If you're looking for an affordable toaster, you'll find plenty of budget-friendly options, but finding one that offers good toasting performance and the right combination of features for your needs can be trickier. The most important aspect to consider in your search is whether or not a model toasts well. A good toaster should toast quickly and evenly, without drying out your bread in the process. The best affordable toasters on the market also offer useful quality-of-life features, like a way to check your toast's progress without interrupting the cycle, a bagel button that only toasts one side, and slots that are long and wide enough to fit a variety of items, from thick slices of Texas toast to long pieces of foccaccia. Ideally, they shouldn't leave a collection of crumbs on your counter, either.
We've tested more than 25 models, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best budget and cheap toasters. If you're curious about what more money will buy, check out our recommendations for the best toasters, the best 2-slice toasters, and the best 4-slice toasters.
We've put over 25 toasters through the wringer to help you make a confident buying decision. But how do we do it? It starts with buying the products ourselves, just like you. We take it a step further with our lab, where we measure a variety of characteristics, like toasting evenness, so that a prospective toaster's performance doesn't come as a shock. You can even compare models and results, making it easy to find the right toaster for your needs.
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Best Budget Toaster
Everyday Use7.9Toasting Evenness9.5Toasting Speed8.1Toast8.9Bagels9.4Crumb Management4.0See all our test resultsMoisture Retention8.5The Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display rivals both the performance and convenience of much pricier models, making it our pick for the best budget toaster. With four wide slots and the option to toast on one side only, this toaster is an excellent choice for a variety of baked goods, including thicker slices of sourdough and chunky bagels. It toasts exceptionally evenly on both sides, regardless of which slot you use, and it doesn't take long for your slices to pop back up, helping retain moisture so your bread or bagel stays soft and fluffy in the middle. The biggest downside of this model, however, is that it leaves a lot of crumbs on your counter. In order to keep your countertop tidy, you'll have to clean up every time you use the toaster.
This toaster's touch-activated display lights up only when you're using the toaster, giving it a minimalist design while still providing a range of convenience features usually found on pricier models. Along with one-sided toasting for bagels, there are seven shade settings, buttons for frozen or gluten-free items, and a cycle countdown indicator so you can see approximately when your toast will be ready. Plus, it comes in a range of pastel shades, which is uncommon for toasters.
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Best Cheap Toaster
Everyday Use7.5Toasting Evenness9.6Toasting Speed8.1Toast8.8Bagels7.1Crumb Management7.0See all our test resultsMoisture Retention8.3If you'd prefer a no-frills model for the sake of paying as little as possible, consider the Black+Decker 2-Slice Toaster T2569B. Compared to the Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display, this model lacks extra features. It has the essential 'Bagel,' 'Frozen,' and 'Stop Cycle' buttons, which almost all toasters are equipped with. However, the bagel function only increases the timer rather than turning off one set of burners, so the top of your bagel gets toasted, too, and there's no way to tell when the toasting cycle will end. In terms of toasting performance, however, this model is a real standout. It toasts quickly and evenly, browning the entire surface of the bread on both sides without drying it out.
Like our top pick, this toaster has wide slots that accommodate thicker slices of bread, but as a standard two-slot toaster, it's better suited to smaller households. And while our top pick is also made of plastic, this one has a less premium look overall. Clean up is a bit easier with this model, though, since it's better at containing crumbs.
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Best Budget Long-Slot Toaster
Everyday Use7.6Toasting Evenness8.6Toasting Speed7.9Toast8.2Bagels9.1Crumb Management5.0See all our test resultsMoisture Retention7.9The Dash Clear View Long Slot is a great choice if you toast a lot of homemade or artisanal slices that don't fit in a standard toaster. With one long, wide slot, this model offers enough space for two slices of standard sandwich bread or thicker Texas toast side by side, or one longer slice of focaccia or sourdough. It toasts quickly and evenly, leaving each slice uniformly browned on both sides, and moist in the center. Unfortunately, this model leaves a trail of crumbs on your counter, so you'll have to clean up after it every time you toast.
This inexpensive toaster has a few extra features that set it apart from other budget models. You'll find a shade selector with seven settings, a button for frozen items that adds a little time to the toasting cycle, and a button for bagels that only toasts the cut side. There's also a unique viewing window that lets you watch your toast as it browns, though the glow of the quartz heating elements can make it tough to see exactly how well-toasted your bread is, which makes this feature a bit less convenient than a standard cycle countdown indicator.
Recent Updates
Jul 15, 2026:
We've updated this article in line with our new Toaster Test Bench 1.2. We replaced the Dash Clear View Long Slot with the Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display as our 'Best Budget Toaster' since it offers better toasting performance, and included the Dash Clear View Long Slot as our 'Best Budget Long-Slot Toaster' as it offers enough capacity for a range of baked goods. We removed the Black+Decker 4-Slice Toaster TR400SSD because it toasts more slowly than our featured options.
May 11, 2026:
We replaced the Oster 2-Slice Toaster with Quick-Check Lever for the Dash Clear View Long Slot as the 'Best Budget Toaster' since it offers better performance for everyday use. We also added the Beautiful 4-Slice Toaster with Touch-Activated Display as the 'Best Budget 4-Slot Toaster,' since it delivers strong performance at a slightly higher price point.
Apr 01, 2026:
We checked our picks to ensure they're in stock and remain the best toasters for most people.
Mar 02, 2026:
We checked our picks to ensure they represent the best choices for most people and made small edits for clarity.
Feb 04, 2026:
We reorganized this article to list our recommendations by price and made edits throughout for clarity and conciseness.
All Reviews
Here are our recommendations for what we think are the best affordable toasters for most people. We factor in price, feedback from our visitors, and availability.
If you'd like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of all our toaster reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. There's no perfect toaster; most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.