This lightweight, portable blender comes with a 20oz stainless steel or plastic jar. Its small, lightweight design makes it easy to carry around, and it comes with a couple of options for enjoying your shake on the go: the motor base has a built-in drinking spout, or you can replace it with a straw lid if you prefer to use a straw.
It makes a smoother blend with fibrous ingredients than most portable blenders we've tested, so it'll produce good results if your protein shake recipe includes fruit or leafy greens. The stainless steel jar is insulated to help keep your drink cold for a longer period. However, like most battery-powered blenders, it has a relatively short battery life of about seven minutes. You're not meant to use it to blend for more than a minute continuously without letting the motor cool down. Additionally, since the blades are attached to the motor base, they can't be immersed in water, which makes cleaning somewhat challenging. Still, if you're looking for an easy way to blend a fresh shake when you're out and about, it's a good option.
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Best Full-Size Blender With Personal Jars For Protein Shakes
Smoothies (Single Serving)8.3Ice Crushing3.4Build Quality7.0Jar Capacity9.0See all our test resultsNoise7.0If you want the flexibility to make either a personal smoothie or a bigger batch for you and some friends, the nutribullet Blender Combo is a convenient choice. This relatively inexpensive blender isn't the most versatile, but if you're shopping for a blender specifically for protein shakes, it offers a good balance between performance and price. Like the previous pick, it's not designed for crushing ice without liquid in the jar. However, it comes with a 64oz jar and a pair of 32oz personal jars, so it's well-suited for either big or small batches. Using any of its jars, it easily purees fibrous fruits and vegetables.
The personal jars come with resealable lids, allowing you to easily take your drink on the go. Its controls include a blending program for recipes like smoothies and shakes, so you don't have to stop the machine manually. However, it also offers limited speed adjustment; even the lowest blending speed is quite fast, which doesn't help when blending thicker recipes, such as nut butter. Still, if you're looking for a blender for protein shakes and other beverages, it's a good option that bundles full-size and personal jars together at a budget-friendly price.
Notable Mentions
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nutribullet Ultra:
The nutribullet Ultra is a more expensive option with a 32 and 24oz jar, so it's a good choice if you want a larger jar capacity than the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO offers. However, you can't use it to crush ice without liquid in the jar, and it doesn't blend fibrous ingredients quite as well as our top pick.
See our review -
Beast Mini Blender Plus:
The Beast Mini Blender Plus is about the same price as the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri DUO. It doesn't blend fibrous ingredients as well as the Ninja or the bigger Beast Health Blender, especially when working with small batches, and it struggles to crush ice on its own. However, it's much quieter than the Ninja.
See our review
Recent Updates
Nov 18, 2025:
We replaced the Magic Bullet Mini with the Beautiful Personal Blender as our 'Best Budget Blender For Protein Shakes,' as the former is mostly unavailable.
May 06, 2025:
We've made minor updates to the text and checked that our products are in stock, but our recommendations haven't changed.
Jan 29, 2025:
We've replaced the Ninja Blast with the nutribullet Flip as the 'Best Portable Blender For Protein Shakes' because the nutribullet offers a better blending performance.
Oct 30, 2024:
We've made updates to the text and removed the full-size pick to focus the list more on personal blenders.
Aug 06, 2024: We've made minor updates to the text and checked that the products are in stock.
All Reviews
Our recommendations are what we think are currently the best blenders for protein shakes for most people. We factor in the price (a cheaper blender wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no blenders that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).
If you want to choose for yourself, here is the list of all our blender reviews, sorted by smoothie performance. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no blender is perfect, most blenders are great enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you look for them.